Engineer Talk about port mechanics

 There are different types of material conveying systems , in which i will be talking mostly on belt conveyor systems which is my area of expertise. As discussed earlier the cargo is unloaded from different types of machinery namely wagon tippler , Grab ship Unloader , Harbor mobile crane etc . These equipment unloades the different types of cargo with respect to handling methods and the machinery designed to handle the type of cargo with respect to load capabilities. The first step in unloading and storing process is that the unloaders unloades the cargo in to the hopper , this was discussed earlier. From the hopper how will the cargo flow happens? There comes this equipment called feeder . As the term defines itself , the feeder feeds the cargo to the conveyor. The feeder can be a variable speed one or the fixed speed one with respect to the requirement of the feeding and the design of the plant. The various types of feeder can be 1)     Apron feeder 2)     Feeder belt 3)    

Till now we talked about tippling process and the way wagon tippling takes place and its maintenance.So what happens next?. Actually tippler tipples and what ever the material is in the wagon gets unloaded into hopper. Now , What is a Hopper ? A hopper is simply a conical structure wide at the top and narrow at the bottom.It is designed so as to free and constant flow of materials.Inside the hopper,its walls are fastened with liner plates , so that the mother plate by which the hopper is made, doesnt get worn out. The liner plates are made up of different materials depending on the cost. Mostly stainless steel,Manganese steel , Hardox plates are used. Fabrication is a vast subject , different metals and combination alloy's are used for different purposes. Even many countries have their own standards and codes ,for exmple  china uses Q355,Q255 structural steels for heavy structures. It doent mean that these are the only steels , there are wide variety of options. Every company fabri

 All mechnical equipments indeed any equipment need maintenance at regular intervals. By proper maintenance we can stretch the life of the equipment beyond the validity, Even when maintained properly, problems and failures occurs due to many reasons. Human error's have to be eliminated to avoid major accidents and failures, which causes death and economical loss. Rack and pinion changing When and how do we know to change the rack and pinion ? . Simple, observation and constant monitoring have to be done. So if the rack and pinion are wear out , there will be slippage, there are chances of free fall at the position where wear is more.                                                                          Pinion wear out In order to change the rack, "as the rack is assembled in parts to tippler with bolts", a set simply be changed by removing bolts and replace with new one and properly tighten the bolts at required torque. For the pinion to change , the intermidiate shaft

The place where the wagon is placed , to be tippled , is called table . On to the table the rail is fixed with clamps , it is a detached portion from the ground rail. There is a safe gap of 10 to 12 mm maintained between the table and ground rail , so that when the platform rises for tippling it doesn't collides with the rail on the ground.  How do one know's the position of wagon on table ? For positioning of wagon there lies a curved convex portion on rail , on the table , for the wheels of wagon to exactly sit without movement during tippling process. When the wagon is tippled at an angle of 80°  , there lies a structure called ARMS , with rubber pads attached to them.  The Arms hold the wagon from free fall in to the hopper . The tippler tipples the wagon till an angle of 135° ,in this position the wagon is completly rested on the arms. They are just free moment equipment , they are not rotated by any external means , the arms are connected to a rigid structure with a pin

Wagon tipplers is one of the first machinery i saw when i started my career . When you are fond of machines and a true mechanical engineer, you will always be thrilled when ever you see a new machine. And that was the exact position of me when i first saw wagon tippler .           (Note: The tippler is in tippled postion , so dont get confused , Its a Rotary Tippler) Before going in to full part wise details of wagon tippler lets first discuss its operational procedure,about wagons and transportation.  Wagons carry a load varying from 40 to 60 tons per wagon , you have to note that it is the capacity i am talking about because if you put another cargo with lesser density automatically the load will be lesser. There will be approximately 58 to 60 wagons driven by an engine, this in port terminology is referred to as RAKE i.e one rake is an engine carrying 59 wagons . Each rake carries 3000 to 4000 tons load and transport from one part of the country, where the respective

There are different equipment or machinery in ports used for various purposes . So before jumping of to equipment's, lets first know what happens inside a port. First,what's a port?. If you google it you would find lots of explanations and definitions starting with history, Let's simplify it. Its a place where business happens through imports and exports , OK wait ! , import and export doesn't mean , the business is strictly from or to other countries , it can also happen from one part of the country to other part of the same coast line , we have to understand only one thing , THE MEANS is sea i.e sea transport. Next question that pop's up in our mind is , What does one import or export ? .Ok lets also simplify this . The imports and exports can be RAW MATERIALS like iron ore , coal , bauxite , limestone etc . there are many more , these are just examples . OUR MANUFACTURED PRODUCTS be it any thing from wind mill fans , cars to safety fins  (Later we will