conveyors. DSI has extensive worldwide experience in sales,
equipment. This has included major contributions that have expanded
the range of bulk handling and transport solutions. DSI’s
conveyors utilizing the very latest technology.
AT ACERALIA STEEL MILLIn August of 2000, an important find was made over the vast
waters of the Atlantic Ocean. An engineering specialist for
PHB Weserhutte S.A., of Gijon, Asturias, Spain was searching
for the best equipment to elevate raw coal to the blast
furnace pulverizing plants of a major steel producer in
Northern Spain. That search led to Dos Santos International.
PHB Weserhutte was offering a system expansion,
including a new blast furnace pulverizing plant. This, plus the
requirements of the existing pulverizing plant, required
increased coal throughput. PHB’s customer, Aceralia, also of
Gijon, Asturias, Spain, needed to replace an existing vertical
pocket-belt system that served the existing pulverizing plant.
The pocket-belt system proved to be problematic, as it did
not completely discharge the moist coal. Instead, it carried
back material and created a clean-up problem.
The search began to focus on sandwich-belt high angle
conveyors and ended with DSI, a renowned authority on
sandwich belt-type high angle conveyors.
The original inquiry was for two DSI Snake Sandwich High
Angle conveyors. The first conveyor would replace the
troubled pocket belt system to the existing pulverizing plant.
A second Snake conveyor would elevate to the new
pulverizing plant. After some analysis, PHB and DSI found
they could serve both pulverizing plants with only one DSI Snake
Sandwich Conveyor instead of two. The conveying path to the
new plant would pass by the existing plant, thus a single DSI
Snake with a bifurcated discharge chute and flopgate could direct
the raw coal flow alternately to the new pulverizing plant or to
the existing plant. Additionally, because the DSI sandwich belts
utilize conventional, smooth rubber belts, they completely
discharge the material using standard belt scrapers.
The DSI Snake is the latest in sandwich belt high angle
conveyor technology, employing all and only conventional
conveyor equipment and components. A firm yet gentle hugging
pressure, imparted to the conveyed material, is induced entirely
by radial pressure due to belt tension and the carrying profile.
The DSI Snake at Aceralia Steel Mill has been in successful
operation for seven years.
AT REPSOL REFINERIESThe success at Aceralia did not go unnoticed. Since then, two
new DSI Snakes have been ordered for operation in Spain. The
first at Repsol Refineries near Bilbao in northeastern Spain, and
the second in Cartagena in southern Spain. The new DSI Snake
at the Muskiz Refinery near Bilbao, is now under construction.
The coke elevating system delivers the hot product to an
overhead stacking system within the covered storage building.
Designed to operate in an enclosed, potentially explosive
environment, this snake is subject to and compliant with the
latest and strictest ATEX standards. The Snake at Muskiz will
begin operation in 2011.
A second DSI Snake for Repsol is depicted and summarized
below. This ‘C-snake’ will elevate sulphur, at the refinery near
Cartagena, on the Mediterranean Sea. The C-Snake has just
started construction and is scheduled for start up in April 2011.
DSI SNAKESWORLDWIDEThe list of DSI Snakes continues to grow with widely varying
applications throughout the world. DSI offers many varied
systems, from stationary units in all sizes, to a fully mobile high
angle shiploader, designed to accommodate wharfs with limited
space. The wide versatility is demonstrated with each
application, but the full capability is far from realized. This bodes
well for a bright future at Dos Santos International.