08.07.2010 | Author / Editor: S. Clewley / Marcel Dröttboom
One of two veteran ship-unloading system located at the Port of Tilbury has been equipped with up-to-date condition monitoring equipment. The early detection of ‘out-of-order’ conditions avoids potential incidents and supports preventive maintenance.
The Port of Tilbury is London’s major gateway, handling significant levels of diverse cargo including the importation of paper as the UK’s leading port, containers, grain, and various bulk handling facilities, all of which are handled at a number of berths both in dock and on river facilities. The port’s grain terminal facility handles around 1.5 million tonnes per year, making it one of the biggest in the UK.
The ship-unloaders, in the form of marine legs are the main component of two rail-mounted, mobile marine towers installed on the quayside in the 1960’s. Based on the then North American ‘Great Lakes’ design, the marine towers are quite unique within the UK. Although the equipment is over 40 years old and has, since installation, handled many millions of tonnes of grain, it is still in excellent working condition and is a key element of the grain operations at the port. Following a major overhaul of one of the marine legs in 2003/2004 by Stock Redler it was decided to bring the condition monitoring right up to date and the 4B Braime Watchdog Elite system was chosen to be installed on the marine tower.
The marine leg is an extremely heavy duty, purpose built, bucket elevator; designed to be deployed into a ships hold in order to dig into and unload grain cargos to shore. Raising and lowering of the leg, together with luffing, is achieved through a winch and rope system controlled by an operator in a cabin mounted high in the marine tower. The 35 metre long marine leg elevator operates at a capacity of 860 tonnes per hour, is fitted with high density polyethylene CC-S elevator buckets bolted to a continuous 1120 mm wide belt and runs at a speed of 3.5 metres per second. Although elevator monitoring systems from 4B Braime have been around since 1984 and over 2000 systems have been installed, this is the first to be fitted to such a mobile device.
Fundamentally all bucket elevators are at risk during normal operation, regardless of the product being conveyed, because of a number of issues. These include possible bearing and drive faults, misaligned head and tail pulleys, belt slipping and rubbing and bucket damage and rubbing. Together with the potential for inlet and outlet chute blockages common with any conveyor and the prospect of poor maintenance and housekeeping due to inaccessibility or lack of personnel, it is clear why comprehensive monitoring solutions are necessary. If, in addition to this, the product being conveyed is combustible or even explosive then...
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