Megatraction Equipment Inc. has developed and manufactures a wide variety of specialized equipment as Multi-Task Service Truck, Material Handling, Lifting and Handling Devices for personnel as well as equipment, man-lift for inspection and repair for example.

In operation since 1998, this 160-ft 3000-tph rotary Hydraulic Stacker is the largest of its kind. It has been designed to unload dolomite and limestone from ships at an Eastern Canadian mining terminal. The stacker produces a 157 ft radius x 50 feet high pile on a 120 degree, which means over 70 000 tons of a 100 lbs/cuft material.

The design of this equipment required some extensive computations. It's been asked by the client to have the head lowered as low as 26 feet from the ground. This design criteria makes the 2 main supports sitting at very flat angles in the lowered position which very fast multiply the constraints those supports have to withstand.

Further, the very lengthy nature of the stacker (160 ft) creates a very long 44 ft unsupported section at the end of the conveyor. The constraints generated by this are overwhelming and strong reinforcements have been required in critical areas for the trust to retain its integrity even in the most harsh conditions (ice accumulations, earthquakes, storms, etc.)

In use since 1999, this ship unloader is owned by the Silo Port-Cartier, in Port-Cartier, QC. Equipped with a 25 feet diameter retaining bin, this mobile ship unloader is the fastest unloader of its kind in North America. It's been designed to contain in excess of a hundred tons of grains and its maximum capacity in full operation is up to 4000 tons of grain per hour. It's equipped with a high efficiency 7500 CFM dust collector that keeps any dust from escaping to the outside by the feeding outlet at the top while the ship is being unloaded.

     

In operation since 1999 in Sept-Iles harbour facilities, both the Sept-Iles Harbour and Porlier Express own this unloading station. It has been designed for the unloading of multiple hopper cars simultaneously and quickly to produce the lowest possible operating costs. Bottom hopper gates of the cars are opened while the latter passes on the bridge for the ore to fall at the bottom of the ramp where, in a first phase (shown on the photograph), a large wheel loader will pick it up and carry it to the ore stack nearby. In a second phase of the project (not shown), a reclaiming conveyor is provided to collect the material from the unloading chutes and transfer it to a series of cascade conveyors feeding a stacker such as the hydraulic one described hereafter (see item 3).

While the finished product may not reflect this, design difficulties were numerous on this project. Among those was the fact that this terminal was to be constructed at the Sept-Iles Harbour facilities. This meant that the water level was very close, thereby limiting the depth for the ramp. A specific optimisation process has been required to streamline the shape of the ramp. Another constraint was the insufficient ground resistance on the proposed site of the unloading station to allow supporting of a loaded car. For that reason, the whole unloading station structure must have been erected on pilings.