Terminal de Graneles Agroalimentarios
 
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Unloading of commodities

UNLOADING IS CARRIED OUT BY MEANS OF TWO MECHANICAL UNLOADERS AT A RATE OF 400 T/HOUR FOR MEAL AND 600 T/HOUR FOR GRAIN, BOTH. THEY CAN OPERATE SIMULTANEOUSLY IN TWO VESSELS’ HOLDS AND RAISE THE UNLOADING RATE.

T

he vessel berths in Raos, dock 4, to the east of the Terminal

Unloading is carried out by means of two mechanical unloaders at a rate 400 t/hour for meal and 600 t/hour for grain, both of them. They can operate simultaneously in two vessels’ holds and raise the unloading rate. The unloaders are equipped with high-performance chains conveyors. Its transport elements are closed in themselves and protected against powder and rain. Each unloader is equipped with a dust aspiration system, a compressed air unit for their consumption and a hydraulic system use.

The mechanical unloaders consists of an equipment enclosed and encapsulated that prevents the following problems associated to traditional methods (self-propelled crane and hopper):

  • – Spillage of cargo during unloading operation
  • – Release of PM10 particles when cargo impacts the deflectors of the supplier hopper.
  • – Sedimentation of thick particles around the hopper, generating a dirty area that wind will transport elsewhere.

The system is designed in such a way that allows the unloaders to work with two different products at the same time; the first one can be unloading grain from a hold while the second one is unloading meal from another hold. Thus, the system is redundant along the whole route which makes it possible to handle two different products simultaneous and separately.

The product goes through the unloaders to horizontal conveyor belts that run in parallel to the dock following a path to the south until the transference tower. To prevent dust release outwards, those belts are covered inside a close metallic gallery.

In the transference tower the product is cleaned. It goes through a magnetic extractor of metallic particles and through a sieve that takes out thick foreign bodies such as straw, stripes of bags, paper, wood chips, leaves, etc. Conveyance of the product from one belt to another is equipped with a dust aspiration system.

After it’s been cleaned, the product goes through the leaning conveyor belts to the weighing tower. In this tower all the unloaded product is weighed in a discontinuous hopper weighing scale, knowing at every moment the cargo amount unloaded from the vessel’s holds.