When in doubt, upgrade your spout

Loading spouts are used in a variety of industries to provide a fast and steady flow of material during the loading of dry bulk solid materials. Designed to capture fugitive dust, loading spouts can prevent material waste and ensure plant and environmental safety with low maintenance and service expenses. Loading spouts are commonly used to load material in open and/or enclosed vessels including trucks, rail cars, ships, barges, and stockpiling.

When loading dry bulk solid materials into trucks or railcars, speed and cleanliness of the load-out process are the primary concerns. For optimal performance in these applications, loading spouts can be used in tandem with a variety of accessories designed to specifically accelerate the process and limit the amount of dust released into the atmosphere.

Self-sealing discharge

A self-sealing discharge is a closure cone that extends upon entering the vessel to permit material discharge and retracts upon loadout completion to prevent residual materials from escaping into the atmosphere. Although a spout filtration system can collect the majority of the fugitive dust, trace amounts of dust may remain trapped inside the spout’s fabric outer sleeve – namely in the crevices where the sleeve conjoins with its outer rings. It is important to note that the product cones will have residual material left on them which will be knocked off as the spout raises.

As a spout extends and retracts, dust can be shaken loose, causing it to make its way through the spout and into the atmosphere. To prevent this form of dust emission in enclosed loading applications, an optional self-sealing discharge may be installed in place of the spout scavenger.

In applications where contaminates can enter the product stream while the equipment is idle, the self-sealing discharge can protect against self-contamination.

Vibratory kit

A vibratory kit can also be added to a loading spout. The vibratory kit is mounted along the outlet scavenger. To conclude the loadout process, vibrators can continue to be run briefly to encourage residual materials to fall away from the spout’s outer sleeve and down into the load, prior to spout retraction.

Dust skirt

Dust control skirts are intended for open loading applications. They are constructed from heavy, durable neoprene rubber. Rather than flaring the skirt from a common piece of neoprene rubber, each flared section is a stand-alone neoprene rubber strip. Each strip of rubber is overlapped to prevent pathways for dust to escape into the atmosphere. By using overlapping layers, a dust control skirt is able to fully encompass the peak of the material pile, to better contain fugitive dust.

Because the skirt can be simply detached and reattached, a loading spout can be used for dual purposes in both open and enclosed loading applications.

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