World Grain - May 2013 - 68

GRAINOPERATIONS

Innovative
conveying solutions
Systems from other industries can be applied
to grain handling with much success
by Roberto Hajnal

Several of the innovated bulk-solids handling systems used
in other industries can be used by the grain handling industry.
This article will look at some of those interesting and innovative handling systems.
Examples include:
• The RopeCon: A high-tech Austrian system that combines rope technology to transport people and loads on hanging ropes with conveyor belt technology. The conveyor system allows passing over geographical obstacles such as rivers, roads, buildings, valleys with spans of up to 1,000 meters
between supports, in one section.
• The Pipe Conveyor: A Japanese design that overcomes
several problems, including spillage of material, belt training, limited horizontal and vertical curves, and limited angles
of incline. The open belt passes through a series of transition
idlers to form a pipe shape, making it fully enclosed for the
length of the conveyor.
• The Manutube: A design from France that includes an
enclosed belt conveyor with a belt running inside a plastic
tube with no idlers, fully enclosed.
• The Overland Conveyors/Curvoducts: A design also
from France that is effective for very long distances with horizontal curves of low radius.
All of these systems are designed to minimize dust emissions, reduce environmental challenges, improve safety and
reduce costs.
FINDING SOLUTIONS
When a project includes a difﬁcult layout, with long distances and/or many obstacles on the way, such as buildings,
tanks, roads (see Figure 1) or even rivers, valleys, hills, etc.,
a conventional solution is very difﬁcult to implement. If the
material also is difﬁcult to handle, such as very corrosive, hygroscopic material, or even toxic products with strong environmental precautions that need a dustless solution, creative
and innovative solutions are needed.
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Figure 1: Conveying through obstacles such as rivers, tanks, roads and
buildings. Photo courtesy of Doppelmayr.

A ﬁrst solution that is usually more expensive in the long run
is going back to systems of individual loads in trucks. The use
of continuous bulk handling systems is usually driven by lower
operational cost, as opposed to systems such as trucks which
have lower initial capital but much larger operational costs.
In general, the longer the distance and the higher the capacity, the more likely it is that a continuous system will be
the most effective option. Sometimes many large deposits
with a relatively low price per tonne become not feasible
if they are too far away from the port terminal or rail line.
This article will review the new, different types of continuous
transport systems and the factors that inﬂuence their selection.
OVERLAND CONVEYORS
Troughed conveyor belts are the most widely used continuous transport system for bulk materials. Since their inception
in the beginning of the 20th century, they have grown enormously in length, installed power and capacity while reducing their speciﬁc energy consumption. Their main disadvantage is their limited ability to achieve vertical and horizontal
curves. This ability is reduced as capacity and belt tensions
increase. Main applications are in the mining industry, where
belts would allow for very long ﬂights without intermediate
May 2013 / World Grain / www.World-Grain.com

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World Grain - May 2013

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