Big-size storage, bigger capacity, and automatic control are the preconditions to a new generation of conveying equipment. To support this market trend, Germany-based CESCO EPC has designed a new line of conveying equipment. Luca Celeghini, President of CESCO, and Martino Celeghini, CEO of the company, explains the advantages of the new product portfolio and the outlook for the future of grain logistic plants.
Why is CESCO presenting a new line of conveying equipment?
MC: With the rebranding of PETKUS Engineering into CESCO EPC we decided to focus our business activities on financing, design, procurement, erection, and commissioning of large industrial grain storage and processing plants, mainly inland and port grain terminals. These industrial plants have totally different requirements in terms of conveying capacity, design, reliability, maintainability, and duty compared to standard conveying equipment used in the agribusiness: e.g., they demand 5000 hours of operation per year instead of 1000 hours. And these requirements are currently evolving and further increasing due to the increasing volume of grain logistic worldwide. We needed therefore to reflect these higher requirements into the product portfolio and detail design of our conveying equipment, in order to be even more competitive in the top segment of suppliers for grain logistic plants.
LC: The conveying equipment is the hearth of a storage plant, and it must keep working reliably under the most critical situations and be easily maintained in case of need. I have therefore reflected on the knowledge gained in the past 50 years of my work in the grain business and designed the new family accordingly, eliminating the disadvantages of the former generation and integrating new functionalities.
What are the main CESCO conveying equipment, and which are the main characteristics?
MC: We have focused on the three families of Chain Conveyors (CC), Belt Bucket Elevators (BBE) and Roller Belt Conveyors (RBC), being these conveyors included in 99% of our contracts. During the development we gave particular attention to prevent dust emission in operation as individual machine and as part of a whole plant. Also, the drive and tail stations of all conveyors have been completely redesigned in order to prevent the problems of the former design, mainly in case of heavy-duty operation.
Chain Conveyors CC
The Chain Conveyors CC cover the conveying capacity range from 50 t/h (CC200) to 200 t/h (CC420) and from 400 t/h (CC550) to 1000 t/h (CC900) with increasing cross dimensions of the cases (e.g. from 185 mm to 900 mm width).
The main characteristics of the CC family are:
All the cases are bottom lined with HDPE liners by default.
The chain return is supported by rollers by default.
The drive and tail station are round shaped, and this helps the cleaning and prevent the residual of grain in the machine.
All bearing supports are pillow block unit, heavy-duty type, installed outside and completely replaceable from outside.
The sprockets are divided in two elements in order to be replaced without disassembling the shaft.
The sprocket and the gearbox are connected to the drive shaft by a taper bush locking device, in order to prevent pitting and ensure easy maintainability.
The whole machine is made of Z600 zinc coated cold rolled hot dip galvanized steel sheets.
Belt Bucket Elevators BBE
The Belt Bucket Elevators BBE cover the conveying capacity range from 50 t/h (BBE180) to 200 t/h (BBE370) and from 400 t/h (BBE660) to 1000 t/h (BBE1550) with increasing cross dimensions of the cases and belt (e.g. from 200 mm to 1600 mm belt width).
The main characteristics of the BBE family are:
The drive and tail station are round shaped, for both the steel casing and the wear resistant shield, in order to prevent product residuals and contamination.
The drive and tail station are lined with HDPE liners by default.
The tail station is equipped with bilateral hinged cleaning door.
All bearing supports are pillow block unit, heavy-duty type, installed outside and completely replaceable from outside.
The drive and tail drum and the gearbox are connected to the shaft by a taper bush locking device, in order to prevent pitting and ensure easy maintainability.
The drive and tail stations are fitted with dedicated reinforcements in the critical sections.
The design and assembly of the legs is completely new for saving transport volume, and with reinforcements complying with the static design.
The whole machine is made of Z600 zinc coated cold rolled hot dip galvanized steel sheets.
Roller Belt Conveyors RBC
The Roller Belt Conveyors RBC cover the conveying capacity range from 100 t/h (RBC500M) to 400 t/h (RBC1000M) with the medium-duty family and from 400 t/h (RBC800H) to 1000 t/h (RBC1400H) with the heavy-duty family with increasing cross dimensions of the cases and belt (e.g. from 500 mm to 1400 mm belt width).
The main characteristics of the RBC family are:
Medium-duty type conveyors are realized in bent sheet metal design. The range has been completed with the size 1000 mm belt width with 400 t/h capacity.
Heavy-duty type conveyors are realized in warm rolled steel profile design. The range has been completed with the size 1400 mm belt width with 1000 t/h capacity.
The drive and tail drum and the gearbox are connected to the shaft by a taper bush locking device, in order to prevent pitting and ensure easy maintainability
The tripper has been completely redesigned
The fully bolted design ensures easy transport and fast installation
The belt conveyors can be equipped with spot filter in either drive or tail station
The totally enclosed type is currently under development
Have you already implemented the new generation in current projects?
The chain conveyors CC340 and BBE330 have been successfully installed in an oat storage and processing plant in Sweden. During this project we have performed the safety assessment and CE certification for both families with an accredited third-party specialist institute in Germany.
Another set of equipment including CC300 and BBE280 has been also delivered and installed in Ukraine. Other chain and belt conveyors sets are being delivered to Ukraine including CC200, CC340, BBE330.
The medium-duty Belt Conveyors RBC650M are in installation in a plant in Qatar and are currently being delivered for installation in a plant in Ukraine.
The heavy-duty Belt Conveyors RBC1000H are now in production and will be installed in two projects for Egypt and Dubai by end of this year.
What are the trends and outlook for the future of conveying equipment according to CESCO?
Trading, exporting, and importing of grain shows a significant growing trend. Big size storage, bigger conveying capacity, and automatic control are the preconditions to support this market trend. We observe in particular a clear shift in the market towards higher conveying capacity, focusing on the 400-600 t/h range coupled by tighter requirements on dust aspiration and gentle handling of grain, mainly moving from chain to belt conveyors. Beside new installation we also observe a trend in upgrading existing plants, thus requiring a flexible integration of the new conveyor design in existing infrastructure. We believe that the three new designed conveyors families allow CESCO to satisfy at best these current and future requests for implementation of smart conveying systems in large grain storage and processing industrial plants. Thank you for your interest in CESCO!