Conveyor

and blower
system
unloads
positive
results
A ready-mix concrete
producer installs a semidensephase conveyor and blower
system to improve its
production plants railcar
cement unloading operation.

-Con Corp., a division of

Ritchie Corp., Wichita, Kans.,
produces ready-mix concrete
at four ready-mix plants in Wichita
and two in the surrounding area. The
company supplies concrete mixes for
various federal, state, local, and residential construction projects throughout Kansas. Cement arrives at the
plants in gravity-discharge hopperbottom railcars and is unloaded and
conveyed to onsite storage silos before being incorporated into the concrete mix and distributed by trucks to
the various project sites. The company recently decided to improve one
of the plants railcar unloading operations to increase the material unloading rate, decrease production and
maintenance costs, and reduce labor
requirements. The company worked
with a bulk material handling systems
supplier to install a new semidensephase conveyor and blower system to
unload the cement and convey it to
the silos.
The companys North Shore plant in
Wichita is a high-production plant

that uses a computerized batching

system to produce more than 200 different concrete blends, including colored blends for architectural
applications. The cement is stored in
three storage silos a 120-ton-capacity and a 150-ton-capacity silo located outside the plant and a
115-ton-capacity silo inside.
In the past, when the hopper-bottom
railcars arrived at the North Shore
plant they were switched off the main
track to a siding track. An operator
used a high-loader tractor to position
a railcars hopper-bottom discharge
outlet over an unloading pit built into
the ground under the siding track. The
operator climbed down into the unloading pit and attached a connector
boot to the hopper-bottom discharge
outlet. The operator opened the discharge-outlet gate, and the cement
gravity-discharged through the connector boot to a screw-pump conveyor that used two blowers to move
the cement at about 30 t/h from the
railcar to the three onsite storage silos.
To facilitate material discharge from

The unloading systems 75-cubic-foot-capacity transfer vessel vacuumconveys material from a railcar and pressure-conveys the material to a
storage silo.

Copyright, CSC Publishing, Powder and Bulk Engineering

Case history

Problems unloading hopperbottom railcars

The hopper-bottom railcar unloading
system caused several problems for
the company. One was that to meet
customer demand during peak production cycles, the North Shore plant
needs to unload cement from the railcars as fast as its distributed to the
project sites. But because the screwpump conveyor could only unload the
cement at a maximum rate of 30 t/h,
the silos sometimes emptied, and the
company had to shut down production until the silos were filled, or it had
to supplement the shortfall by having
trucks deliver cement to the plant.
Another problem was that positioning
the hopper-bottom railcars took a lot
of time because the operator had to use
the high-loader tractor to precisely
place each railcar to properly attach
the connector boot. And because the
high-loader tractor typically moves
aggregate into the facility, using it to
position railcars decreased the aggregate-loading operations efficiency.

The company also experienced problems when connecting and disconnecting the connector boot to the
hopper-bottom discharge outlet. Because the boot always contained a little
cement, when the operator connected
or disconnected the boot some cement
would fall into the pit. Because of this,
the operator would have to regularly
shovel out the pit. And because the unloading pit is uncovered, when it
rained the pit would fill with water, and
the operator would have to pump out
the water and shovel out the wet cement to prevent it from setting.
Spotting the railcars slowed the unloading process, and cleaning the pit
was dirty and labor-intensive work,
says Rick Heise, R-Con operations
manager. Also, the screw-pump conveyors internal screw periodically
eroded from contact with the cement,
and the conveyor had to be shut down
to repair it. In addition, the screwpump conveyors two separate blowers that aerated and conveyed the
cement kept our energy costs high.
All of these problems decreased the
railcar unloading operations efficiency and increased the plants production and maintenance costs. To
improve the railcar unloading opera-

tion and meet customer demand, the

company decided it needed to install a
new railcar unloading system.

K&O Railroad to the rescue

R-Con leases its railcars from Kansas
& Oklahoma (K&O) Railroad, Wichita, Kans., a short-line railcar supplier. In early 2001, Jim Ayers, K&O
marketing director of aggregates, approached Heise with information
about a new high-volume semidensephase railcar unloading system for
unloading air-slide railcars at more
than 60 t/h. (An air-slide railcar has a
fluidizing bed in its bottom that aerates the cement inside the railcar to facilitate material discharge.) The
railcar supplier had recently installed
the new unloading system at one of its
bulk storage and transfer stations and
had increased the stations production
capacity by unloading material at a
faster rate than it could before. Ayers
had found the semidense-phase railcar unloading system while visiting
Cyclonaires booth at the Powder and
Bulk Solids Show near Chicago and
thought that the same type of system
could solve the North Shore plants
railcar unloading problems. Cyclonaire, York, Nebr., manufactures bulk
material handling systems and controls for the cement, chemical, food,
mineral, rubber, and other industries.
After meeting with Ayers, R-Con reps
traveled to the railcar suppliers storage and transfer station to watch the
unloading system in operation. After
seeing the air-slide railcars and the
unloading system, the company decided to sign a long-term contract
with the railcar supplier for the dedicated use of 26 80-ton-capacity airslide railcars and to purchase a
semidense-phase unloading system
from Cyclonaire.

The 6-inch-diameter vacuum hose connects to the railcars bottom discharge outlet, and the 3-inch-diameter air-slide hose connects to the railcars air-slide inlet.

The unloading system demonstration convinced me, and I was confident that we had found what we
needed to improve our railcar unloading operation, says Heise. Part of
what prompted us to switch to the Cyclonaire unloading system was that
our railcar supplier could supply us
with the air-slide railcars that would

Copyright, CSC Publishing, Powder and Bulk Engineering

the railcar, the operator hung several

large vibrators on the railcars sides to
vibrate the cement down to the hopper bottom.

The semidense-phase conveyor

and blower system
The HC 75 high-capacity semidensephase conveyor and blower system
vacuum- and pressure-conveys 75cubic-foot batches of abrasive powders, operating at a maximum pressure
of 15 psi. The system consists of a positive-displacement rotary-lobe blower, a
75-cubic-foot-capacity transfer vessel,
a 6-inch-diameter flexible blower hose,
a 3-inch-diameter flexible air-slide
hose, a 6-inch-diameter flexible vacuum hose, a 6-inch-diameter flexible
pressure discharge hose, a venturi, various valves and couplings, and a controller. The blower hose connects the
blower to the transfer vessel. The vacuum hose connects the transfer vessel
to an air-slide railcars bottom discharge outlet. The air-slide hose connects the transfer vessel to the railcars
air-slide inlet, which is located in the
railcars bottom. And the pressure discharge hose connects the transfer vessel to the storage silos conveying lines.
The blowers 125-horsepower threephase electric motor powers the
blower, producing 1,175 cfm of positive air pressure thats used to fluidize
the material in the air-slide railcars
bottom, vacuum-convey the material
from the railcar to the transfer vessel,
and pressure-convey the material from
the transfer vessel to the storage silos.
The unloading system takes less than 1
minute to vacuum-convey 75 cubic
feet of material from the railcar into the
transfer vessel and about 112 minutes to
pressure-convey the material from the
transfer vessel to the silo. The unloading system completes a vacuum-pressure cycle about every 212 minutes.
To create both vacuum and pressure,
the unloading system relies on the
transfer vessels venturi and five
valves a three-port bypass valve, a
poppet valve with a diaphragm actuator, a suction valve, a free-swinging
non-actuated flap valve, and an inlet
butterfly valve. In vacuum cycle, the
bypass valves three ports, the suction
valve, and the inlet butterfly valve are

open, while the poppet valve and the

flap valve are closed. In pressure cycle,
one bypass valve port, the suction
valve, and the inlet butterfly valve are
closed, while the other two bypass
valve ports, the poppet valve, and the
flap valve are open.

Copyright, CSC Publishing, Powder and Bulk Engineering

allow us to effectively use the unloading system.

During the vacuum and pressure cycles, the blower only discharges positive air to the transfer vessel. The
blower pulls in outside air through an
inlet air filter and inlet silencer (or inlet
muffler). The blower then pushes the
air through a discharge silencer (or discharge muffler) and through the blower
hose to the transfer vessel. The blower
hose connects to the three-port bypass
valve, which is mounted in the transfer
vessels bottom. The air-slide hose also
connects to the bypass valve and attaches to the railcars air-slide inlet.
A filter indicator gauge located below
the blowers inlet air filter alerts the operator when to change the inlet air filter. A check valve located after the
discharge silencers outlet prevents air
and material from migrating back into
the blower should the unloading system malfunction. And a full-flow relief
valve sized to handle the blowers
maximum airflow is mounted on the
check valves top to prevent hazardous
situations by allowing air to escape to
the atmosphere should the blower hose
become plugged.
In vacuum cycle, the bypass valve diverts some of the incoming airflow to
the air-slide hose to fluidize the material
in the railcars bottom and facilitate material discharge from the railcar. (The
bypass valve only sends air through the
air-slide hose during the vacuum cycle.)
The bypass valve also diverts a small
portion of air through the transfer vessels discharge manifold, which is located in the vessels bottom and
connected to the pressure discharge
hose. The bypass valve diverts the majority of the incoming airflow upward
through a conveying line toward the
poppet valve, which is mounted in the
transfer vessels top near the suction
valve and venturis top inlet. The poppet
valve blocks the airflow from entering
the vessels top and redirects it 180 de-

The positive-displacement rotarylobe blower produces 1,175 cfm of

positive air pressure thats used to
fluidize and convey the material.

grees down through the venturis top

inlet. The air moves down through the
venturi to the discharge manifold and
through the pressure discharge hose, exhausting to the silos top. (Because the
blower always produces positive airflow, air always moves through the
pressure discharge hose into the silo.)
As the air moves down through the venturi, it pulls air from the transfer vessels
interior through the suction valve to create a low-pressure zone inside the vessel
that produces the systems vacuum. The
flap valve, located at the transfer vessels bottom discharge, is pulled closed
by the vacuum in the transfer vessel.
This maintains the systems vacuum
and prevents air from being pulled in
through the vessels discharge from the
discharge manifold. After the appropriate vacuum level is reached, the inlet
valve opens and material rushes
through the vacuum hose from the railcar into the transfer vessel. (To allow
ventilation and ensure material flow, an
operator must open a railcars top hatch
before starting the vacuum cycle.)

The unloading system unloads

material from a railcar at more
than 60 t/h, conveying more than
42,000 tons of cement in a year.

When the material level inside the

transfer vessel reaches a high-level
switch, the valves actuate and the unloading system switches to the pressure cycle. The bypass valve actuates
and stops the airflow to the air-slide
hose to minimize dusting in the railcar,
diverting the majority of the airflow to
the transfer vessels top and to the discharge manifold. The poppet valve actuates and diverts the airflow from the
venturi into the transfer vessels top to
pressurize the vessel and discharge the
material into the discharge manifold
and pressure discharge hose. And the
suction valve and inlet valve actuate to
prevent air escaping back into the venturi and to close off the vacuum hose.
As pressure builds inside the transfer
vessel, the material pushes the flap
valve open and moves into the discharge manifold, where the extra air
entering the discharge manifold flu-

The unloading systems controller is

mounted on the transfer vessel. For efficiency, the controller features a slowfill alarm and a long-discharge alarm,
which alert the operator if the highlevel switch isnt tripped or if the pressure sensor isnt tripped. If during the
vacuum cycle the high-level switch
isnt tripped after a certain time, the
system switches to the pressure cycle
to discharge the transfer vessel. When
completed, the system switches back
to the vacuum cycle to make sure that
no material was caught up on the railcars walls. The controller is programmed to repeat the vacuum cycle a
couple of times before sounding the
slow-fill alarm to alert the operator that
the material isnt loading into the vessel. If during the pressure cycle the unloading system doesnt switch back to
the vacuum cycle after a certain time,
the long-discharge alarm will alert the
operator that the pressure discharge
hose may be plugged.
A high-level switch mounted in each
silo alerts the operator when a silo is
filled. If a silos high-level switch is
tripped during the vacuum cycle, the
system will immediately switch to the
pressure cycle, discharge the material
from the vessel, and sound an alarm
alerting the operator to switch the
pressure discharge hose to another
silo. If a silos high-level switch is
tripped during the pressure cycle, the
system will finish discharging the material from the vessel, pause the unloading system, and sound an alarm
for the operator to switch the pressure
discharge hose to another silo. After
each alarm, the operator restarts the
unloading system, which will automatically start in the vacuum cycle.

A pulse-jet dust collector on each

silos top operates continuously during both the vacuum and pressure cycles, filtering dust from the incoming
airflow and exhausting clean air to the
atmosphere. The dust collectors
pulse-jet regularly cleans the bag filters, knocking the dust down into the
silo. Each dust collector is activated
from the systems controller.

Unloading positive results

R-Con installed the new unloading
system in Spring 2001. The only
modification that the company had to
make to the North Shore plant was to
replace the 4-inch-diameter silo conveying lines with 6-inch-diameter
lines to match the pressure discharge
hose diameter. Heise says that the unloading pit is still located under the
siding track just in case the company
ever needs to use the gravity-discharge hopper-bottom railcars again.
To unload an air-slide railcar with the
new unloading system after its been
positioned on the siding track, the operator opens the railcars top hatch
and attaches the vacuum hose to the
railcar discharge outlet and the airslide hose to the air-slide inlet. The
operator then manually connects the
pressure discharge hose to the appropriate silos conveying line for filling.
Before starting the unloading systems vacuum cycle, the operator activates the appropriate dust collector
to ensure dust-free filling.
The unloading system, which unloads
the air-slide railcars at more than 60
t/h, has allowed the company to maintain its production schedule and meet
customer demand. Last year, the unloading system unloaded more than
forty-two thousand tons of cement,
says Heise. And because we maintain
a regular preventive maintenance
schedule, there was never a time when
we werent able to use the system.
Because the new unloading system
has fewer mechanical and moving
parts than the screw-pump conveyor,
the operators were a little skeptical of
it at first. They thought that it was

Copyright, CSC Publishing, Powder and Bulk Engineering

idizes the material and conveys it

through the pressure discharge hose to
the silo at a maximum pressure of 15
psi. A pressure sensor inside the transfer vessel monitors the vessels interior pressure level as the material is
conveyed to the silo. After the material completely discharges from the
pressure discharge hose, the pressure
sensor detects the reduced pressure
level inside the vessel and actuates the
valves, switching the unloading system back to the vacuum cycle.

Since installing the new unloading

system, the high-loader tractor operator has been able to focus on moving
and feeding aggregate into the plant

because the tractor is no longer

needed to position the railcars over
the unloading pit. And the operators
have been able to make more efficient
use of their time and focus on other
plant issues because they no longer
have to clean out the unloading pit or
maintain the old screw-pump conveyor, says Heise. This has helped
us decrease the plants production and
maintenance costs and reduce the
overall labor required to unload the
railcars.
PBE

Note: To find other articles on this

topic, go to www.powderbulk.com,
click on Article Index, and look
under the subject headings Loading,
unloading and Pneumatic conveying, or see Powder and Bulk Engineerings comprehensive Index to
Articles in the December 2003 issue.
Cyclonaire, York, NE
888-593-6247
www.cyclonaire.com

Copyright, CSC Publishing, Powder and Bulk Engineering

just too simple to work, says Heise.

But after they successfully unloaded
the first railcar, they said that they
wouldnt want to go back to using the
screw-pump conveyor because the
new unloading system is so much
more efficient and simple to use.