Engineeringnet.be reports Dutch shipping entrepreneur Bert Keijsers has designed a ship that can unload bulk goods such as coals, gravel and sand automatically.
He came up with the idea when freight rates were so low, he had to look for innovative solutions to stay competitive. He came up with the idea of a ship equipped with a crane or conveyor belt in the hold, which automatically discharges the load.
Pneumatic System
The crane or conveyor belt removes most of the cargo. A pneumatic system with coated fabric along the sides of the ship removes the rest load. The pneumatic system blows air under the fabric, which then pushes the remainder of the cargo to the crane or belt.
The coated fabric is pushed up against the sides of the ship when the hold is fully loaded. Therefore, there is no loss of volume. This in contrast to the funnels that are usually employed to remove the remainder of the load and take up about 35 per cent of the hold space. For inland shipping such a percentage is unacceptable.
In addition, unloading is much faster. Bull dozers are no longer required either. In short, unloading can be become fully automatic.
Coated Fabric Tested
Of the available coated fabrics five have been tested with basalt by the Dutch organisation TNO. All have passed the test of over 1000 unloading operations.
Source: https://www.engineeringnet.be/belgie/detail_belgie.asp?Id=3070[Engineeringnet.be]
