As good as new: how is your bulk handling operation performing? - Part 2

Peak performance, greater profits

In terms of quantifying these benefits, we typically see unloading efficiency improvements in the region of 10%, but have seen as much as a 30% deviation from an unloader’s original peak handling efficiency.

During an on-site efficiency analysis, the company not only focuses on the ship unloader, but also highlight bottlenecks and shortcomings with downstream conveyors and equipment, even if that equipment is not supplied by Siwertell. The company have also been asked for help evaluating operations that do not use any Siwertell equipment. Of course, there are limitations to this as it is difficult to advise ways to improve equipment or undertake on-site adjustments, but its capabilities extend way beyond this and can identify major to minor issues and faults throughout the entire operation.

The company's ability to pinpoint issues, and provide recommendations on how to improve them, can offer substantial additional savings to an operator.

An example of a recommendation the company can provide following an unloading analysis on an older Siwertell unloader, is to implement settings for several bulk material choices. It is the same concept that Siwertell uses on its multi-purpose unloaders, but it can also be used on a Siwertell unloader where cargo varies in quality. This enables an operator to choose up to five different settings for the varying qualities of a commodity, such as fertilizer. This fantastic function is now standard on our new Siwertell unloaders, but it does need to be optimised for each quality and cargo.

Siwertell collects a great deal of data during the study, including capacity measurements from the belt scale, power consumption of the vertical conveyor, power consumption of the horizontal conveyor, angle of horizontal arm, speed of the inlet feeder, set values from the potentiometer to the controller, shifting time between cargo holds, other key values, and capacity.

An area that often requires greater analysis and sometimes separate consideration is the clean-up stage – the final phase of the unloading process. This part of the operation demands combined skills and cooperation between the Siwertell unloader operator and the operator of auxiliary equipment such as excavators and payloaders. Customers, especially new ones, often ask for help and advice regarding this phase of an operation.

Many operations are already benefitting

As customer profit margins come under ever greater scrutiny, Siwertell is on hand to ensure that every aspect of a bulk handling operation runs as smoothly and efficiently as possible. The first evaluation of this type in Asia was performed more than 15 years ago in the Philippines with good results. On a global basis, numerous operations have benefitted from this service and in Asia alone in the past five years, Siwertell has performed at least 10 unloading efficiency evaluations mostly in Taiwan, Korea, and the Philippines.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldfertilizer.com/materials-handling/11012019/as-good-as-new-how-is-your-bulk-handling-operation-performing--part-2/