How to fit in a compact cement dispatch terminal on a limited plot of land? That was the difficult challenge for one of our cement production customers in South India. The main issue was that the available area was limited, so there would be only a few parking slots for trucks waiting to be loaded with bagged or bulk cement. An efficient solution had to be found to maximize the output of the plant, in terms of dispatching capacity. Moreover, a wide range of trucks had to be accommodated; flexibility was therefore not an option. To solve these problems, our customers decided to work with FLSmidth as the EP supplier. The first task was to efficiently supply cement to the terminal and store it.

The solution designed jointly with the customer’s engineers is a pneumatic transport system which fills no. 4 x 6000 MT Ventomatic® flat bottom silos from the jetty (self-unloading vessels). The vessel can unload the cement without external equipment with capacity up to 600 tph. The second challenge was to offer very fast and flexible dispatching solution for both bulk and bagged cement in spite of truck or bulker movement limitation in the plant layout.

  

 

Ventomatic® packing and dispatching solution includes:

 

Bagging plant

Two 8-spout GIROMAT® EVO high efficiency rotary packers with vertical axis impeller; one equipped with INFILROT® BU automatic bag applicator for glued valve bags and the other with INFILROT® BU for HDPE stitched non-laminated bags.

 

Ventomatic® state of the art equipment:

 

GIROMAT® EVO packers
in terms of performances, advanced electronic controls together with easy and cost- effective maintenance.
INFILROT® bag applicators
for the technical solution (mechanical arm and bag clamp) and control technology (IPC and HMI operator panels).

Loading plant

The full bags are loaded with two CARICATECH™ automatic truck loaders, an innovative concept specially developed to match with the peculiar Indian market requirements.

 

While keeping the traditional loading from the top of the trucks, the CARICATECH™ design is based on a special designed fork for the handling of bag layers.

  

The main features are:

  • The highest capacity available on the market (up to 3300 bags per hour)
  • Handling of different bag type and size with automatic adjustment in actual time
  • Different loading pattern configuration selected according to truck and full bag dimensions
  • Complete remote control with cameras and monitors to supervise the loading process and to grant safety working conditions of the operators
  • Reduced wearing and maintenance time and costs
  • Easy access for maintenance. 

 

This customer story was originally published in the Indian Cement Review July 2019.

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