Short course for transfer chute design

The transfer chutes short course will arm attendees with a check list of design considerations.

Davis said “fundamentally the course is aimed at the engineer who is doing the detailed design of a materials handling plant that will incorporate chutes and conveyors.

“Chute design is not really difficult to get right if you follow the right procedure, but it is very easy not to get it right if you take a guess,” he said.

“All I am trying to do in a day is look at the procedures that I would follow, not in any detail, but in a series of steps as to what I would consider in the design of a chute, who to go to for the information, what specialist to use, what reference data is available and a few case histories of those that have and haven’t worked. And I might chuck in a couple of absolute disasters along the way.”

Davis’ course draws on his own everyday experiences.
“If I have chutes in my projects, I ensure that we take the steps to get the best chutes we can,” he said. “There is some excellent research in chute design in Australia; in fact I would say we are well and truly at the forefront of knowledge.

“It is just that as is fairly typical in materials handling, it doesn’t seem to percolate down the entire ranks of the industry. While a lot of the chutes that I see are perfectly okay from a functional point of view, when it comes to maintaining them they just haven’t been given access.”
Davis recalled a particular plant that had poorly implemented maintenance access.

“I went to one a few years ago and I was talking to the operator about a particular conveyor. I said ‘look mate, this conveyor would have had to have been designed with belt cleaners included in the head chute?’ and he said ‘no there are no cleaners on this conveyor.’

“Well we walked up to the head chute and honestly I had to lay on the floor on my back before I could even see them. And to get them out would have meant literally dismantling 50-60% of the conveyor structure,” he said. “For an item that costs two or three thousand dollars, it is just ludicrous. We know it wears out in a month or so.”

Technology is an important component of chute design nowadays, with many software packages available to assist with predicting trajectories of materials as they feed into chutes. Discrete element modelling (DEM) is also attracting increasing attention.

“DEM has come to the fore for modelling in 3D the flow of solid particles through a chute design,” said Davis. “I wouldn’t say it is anywhere near 100% developed, but it is developed to the point where it is a very, very useful tool if you use it correctly.

“You need somebody who can categorise the material correctly, so you can enter those properties into the software. Peter Wypych has been instrumental in how to develop methods of producing that material characterisation for use in the discrete element models. I think we are getting to the stage where I think we have something good.”

Steve has over 30 years’ experience in the design of mechanical equipment and project and design management of bulk materials handling facilities. The latter has included conceptual and scoping studies, feasibility studies, estimates, design, tendering, fabrication, construction and installation, commissioning and operational and safety assessment.

Recent projects for Steve include lead materials engineer on an oil sand project, management of the Anvil Hill CHPP design, preceded by completion of the NCIG coal terminal feasibility study as engineering manager. Steve is currently working on studies and projects for copper, coal, iron ore, alumina and bauxite ore materials handling, and in particular as lead for the Caval Ridge CHP design.

The transfer chute design course scheduled in Perth for May 12th has sold out. An additional course will now be run the following day on May 13th.  The course will head east to Brisbane on July15th.
Contact: Murray Cassar, email – murray.cassar@informa.com.au