Thor Global Enterprises has successfully delivered a 4000t per hour ship unloading system to Miller Aggregates South West, a division of Miller Paving, in Windsor, Ontario. The ship unloading system is part of a $20m port expansion plan that benefitted from partial Federal Government funding on the condition that construction be completed in only six months following initial tender requests.
Material from the ship is received by a 300t silo, and then is fed onto the main transfer conveyor by two 2,000t per hour JVI vibrating feeders. From there, the material is conveyed along a 60in wide, 525ft long transfer conveyor. The transfer conveyor carries product to a 205ft long, 60in wide cable mast conveyor, which moves 270 degrees along a rail as it stockpiles aggregate in the desired area.
The system looks significantly different from a typical conveyor system due to its triangular structure, which somewhat resembles a tower crane structural configuration. The use of triangular design yields several advantages, as explained by Torben Johannsen, "A triangular boom gives you the ultimate in structural performance, specifically on higher tonnage and heavier load projects due to greater strength-to-weight ratios. Not only is a triangle fundamentally stronger than a rectangle, the structural members on a triangular truss work in compression and tension, which eliminates all secondary stresses.
"Although a triangular boom may not be the most economical solution to build, it will add great value to strength, longevity and reliability, something Miller Aggregates South West takes very seriously."