Petroleum Africa
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Monday, July 11, 2016
SMB International has commissioned two complex ship loading systems for the Algerian port city of Oran. With the development of a wholly interconnected system, the company, which has international experience, has set new benchmarks in terms of the flexibility and automation of ship loaders.
The port in Oran has evolved into a significant industrial hub and trading center for imports and exports. Numerous companies engaged in the petrochemical sector are located in and about the city.
Companies with global operations were commissioned to construct the port complex, including SMB International. The material handling experts were assigned the task of designing and realizing two ship loaders for the shipment of urea.
The contract for the ship loaders for the shipment of urea came with challenges according to SMB’s Managing Director Andreas Heckel. “We take into account the individual requirements for any new order, such as heavy rainfall and the strong winds that prevail at the port of Oran. It is precisely these conditions that make our work so exciting because we also learn continuously and develop new, bespoke solutions for our customers’ time and again based upon our reliable systems.”
Heckel and his team developed what SMB says is a “plan for seamless linkage” to the quay, including the assimilation of bulk material from the quayside belt. The company opted to use a reclaimer that takes the pellets from the silo warehouse to the conveyor and, from there, on to the SMB ship loader.
“While designing this system, our aim was for it to be an enduringly reliable one that transports urea in a fully automated manner from the quayside belt into the ship’s hold – swiftly, effectively and smoothly. Prior to this, we implemented entire systems for other customers, including reclaimers, conveyors and ship loaders. This involves performing all process steps – from planning, through manufacture and delivery, right through to on-site installation,” explains Heckel. The SMB reclaimer is ideal for all systems in which bulk material is to be loaded from a slag heap onto a conveyor belt. The bulk material is loosened using scraper chains and carted away by bucket conveyors in a fully automated process.
The engineers decided in favor of a 170-meter-long system with a swiveling superstructure, which could be maneuvered on the quay. This enables ships to be loaded at any quay location.
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