Design Philosophy

Innovative Bulk Material Handling Solutions for Agriculture

The design and fabrication of material handling equipment for the agricultural industry has been a big part of the KE story for over fifty years, with the BunkerStacker products being part of that story for over a two decades.

Core Design Principles

KE’s BunkerStacker design originated from a blank canvas, building a brief for KE’s engineering team from customer centric consideration of:

• Equipment safety – prioritising the protection of operators and truck drivers.
• Increasing capacity requirements – meeting the evolving needs of our customers.
• User experience – Enhancing ease of use for operators and drivers.
• Flexibility – Adapting to various operational requirements.
• Reliability – Ensuring consistent performance under demanding conditions.
• Automation – Minimising labour requirements and improving productivity.

Delivering Value

From the very first design to our most recent SuperRoos and BunkerSweepers, KE machines are proven to enhance customer bunker operations.

• Labour reduction – streamlining operations and reducing labour costs.
• Increased throughput – reducing wait times and optimising storage utilisation.
• Ease of use – simplifying the bunker loading process for operators and truck drivers.

Continuous Improvement and Innovation

All KE products have evolved with our core principles in mind.

• We think about safety and what our machine can do to protect humans.  Sometimes we make significant changes to platforms and access ways and at other times the changes are subtle, a change to a guard or lighting.
• Since the first KE BunkerStacker, with a capacity of around 400 tonnes per hour (“tph”), KE customers have faced increased competition, trucks with larger payloads and work to optimise storage by narrowing roadways and widening bunkers.  In consideration of the dynamic situation our customers face, KE’s current BunkerStacker machines offer up to 1,000 tph (wheat at 800 kgm-3).
• Over the years, operators and truck drivers have asked to make control of the machine easier, to make it safer to approach with multi-trailer trucks, for shade, to improve lighting systems, to improve the distribution of grain flow into the bunker stack with a multi-directional chute and a variety of other minor and more significant changes.  KE listens to these requests and, just like with the very first BunkerStacker, considers carefully the pitfalls and benefits with the result being regular refinements and upgrades to the BunkerStacker design.
• The KE BunkerStacker can be used for loading bunkers and, with the addition of the integrated outload hopper, also be used for emptying bunkers.  This is one example among many in which the BunkerStacker considers customer needs for flexibility and modularity in the design.
• Trucks turn up continuously all day, every day and seven-days a week during the harvest period.  KE machines source the best components and steel from Europe, Australia, the USA and Asia to underpin the reliability and performance of the machine through the rigours of harvest and out load activity.