Kennedy Rice
Mer Rouge – Louisiana
Product – Milled Rice
Requirements:
When the Mill and Storage Tanks were installed, they were fitted with square bottom Drags. These drags had a high potential to damage or down grade the ‘grade’ of the product resulting in not meeting customer standards and requested grades that had been sold.
Every time the site made a variety change it would take some hours to do clean outs and a significant loss of product or at a minimum a downgrade of price for the ‘mixed’ rice varieties.
The requested capacity was to be able to load a bulk rail car per hour and to have a minimal of time for changeover and product loss.
Solution:
Aerobelt designed a system using several 20”wide Aerobelt conveyors to deliver product to the main Elevator in the Tank Farm. There the site is able to divert to Rail/Road loading and/or Packaging.
Zero time for changeover – When the feed from one tank has cleared the belts, another variety can be used on the belt system without any contamination issues.
All conveyors are covered for dust control and a food grade belt is used to comply with Food Safety standards. The installation of the belts has also significantly reduced the noise level of the room to below the OSHA standard for hearing protection.
Conveyor Specifications
Conveyors - 6
Belt Width - 20”
Length - 150’
Inclination - 0 degrees
Capacity - 100 tph / 2838buph
Belt Speed - 80”/sec
Drive Power - 10hp
Fan Power - 1/2hp
Bulk Density - 48lbs/cuft