CEMENT IN BULK

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29189, 27 April 1960, Page 22

CEMENT IN BULK

Special Rail Waggon The special railway waggon built to carry cement between Burnside and Hornby was built at the Addington Railway Workshops. It is the first of its type used in New Zealand. The waggon has four hoppers, each with a capacity of more than six tons. The hoppers are mounted on a standard UB waggon and the complete unit has been named the ÜBC. Gravity feed is used to fill the hoppers to two-<thirds capacity. Each hopper is then sealed for the rail journey. An air pressure of 28 pounds to the square inch is pumped into the hoppers at the unloading point. The compressed air separates the particles, expanding the volume, and the material then fills the container. An axial valve is present in the mouth of the hopper’s discharge pipe. This has the form of a suction trunk. A displacing cone built into this mount regulates the proportioning between the air-cement mixture and ensures an even reduction of the material in the container over the entire surface. As well as cement the waggon can be used for flour, soda, bentonite and fly ash. Lime, fertiliser and coal dust could also be carried if the sieve analysis proved suitable.

The pneumatic equipment was built by the Acme Engineering Company, Ltd., at Petone for Pneutra, Ltd., a Christchurch firm that has the sole manufacturing rights in New Zealand and Australia for the German firm of Klinger and Company. This equipment does away with conveyers, shovelling or the handling of bags, and eliminates the dust nuisance of cement and the wastage from manual handling.