The 1-year celebration marks an important milestone of this large material handling export terminal in far eastern Russia, where TAKRAF successfully overcame multiple challenges. These ranged from coping with the Covid-19 pandemic to commissioning for both summer and winter modes of operation.
The 6,000 t/h handling complex provides for the unloading, stacking and reloading of material delivered by rail from various mines on a daily basis for export, mainly to the iron and steel manufacturing industries in South East Asia. Loading onto ships of capacities up to the Panamax class size, the complex comprises various TAKRAF equipment, including approximately 8 km of conveyors, two warming halls, two tandem tipplers (wagon/railcar unloading stations), two stacker reclaimers, two sizers and one ship loader; as well as associated equipment, including magnets, metal detectors, belt scale, sample station and de-dusting system.
Due to the pandemic, TAKRAF and the client worked closely to manage and monitor travel and entry conditions into Russia for nearly 2 years. Special site procedures in place included wearing masks, daily temperature monitoring of staff and weekly Covid-19 PCR tests, with some of these measures still in force today.
With temperatures ranging from lower than -30 oC in winter to 28 oC in summer, the handling plant was required to be designed for summer and winter modes of operation. During winter operation, the loaded rail wagons pass through an activated warming hall, where the outer wagon body is heated to enable separation of frozen material. Depending on the outside temperature, this process can take up to 45 minutes, with each heating operation handling 18 loaded wagons.
Following warming, the wagons are separated into pairs and pulled by a charger into the tandem tippler (unloading station) for tipping through a grid above a hopper. Material too large to pass through the grid is reduced in size by a rotary cutter. The material is then conveyed to a TAKRAF sizer, which further reduces particle size to <50 mm for stacking onto the stockpile by two stacker/reclaimers working in parallel.
From the stockpile, material is reclaimed and transferred via conveyor to a ship loader - a short article and video of which can be viewed here: Successful delivery of TAKRAF ship loader and tripper car for Russia.
Wolfgang Schilling, TAKRAF Project Manager, had this to say from Russia during the 1-year celebratory event: “Close cooperation between all parties involved was required due to the extraordinary and challenging circumstances. Both our client and our TAKRAF teams both off and on site are to be commended for the efficiency and teamwork under these arduous conditions. Thanks to the entire project team, particularly the on-site team, for their continued contribution, patience and support during project execution. Lastly, and once again, congratulations to our client on reaching this important project milestone. We look forward to our integrated system delivering on its design promise and on continued close cooperation and mutual success.”
For any questions regarding this project or for any further assistance, please send an e-mail to: info@takraf.com.
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