Conveyors in the grain handling world — KE has the answers
Designing and producing conveyors used in the handling of bulk commodities is a core function of Australian mechanical engineering business, Kilic Engineering (KE). From fixed belt, screw and drag conveyor systems used within port terminals, storage and handling facilities and processing plants, to portable belt, drag, screw or tubular conveyor systems used in agriculture and mining, KE has developed conveyor systems to meet its customers’ needs for over 47 years.
Designing, manufacturing and installing flat belt or trough conveyors is a fundamental component of KE’s operations, with customers such as Viterra, Cargill, Incitec Pivot, Fletchers and Iluka currently using KE’s fixed conveyor systems for their agricultural or mineral handling plant operations within Australia.
Belt conveyors are also a critical component of KE’s patented BunkerSweeper and BunkerStacker range of grain handling equipment. This portable machinery is used extensively across the grain belt by the majority of grain handlers in Australia in addition to overseas grain and wood pellet loading operations in Qatar and Japan.
The KE BunkerStackers are extremely popular portable machines which allow road trucks to deliver grain to a shallow above ground road hopper which feeds an under-belly belt conveyor onto a stacking conveyor to move product into the storage ‘bunker’. Bunker storage (flat, open bulk-head storages covered with tarpaulins) of grain and other agriproducts is utilized extensively in Australia to store the harvest each season, given its suitability in the country’s mediterranean type climate.
KE’s BunkerStacker range includes the base level Wallaby version which utilizes a tubeveyor to stack the product at a maximum rate of 400tph [tonnes per hour] (wheat tonnes), to the Super Roo version which uses a traditional belt conveyor to receive and stack product at 750tph (wheat tonnes)
Where fixed plant and equipment is required, KE manufactures belt conveyors ranging from 200tph (metric tonnes per hour) to 1,500tph (based on a wheat density of 800gm/m3) and has supplied this equipment to all of the existing export facilities and most of the country silo facilities operating out of the State of South Australia for many years.
The larger conveyor systems are predominantly used at the port export terminals including the Viterra facility located at Outer Harbor, in South Australia, commissioned in 2010. In addition to supplying this Terminal with all its intake, under silo and over silo conveying equipment, KE also constructed the 750-metre-long above-ground shipping conveyor, equipped with easily removable belt covers, which connects the terminal’s weigh tower, to ‘above-road’ modules initially, before feeding to a ground level conveyor running to the wharf and ship loader. This terminal features conveying equipment rated up to 2,000tph (wheat tonnes).
More recently, KE equipped the T-Ports port export facility constructed in 2018 on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia with its conveyor systems which are rated at 1,000tph for intake (dual intake hoppers) and 1,200tph for outturn and shipping.
KE has also manufactured aboveground conveyor systems for mineral sands export operations for Iluka at Thevenard port whilst drag chain, belt and screw conveyors are regularly provided to KE’s grain and fertilizer storage and handling customers across the country for their processing, container packing and general handling operations.
All of Australia’s major grain bulk handling and storage companies, including Viterra, CBH, GrainCorp, Emerald Grain, Cargill, ADM, CHS Broadbent, Bunge, T-Ports and Australian Grain Export (AGE) utilize KE conveying equipment in their operations in one form or other.
Furthermore, value-adding businesses such as the Manildra Group, one of Australia’s largest exporters of food and industrial products, Fletchers International, a global supplier of agri products, and Malting companies such as BoortMalt also utilize KE services for their product handling to ensure their facilities keep up to date with improved handling technologies and improved speed to remain competitive in their markets.
In addition to its local Australian customer base, KE has branched out internationally and has been successful in supplying Vietnamese port operator, Baria Serece at Phu My port, with a portable ship/barge loading solution using KE’s unique design of conveyors, hoppers and elevators to handle
Agri commodities at the port where fixed equipment was not suitable. The machine is capable of handling corn, wheat and soybean meal from trucks, ship grabs and front end loaders within a restricted wharf footprint with the target vessel being loaded at 600tph (metric) which was the ultimate requirement which Baria Serece was seeking.
In Japan, a KE hopper/conveyor stacker combination is delivering a wood pellet loading operation for port operator Kyoshin whilst a Qatar conglomerate, ZAD Holdings is utilizing one of KE’s BunkerStackers to load grain bunker storages within its operations.
KE is a diverse mechanical engineering company based in Adelaide, South Australia, owned and operated by the Kilic family since 1973. The company has a long and proud history of excellence in designing, manufacturing and installing a wide range of material handling systems, the majority of which include KE’s various conveying equipment options.
Dry Cargo International – March 2022
