Loading Plastic Beads in Rail Hopper

[cbabz10]

Hello,

I am currently looking at replacing our in house built loading spouts (spreaders) that are used to load plastic beads into a rail hopper. The current spreaders use air to spin the rotating blade which allows for more product to be loaded into a rail car. These spreaders however do not throw the product far enough at the best of times and work terribly in the winter, which minimizes the amount we can load into a single car and increases our total shipping costs. Does anyone know of a light weight spreader that runs strictly off air? The product is also very light so ideally the only part of the spreader in the car would be the spinning portion(most spreaders are driven from the bottom which restricts how high the product can be loaded). The current spreaders we have were fabricated in house and weigh 60lbs.

Thanks,

Cb

 

[garydiesel]

Cb,

We've had success using the Zeppelin systems. They have two types: pressure conveyed units that use the air from the blowers to the spreaders to fling the pellets. Also, they have a system for gravity fed filling systems. A fan is used to propel the pellets through the spreader.

Here's the link to the two descriptions:

http://www.zeppelin-usa.com/services/railcar-loading.htm

If my memory serves me correctly, we used the existing pneumatic conveying blowers to assist the spreading. I was later told the system worked very well.

I hope this helps.

Garydiesel