Ports

International trade is a significant component of our global economy. Ensuring that industrial ports and terminals run efficiently is critical to the overall operation. Dealing with barges, ships, and railcars carrying various products and materials can be difficult. As a result, a complex network of conveyor belts travel over long distances. Ports and terminal facilities face operational challenges in the control of dust and spillage. These events will cause environmental risks due to contamination of waterways and land, resulting in increased housekeeping maintenance costs. The dust and spillage also endanger employees' safety, and material loss affects the bottom line.

Weba Chute Systems significantly reduce noise and dust pollution and lowers energy consumption, while extending the traditional lifecycle of bulk material handling equipment. The system is designed according to the principle of conveyed material impacting on surfaces which already contain material.

Previous Project

At the Port of Saldanha, Weba has supplied Weba Chute Systems in a shiploading application.

Two boom transfer chutes were designed to transfer 10 000 tph of iron ore and feature a levelling device to always keep them vertical during the luffing of the boom (in a range from 14 degrees to 5 degrees). This minimises spillage and blockages and ensures an even load of iron ore onto the boom conveyor.

The conveyor has a belt size of 1 650 mm and runs at a speed of 4 metres per second. Bulk density of the iron ore varies from 2.3 to 3 tons per cubic metre, and the maximum lump size is 40 mm, with a moisture content of about 3%.

Weba upgraded the moving head chutes at the Port of Saldanha to provide these conveyor transfer points with the ability to cope with the 10 000 tph ship loader capacity. The conventional chutes were plagued with spillage and blockage issues. Thus, Weba was contracted to design and fabricate chutes and re-instate all the required instrumentation and piping services.

A Fine Element Analysis (FEA) was carried out to prevent future blockages, determine the iron ore flow, verify the chutes’ capability to handle 10 000 tph and load this material central to the ongoing conveyor.