Italian steel producer orders bucket-chain ship-unloader
Tenova Takraf has been awarded a contract by ILVA S.p.A., a leading Italian steel producer, for the design and supply of a bucket-chain continuous ship-unloader (CSU) for handling iron ore and coal at the ILVA steel plant in Taranto, Italy. This plant is the largest of its kind in Europe.
Following the devastating tornado of November 2012, ILVA initiated a plan for environmental rehabilitation of the steel industry in Taranto. The new CSU was ordered as a consequence of this. The plan will see the old grab ship-unloaders at the ILVA plant’s Pier II replaced with modern bucket chain CSUs, which significantly reduce dust emission during the discharge cycle. The CSU’s low environmental impact is a major feature, noting that the steel plant is close to the city area.
The new CSU will have an operating capacity of 4000 tph for iron ore or 2240 tph for coal. It will be able to unload vessels up to 150 000 DWT. The CSU will be erected on the existing runways at the plant, in order to feed the entire steel plant with coal and iron ore and pellets, working with the other machines at the plant.
Alberto Dardano, managing director of Tenova Takraf Italy, praised the working relationship between the two firms. “This valued relationship has been sustained not only through many repeat contracts, but also, through the quality of after sales services we have provided to ILVA on an ongoing basis,” he said.
In 1999 Tenova Takraf also supplied a CSU for Pier IV and an additional large grab unloader for the same Pier in 2009.
Tenova Takraf developed its bucket chain CSU technology in the 1980s. Subsequent years have seen ongoing enhancement to the technology, with the most sophisticated part being the digging foot, for which the company holds the patent. To date, 15 CSUs have been supplied by Tenova Takraf worldwide, with relevant references to the ILVA award being four CSUs recently supplied to Enel for Brindisi South and Torrevaldaliga North, in Italy.
The new CSU in Taranto will be almost entirely manufactured by Italian companies and is expected to be operational in late March 2015.
Adapted from press release by Sam Dodson
Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/handling/30092014/bucket-chain-ship-unloader-at-italian-steel-plant-1372/
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