MINERAL PORTS AND STOCKPILES
A new bucketwheel stacker-reclaimer from FAM
has been designed, manufactured, assembled
and commissioned at Martinswerk’s Bergheim
aluminium hydroxide stockyard, in Germany
productivity by preventing material loss, and it
protects workers and the environment from noise
and airborne particles.”
While Geometrica structures are designed
according to the specific needs of each project,
this specific installation equipped the domes with
openings for the conveyor belt, its supports and
the entry of trucks.
Reclaiming ground
Stacker-reclaimers are the powerhouses of
stockyard operations, with the sizeable machines
often proving critical when it comes to preparing
and tailoring products for transport to customers.
The biggest rail-mounted stacker-reclaimer in
the world is currently being built by thyssenkrupp
for BHP’s South Flank operation, but this is not the
only machine about to leave the workshop.
Tenova TAKRAF was recently awarded a contract
to supply four stackers and four portal reclaimers
for a large material handling stockyard in
Bangladesh. This is all part of a power station
installation that will represent a key development
for the country, according to the OEM.
The project involved the supply of four TAKRAF
stackers, each with a capacity of 3,000 t/h, and
four TAKRAF portal reclaimers, each with a
capacity of 1,450 t/h.
Tenova TAKRAF’s office in Italy was to assume
overall responsibility for the contract and provide
technical coordination while leveraging knowledge
and personnel from the group’s various global
competence centres, it said.
Silvio Leoni, TAKRAF Italy Managing Director,
said: “Successful award of this project only serves
to entrench Tenova TAKRAF as a leading global
materials handling specialist. I am proud of the
engagement and interaction of our global offices
and the willingness of colleagues to find an
effective solution to our client’s specific requirements.”
A new bucketwheel stacker-reclaimer from FAM
has also recently been designed, manufactured,
assembled and commissioned at Martinswerk’s
Bergheim aluminium hydroxide stockyard, in
Germany.
Martinswerk, a company of JM Huber Corp, is
one of the world’s leading suppliers of special
chemical products based on aluminium
hydroxides/oxides.
The contract, which came with a tripper car STR
500/300.26 SVHK and was completed on time, is
part of an extensive project aimed at increasing
production capacities of fine precipitated
aluminium hydroxide in order to meet growing
demand for halogen-free flame retardants in
Europe, India and Asia, according to FAM. As a
result, environmental and sustainability elements
68 International Mining | MARCH 2020
were front and centre of the stacker-reclaimer’s
design.
The stacker-reclaimer combines both functions
of stockpiling and reclaiming and has been proven
in stockyards where simultaneous stacking and
reclaiming are not required, FAM said. The new
machine was designed for a conveying capacity of
500 t/h for stockpiling and 300 t/h for discharge,
it added.
The stacker-reclaimer consists of a slewable
superstructure and a rail-mounted base. The
bucketwheel boom is hinge-mounted on the
superstructure and held by tie rods, with the
boom raised and lowered by means of hydraulic
cylinders.
The machine works as a stacker when the boom
conveyor transports the material towards the
boom head and discharges it onto a stockpile.
Like a regular stacker, the stacker-reclaimer is fed
via an upstream tripper car, with the bucketwheel
remaining in rest position while the stockpile is
being filled.
For stockpile unloading, the material is picked
up by the bucketwheel, moved along the
reversible boom conveyor to the machine´s centre
of rotation and dumped into the central chute,
from where the material is transferred to a
discharge conveyor running between the rails of
the reclaimer.
An additional mode of operation requested by
the customer was a through transfer of the
material unloaded from railway cars directly to the
siloes of the factory, FAM said. “In this case, the
bucketwheel boom is located directly above the
main stationary conveyor and transfers the
material fed from the tripper car via the reversing
boom conveyor back to the main stationary
conveyor.”
The FAM scope of supply included designing,
manufacturing, delivery, assembly supervision and
commissioning of all mechanical components,
electrical systems and control technology.
Chute discharge
Cleveland Cascades Engineers has recently
reported the installation and commissioning of a
Cascade Chute system at an alumina shiploading
facility in Vishakhapatnam, India.
The loading chute in question is 18 m in length
at extension and can retract to around 7 m for
stowing. The chute’s design involved a pivoting-
type head chute in order to work in conjunction
with a luffing boom.
The chute is one of Cleveland Cascades’ 1700
size systems and has the capacity to load up to
3,000 cu.m/h of alumina from a belt-fed conveyor
system. The head chute, deflectors and cones are
lined with 4 mm ceramic tiles for abrasion
resistance, the company explained.
“The cascade chute is fitted with a
comprehensive suite of electrical components for
safe operation and control, providing signalling for
any potential blockages,” Cleveland Cascades
said. “All of the functions provide feedback to the
control system for the ship loader with safety
limits being interlocked with the conveyor system
feeding the chute.”
This project came on top of 15 new chute
projects across eight different countries the
company was involved in last year. These projects
were focused on applications for ship and
stockpile loading, and designed for handling a
range of products including clinker, limestone,
urea, iron ore pellets, polyhalite, biomass and a
range of fertilisers, the company said.
Looking at this year, Cleveland Cascades says it
has several systems of various sizes for a range of
applications in production. One such system will
see four of its 1700 size shiploader chutes
deployed to a project in Russia. IM