Briggs Pacific Industries’ (a subsidiary of Briggs International, Inc.) continuous ship unloader is one of the biggest machines in Hawaii and weighs in at 1,000 tons. Located at Barbers Point Harbor on Oahu, it unloads coal from ocean barges at an average of 1,400 tons per hour.
Dust settles on bulker unloader
HONOLULU: One of the biggest machines in Hawaii is a 2 million-pound, USD 16m continuous vessel unloader that has emerged from foreclosure to boost the state's construction and cement industries. Bulker operators like it, too.
By Thomas Kaser, published in WEEKLY
The monster contraption rumbles along a pier at Barbers Point Harbor,
Hawaii's bulk-cargo port, and unloads a key ingredient of cement faster
and cleaner than any other machine in the world, says its owner, Briggs
Pacific Industries.
Its present version is the work of 74-year-old Australian engineer
Aubrey Briggs, who has designed and built most of the world's large
ship-unloaders, which now number around 18. Briggs was here recently
from his Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania base to review additional planned
improvements.
One of Briggs' biggest challenges was to overcome a problem that put its
previous owner into receivership. Cement clinker - golf ball-sized
clumps of calcium silicate made from kiln-heated limestone used to make
cement - generates massive clouds of dust when loaded or unloaded.
Shipboard clam-shell buckets have traditionally done that work, but
it's slow going. Moreover, Hawaii adopted new anti-pollution laws
prohibiting "fugitive dust emissions."
Briggs' unloader dips its long horizontal boom and vertical tube into
the bowels of bulkers. At the end of the tube is a huge "foot" of
moving buckets that scoop up loose cargo and lift it through the tube
and boom to a series of conveyor belts that carry it to a hopper and
waiting trucks several hundred yards away.
The unloader was built in 1991 and 1992 for Hawaii Pacific Industries
and did a good job unloading coal. It also performed well in unloading
sand and gypsum for Hawaiian Cement, which accounted for about 40 per
cent of Hawaii Pacific's business.
It performed poorly, however, in unloading what Hawaiian Cement needed
most: clinker. The dust was so great that operators couldn't even see
to guide the machine's foot while it was in the hold of the ship.
Nippon Credit Bank, which had lent money to Hawaii Pacific to build the
machine, foreclosed and appointed a receiver who hired Briggs - an
internationally recognized expert in loading systems - to find a
solution.
With USD 1.7m provided by the receiver, Briggs made a number of
modifications, including an elaborate dust-suppression system of more
than 400 filters, a 20,000-cubic-foot-per-minute fan, and 16 nozzles
spraying mist onto the clinker as it was being scooped up.
Meanwhile, Briggs and attorney Malvin Sander formed Briggs Pacific,
which bought Hawaii Pacific's assets. More work was done on the
unloader, and when the Jebsens bulk carrier Sealnes arrived at Barbers
Point Harbor in February, the unloader generated almost no dust at all.
John DeLong, cement division manager for Hawaiian Cement, says the
machine is "much improved - and a much better way, environmentally, to
unload clinker."
Briggs Pacific's Sander says the improved unloader is "light years"
better than clam shells. It unloads at a "free-digging" average of
about 1,400 tons of bulk cargo an hour, which is three to four times
what clam shells can unload in that time, he says.
Meanwhile, Aubrey Briggs has designed a hoist system that can be
attached to the unloader and operated as a crane for any kind of cargo,
including containers. Barbers Point Harbor, a relatively new facility,
has no cranes of any kind.
Project Overview Kalaeloa Barbers Point Harbor 2040 Master Plan
HONOLULU: One of the biggest machines in Hawaii is a 2 million-pound, USD 16m continuous vessel unloader that has emerged from foreclosure to boost the state's construction and cement industries. Bulker operators like it, too.
By Thomas Kaser, published in WEEKLY
The monster contraption rumbles along a pier at Barbers Point Harbor,
Hawaii's bulk-cargo port, and unloads a key ingredient of cement faster
and cleaner than any other machine in the world, says its owner, Briggs
Pacific Industries.
Its present version is the work of 74-year-old Australian engineer
Aubrey Briggs, who has designed and built most of the world's large
ship-unloaders, which now number around 18. Briggs was here recently
from his Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania base to review additional planned
improvements.
One of Briggs' biggest challenges was to overcome a problem that put its
previous owner into receivership. Cement clinker - golf ball-sized
clumps of calcium silicate made from kiln-heated limestone used to make
cement - generates massive clouds of dust when loaded or unloaded.
Shipboard clam-shell buckets have traditionally done that work, but
it's slow going. Moreover, Hawaii adopted new anti-pollution laws
prohibiting "fugitive dust emissions."
Briggs' unloader dips its long horizontal boom and vertical tube into
the bowels of bulkers. At the end of the tube is a huge "foot" of
moving buckets that scoop up loose cargo and lift it through the tube
and boom to a series of conveyor belts that carry it to a hopper and
waiting trucks several hundred yards away.
The unloader was built in 1991 and 1992 for Hawaii Pacific Industries
and did a good job unloading coal. It also performed well in unloading
sand and gypsum for Hawaiian Cement, which accounted for about 40 per
cent of Hawaii Pacific's business.
It performed poorly, however, in unloading what Hawaiian Cement needed
most: clinker. The dust was so great that operators couldn't even see
to guide the machine's foot while it was in the hold of the ship.
Nippon Credit Bank, which had lent money to Hawaii Pacific to build the
machine, foreclosed and appointed a receiver who hired Briggs - an
internationally recognized expert in loading systems - to find a
solution.
With USD 1.7m provided by the receiver, Briggs made a number of
modifications, including an elaborate dust-suppression system of more
than 400 filters, a 20,000-cubic-foot-per-minute fan, and 16 nozzles
spraying mist onto the clinker as it was being scooped up.
Meanwhile, Briggs and attorney Malvin Sander formed Briggs Pacific,
which bought Hawaii Pacific's assets. More work was done on the
unloader, and when the Jebsens bulk carrier Sealnes arrived at Barbers
Point Harbor in February, the unloader generated almost no dust at all.
John DeLong, cement division manager for Hawaiian Cement, says the
machine is "much improved - and a much better way, environmentally, to
unload clinker."
Briggs Pacific's Sander says the improved unloader is "light years"
better than clam shells. It unloads at a "free-digging" average of
about 1,400 tons of bulk cargo an hour, which is three to four times
what clam shells can unload in that time, he says.
Meanwhile, Aubrey Briggs has designed a hoist system that can be
attached to the unloader and operated as a crane for any kind of cargo,
including containers. Barbers Point Harbor, a relatively new facility,
has no cranes of any kind.
Project Overview Kalaeloa Barbers Point Harbor 2040 Master Plan