EDITORIAL Bulk Loading and Transport 2013

Transcription

1 EDITORIAL Bulk Loading and Transport 2013 Efficient and Eco-Friendly Raw Material Logistics... By Dr. Nikolai Velten and Matthew Jones, AUMUND Group Despite difficult times in recent years the Russian cement market continues to expand based both on new demand driven both by their expanding economy and also by the desire to improve efficiency by replacing old life expired wet kilns with new high technology rotary kilns based on state of the art designs from the major specialised contract houses both in Europe and now from China. Russia has around 50 integrated cement plants with a total capacity of around 85 million tons per annum in The bulk of these are in the area around Moscow with only 14 in the Central Federal District and only 7 in the two most distant federal districts including the Far East and Siberia. It is estimated some 85% of these plants require significant modernisation to achieve the production efficiencies expected in a country of this total cement output, the last available directory lists some 164 wet or semi-wet lines against just 31 dry lines. Image-01 Of course the Russian cement sector was impacted by the global financial crash of 2008 along with all others and it is only in the recent two years or so that the demand for cement has started to recover with help from infrastructure projects and the 2012 APEC Summit, preparation for the Winter Olympics in Sochi and for the 2018 FIFA World Cup... The AUMUND Group, through their office in Moscow established in August 2008, have supplied new Belt and Chain elevators for raising Raw Meal and Finished Cement plus their Clinker Transport and storage systems to many of the upgraded facilities and new plants including the recently commissioned LSR Group Slatsy plant (Leningrad Region) with planned capacity of 3.7 million tons per year when the second line is commissioned. And, the Eurocement Podgorensky Cementnic (Voronezh Region) plant which has a production capacity of 2 million tons per year. Both of these plants are rail connected and have elected to install Rotary Wagon Tipplers by Schade (AUMUND Group) for the intake of Iron-Ore, Limestone, Slag and Gypsum at present. Image-02 Page 1 of 8

2 AUMUND s experience in Wagon Tipplers goes back to the 1920 s and includes both hydraulic and rotary versions patented by AUMUND. In recent years the product was transferred to the portfolio of Schade (AUMUND Group since 2001) and developed into a series of new designs including the traditional AUMUND standard O Series plus the new C Series and a Pivot Frame version requiring minimum excavation. The new range of Tipplers may be interfaced to a variety of automated wagon Indexers and Positioners to speed wagon alignment eliminating the need for permanent locomotive or shunter commitment. At present only random wagons (that is wagons that must be manually separated from each other for tippling) are supported with the new SCHADE concepts although a high level of automation may be provided by incorporating Wagon Chargers. After the wagons are decoupled by the operator the remainder of the handling cycle is fully automatic including the introduction of the loaded wagon and simultaneously ejecting the empty wagon already in the tippler, tippling to discharge, return to horizontal and then ejection of the emptied wagon when the next loaded wagon is introduced to complete the cycle. Tandem tipplers provide the possibility of discharging two wagons simultaneously and when combined with automated wagon positioners and indexers offer the maximum possible throughput, generally reserved for marine terminals and similar high volume applications. Image-03 The SCHADE tippler may be adapted to a range of track gauges, for this project the gauge was set at 1,520 mm (5 ft), which accommodates the CIS countries plus others in that general area, representing 17% of the total world railroads, all connecting. The European standard or Stephenson gauge at 1435 mm is the most popular representing 60% of the total worldwide but there are many others. Also, the SCHADE design may accommodate a wide range of wagon dimensions (length, width and depth) and where there are existing wagon fleets the tippler may be tailored accordingly. By using hydraulically operated wagon clamping the tippler action is gentle on the wagon structure avoiding damage and disruption. Of course rail haulage is accepted as the freight system of choice for inland distribution offering economy with minimum environmental impact and minimum greenhouse gas generation per ton mile and whilst barge freight is perhaps more economical if the cement plant has a dedicated wharf, although this is a luxury few enjoy. Russia has an extensive and well maintained rail network extending to all regions with some 86,000 km of track and around 750,000 freight cars of every type. Conversely, the Russian highway infrastructure is very variable and subject to closure in bad weather making reliable year round road haulage questionable. Whereas the railways do operate year round and do not suffer the seasonal issues of iced ports and river systems or impassable roadways and as such represent the only viable solution for reliable raw material logistics for the cement industry outside the plants immediate vicinity. For this reason both of these major new plants at Slatsy and Podgorensky elected to use rail haulage and provide for the automated discharge of standard random flat bottom open top wagons. Page 2 of 8

3 Russia is the largest country on earth at 17 million square kilometres representing 12.5% of the earths inhabited land area and covering extremes of weather conditions from 30 degree summer heat to minus 50 degrees C in the extreme but often down to minus 30 in the area of these cement plants. These extremes of cold bring their own problems with often wide swings of temperature between night and day. Snow covered bulk material loaded to rail wagons in the daytime at say 10 degrees C will encourage the snow to melt making the bulk cargo wet, at night the temperature falls to minus 30 degrees C and the moisture freezes the bulk material into large blocks. In this situation the hopper bottom rail wagons would be impossible to discharge and the only really viable solution is the flat bottom rail wagon discharged either manually by excavator or, in these applications, automatically using the rotary wagon tippler by SCHADE (AUMUND Group). Not only does the flat bottom wagon solve this issue it is also much less expensive to manufacture and for private wagon operators this is very important since for each cement plant there will be many wagons and thus the lowest wagon cost impacts significantly on the total capital costs. Whilst the wagon and the tippler must work together the flat bottom wagon is totally impervious to the material flow characteristics enabling a wide range of materials to be handled reliably through the same system using the same wagons. In more temperate regions, and where available, the hopper bottom wagon simplifies the discharge arrangements at the cement plant requiring only a track hopper and feeder system, as would be required by the wagon tippler in any event. Such wagons are invariably privately owned and dedicated to a specific operation where the wagon design may be tailored to the bulk material and discharge system characteristics. For any type of wagon an under track hopper is always required along with a suitable feeder to extract the material from the hopper and provide a controlled feed rate to the on-going conveyor installation and bulk storage system. AUMUND supply a wide range of feeder systems each with their own attributes but for the Slatsy and Podgorensky projects the type PKF or Armoured Chain Feeder design was selected. The PKF system comprises up to five round link chains carrying cross bars between that scrape the bulk material over an armoured flat plate to the discharge. This solution is available with width to 2.6 metres and for discharge rates to 1,200 tons per hour and is ideal for handling difficult materials that are liable to bridge and bind such as gypsum for example. The design is compact and totally enclosed with no risk of spillage or dust escape and can be used in a confined space requiring the minimum of pit depth. At the discharge a rotary paddle wheel ensures a constant and even feed rate to the following handling system even with wet and sticky materials that are liable to break off at the discharge in large slabs causing overload on the following conveyors and potential blockage in the machine head chute. Image Page 3 of 8

4 For their latest order in Russia for wagon tippler equipment SCHADE will deliver a Pivot- Frame tippler design supplied complete with Aumund type BPB-S heavy plate feeder able to handle large agglomerated lumps of frozen material that will pass through a 600 mm grill placed above the track hopper. In this project a two shaft rotary sizer is installed after the Aumund feeder to reduce the largest frozen blocks down to a manageable size for onward conveying. Also, to keep the installation clean the plate feeder will be supplied with an Aumund type RFG spillage returns conveyor fitted beneath the feeder return side to pick up any material falling from the apron plates and convey this to the feeder head chute. In addition to the automated wagon tippler SCHADE will supply a Wagon Charger also which will control the positioning and movement of the loaded wagon rake, the introduction of the individual wagons to the tippler and the removal of the empty wagons from the tippler. The charger is mounted to individual rails running beside the main train rail and a rack and pinion system with multiple long travel drives provides the traction necessary to move the complete loaded wagon rake. A hinged side arm engages with the wagon coupling and, by raising the arm, the charger may pass along beside the wagon to engage the next in line. Image-08 The standard O Frame Tippler as supplied to Slatsy and Podgorensky cannot be used with wagon chargers (clearly the charger arm cannot pass through the O shaped continuous frame of the tippler) and therefore in this new project the Pivot Frame design was the natural choice. A further advantage of the Pivot Frame in any configuration is the position of the track hopper being offset to the train rails and therefore accessible for road truck deliveries also, sharing the same feeder and on-going conveyors, thereby often eliminating the need for additional intake facilities. SCHADE supply a complete package for the materials handling at the intake facility including the automation necessary to interlock the operation of the tippler and charger ensuring clear lines of responsibility and a clean supply contract. These projects are excellent examples of AUMUND Group synergies with products that come together to deliver a package of equipment to be engineered into the complete cement plant ensuring compatibility at every stage but giving the client the flexibility to take all or part of the installation from AUMUND. Of course the Wagon Tippler and its associated appurtenances may be supplied independently or with a SCHADE circular or longitudinal storage system or blending bed delivering the raw materials finally to the raw meal bunkers. Within the Russian cement industry the majority of new plants in particular are fuelled by natural gas but where this is not abundant the same systems that intake the raw materials may be used to intake solid fuels such as coal and pet-coke, obviously with separate storage facilities... Image-07 The AUMUND Group are trusted partners for all elements of the materials handling systems from the raw material and solid fuel intake through to the kiln and for the hot clinker conveying from the kiln through to the clinker storage and on to the cement mills along with additions materials such as Gypsum and Slag. Page 4 of 8

5 About the AUMUND Group The AUMUND Group is long established and well respected delivering world class materials handling and storage solutions from the source to the user and at every stage of the logistics chain between The manufacturing companies, AUMUND Fördertechnik GmbH, SCHADE Lagertechnik GmbH and B&W Mechanical Handling Ltd. are consolidated under the umbrella of the AUMUND Group along with AUMUND Logistic GmbH. In conjunction with the headquarters of the manufacturing companies, the global business is supported in eight locations in Asia, Europe, North and South America plus Russia by own subsidiaries plus worldwide by an extensive network of agents covering four continents with equipment operating in over 100 countries. Press Contact: AUMUND Holding B.V. Wilhelminapark EE Venlo The Netherlands Phone: Page 5 of 8

6 Caption 1) Mordov Cement Plant in Russia clinker transport and storage from cooler to silo and from silo to mill Caption 2) Russian Cement Plant in Slatsy with SCHADE O Frame wagon tippler Caption 3) Wagon inverted to discharge contents to track hopper and feeder below Page 6 of 8

7 Caption 4) Aumund type PKF round link chain feeder for track hopper discharge Caption 5) Fully enclosed Aumund type PKF feeder beneath a track hopper, compact and clean Caption 6) - Aumund type BPB-S Plate Feeder with spillage returns conveyor below. Page 7 of 8

8 Caption 7) Rail intake using hopper bottom wagons and illustrating the Schade enclosed circular storage behind Caption 8) Pivot Frame Wagon Tippler showing the Wagon Charger bringing a loaded wagon into the tippler frame and the hopper-feeder on the opposite side Page 8 of 8