ATEX DRUM HANDLING SYSTEM

Transcription

1 ATEX DRUM HANDLING SYSTEM ATEX DRUM HANDLING SYSTEM DESCRIPTION This ATEX Drum Handling System included the facilities to weigh and decant explosive material from 200 Litre stainless steel drums into a Mixing Bowl. It also included a Mixing Bowl Transportation facility to move the mixing bowl of explosive material from the decanting area, into the mixing area and subsequently into the filling area. The ATEX Drum Handling System was required to operate in a hazardous environment designated as ATEX Zone 21 T135 ºC explosive environment. All equipment and materials used were therefore suitable and certified for use in this ATEX Area. DRUM WEIGHING & DECANTING FACILITY Drums containing 500kg of an explosive and flammable material were delivered into the decanting area on pallets where the outer-drum was removed manually. The inner drum was then loaded into the decanting system lift frame and lifted using the overhead gantry shown in the photograph below. Drum Weighing & Decanting Facility showing the drum lift, overhead gantry and mixing bowl

2 Call now on The system is designed to lift a drum of material and once clear of its delivery pallet, the operator presses a push button which initiates a weighing system. This weigh system records the weight of the drum complete with contents. The drum is then raised to its required height and traversed to be above the mixing bowl. Once correctly positioned the operator rotates the drum through approximately 180 degrees to discharge the explosive material The drum is left in this position for sufficient time to permit the product to drain into the receiving mixing bowl. Once the entire content of the drum has been discharged, the weigh push button is pressed again and the weight of the now empty drum is recorded. The difference between the first and second weighing can be displayed as a digital display as well as being available as print out. This recorded weight represents the total of the material decanted into the mixing bowl. The system can be configured such that under or over weights can be alarmed, which would help the operator ensure that the drum is completely empty etc. Once the drum is deemed empty it will be returned to the pallet and removed to the drum cleaning area. This particular drum decanting system is designed to operate in any one of three bays as can be seen in the following photograph. This photograph shows the three mixing bowl storage bays, at which the drum weigh and decanting system can be operated.

3 MIXING BOWL TRANSPORTATION FACILITY The mixing bowl transportation system was designed to allow the mixing bowls and explosive contents to be moved from the decanting area into a mixing machine mounted remotely in another building. The transportation system is based on the use of four pneumatically powered air skates designed to raise and move the 3.5 Tonne bowls in conjunction with an overhead guide rail system. Air for these transport units was supplied via a catinary system mounted off the overhead guide rail. Each of the Air Skate units had the following capacity and required an air supply as detailed below: - AIR SKATE SPECIFICATION Type Capacity Lift height Maximum Pressure Air consumption BAS Kgs 15mm 1.75 Bar 2.8 m³/minute at maximum load Following mixing, the bowls were transported to the filling facility in a third building. In the filling building the bowl. Hydraulic Tipper in the Bowl Cleaning Facility This hydraulic tipper was a manually operated tipper that lifted and tipped the mixing bowl through an angle of 45 degrees. In the tipped position, the mixing bowl was securely supported to allow the operator access to the underside of the bowl to dismantle and clean the discharge valve.

4 ATEX Drum Wash System Steam powered heat exchanger ATEX DRUM WASH SYSTEM CHAMBER EXTRACTION & HOT AIR DRYING SYSTEM The effect of spraying the drums and pallets with high pressure hot water to clean them was the creation of a considerable amount of mist, which was extracted from the wash chamber. Once the extraction was complete, the same system was used to blow hot air, created by the heat exchanger, over the washed drum or pallet so that it was dry when removed from the wash chamber. The Hot Air Drying Unit was mounted remotely from the main wash system.

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