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Transfer Equipment for Bulk Loads
Page 99
Page 100
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By R. D. CATER
IT is not unusual in the tank haulage
industry to see a perfectly serviceable tanker making a rod for its owner's back simply because its cargo transfer equipment is either inadequate or badly chosen.
Essential as it is to choose a vehicle that is up to its job, the choice of hoses and fittings also should be made with this golden rule in mind. Nothing creates such a bad impression on a customer as does a delivery carried out in a dirty, slovenly manner which, when the job is finished, leaves puddles of some, usually offensive, material all around the area of the delivery point. Never be, tempted to use second-class equipment: the best is only just good enough. Many an insurance claim could have been avoided if only a few simple, and relatively cheap, precautions had been taken.
Customers are not Perfect
It is not enough to purchase the best, if you do not see that the best is looked after and that it is not asked to do more than it was designed for. Some responsibility for the overloading of hoses must be put at the door of many of the recipients of bulk liquid cargoes. Very often their installations are badly planned, badly built and badly maintained, and hauliers' vehicles are expected to transfer highly, viscous liquids through small-diameter piping for distances of hundreds of feet. These conditions obviously place a great strain on the weakest link in the chain, the house, and unless the carrier has taken the precaution of seeing that the relief valve of his pumping equipment is set lower than the pressure which the hose can stand, he is likely to suffer very heavy claims on his insurance.
Test and Inspect Regularly
I worked for a company some years back which suffered enormously from this problem and it did in fact employ a gang to go round cleaning up after mishaps; sometimes these were through bursts and sometimes through overflows which, if the pumps had been correctly set, could have been avoided simply by shutting off the customer's delivery valve without bursting the hose. The cost in claims, and in wages for the cleaning gang, must have been fantastic, to say nothing of the damage to customer relations and lost vehicle time.
Many bulk liquids are of a dangerous nature, and yet it is surprising how few carriers take the precaution of pressuretesting their hose equipment at regular intervals. Some even force drivers to carry on using hoses that have been run over and flattened, apparently not realizing the danger that exists here. Even fewer have hose ends inspected regularly for worn threads and couplings, relying instead on the driver to tell them when these things are deteriorating. They also change drivers on long-distance vehicles at frequent intervals, thus fairly effectively ruling out this method of detection.
It is not sufficiently realized that it only takes two worn couplings to come together in making a delivery, to create the conditions for a possible blow-off. A driver will not realize that anything is wrong until either he cannot couple up, because the thread is slipping, or the hose blows off. In either case it spells lost cash to the operators, in the first case through lost time, in the second through an accident. Invariably it is possible to find a coupling, among the many carried on a well-equipped machine, to get out of trouble in these circumstances. but it still creates a bad impression on the customer.
Use Hose Plugs
Countless hours have been lost on occasions when one fitting among those being used to complete a delivery is found to be damaged. This can result from a number of causes. By far the most common is where a female hose-end is dented or squashed through being dropped. Far better to at your hoses with plugs, which will serve two purposes— to protect the threaded end from damage and to stop all that demoralizing mess draining out of the hoses and running over the wings and tyres of the vehicle. I can already hear the cries of "what about the cost?" from hauliers; the simple answer is that it is regained by preventing only one event of the type mentioned. A toolbox on a vehicle largely prevents damage to male couplings used and, unless very badly treated, reducing couplings give very little trouble in this direction.
Penny Wise?
Hose-keys are notorious for getting left behind after a delivery is made, and many companies treat this as an occupational hazard and provide replacements until the original is recovered. Some, however, treat it as a crime and flatly. refuse to replace lost keys, the result being to subject the hoses and fittings to the ruinous method of "tightening with a hammer" or whatever is available. This only results in damaged ends and lugs which out-price the hose-key many times over.
Some parts of the transfer equipment are expendable. I refer here to the sealing washers, which often disintegrate after a change of cargo, or after being subjected to intensive steam cleaning. Without the washers, the hose equipment (no matter how good or expensive) will leak and be inefficient, and yet every tanker driver knows that asking for a dozen spare washers is like asking for a pot of gold. When one stops to consider that leaks may well cause a serious accident, or lose the haulier his customers' goodwill —or even his business—one is inclined to be a bit puzzled by this line of thinking
Look After Your Spare Hose
In the course of any one week's operations a tanker operator may be called upon to provide above-average delivery facilities, such as where a job requires perhaps two or three hundred feet of hose. Obviously it cannot be expected that a company, no matter how large. should provide unlimited amounts of hose so it is essential that, when such lengths are required, any which a company owns should be clean, sound and ready for use at a moment's notice. Numerous organizations have a fair amount of hose, but very few of them have it immediately available.
Clean Immediately
One of the biggest problems that face the traffic manager is to see that the spare hose is properly cleaned immediately after use, especially since some of the commodities carried very quickly change their form and may finish up either solid or so glutinous that they will present quite a problem when cleaning is eventually started. Here again, hose plugs earn their keep, in that they prevent air entering a hose that has been used to transfer air-hardened materials such as latex, synthetic resin, varnish, paint and glue. Once cargoes in these ategories go off, the time taken to remove them is anybody's guess.
When the cleaning is done, it is essential that adequate safe storage is provided, first to keep the hose out of the way, secondly to prevent damage and contamination. Stones have been known to be kicked into hoses lying on the ground, with subsequent catastrophic results to the cargo pump when used for suction, and equally damaging results to the customer's plant when used .fOr delivery.
Boxes Can Cause Damage
Vehicle hose racks are sometimes the cause of hose failures. The same goes for hose-boxes, which often develop sharp edges that are not detected until either the hose cannot be removed or several hoses have become mysteriously damaged. One stupidly false economy that is seen daily is the lack of sufficient straps on hose racks not fitted with side rails. I would like to know how many brass ends have been dragged for miles along the highways over the years. Once again, these straps are regarded by many operators as a luxury for which the driver should not ask.
Look After the Best
Hose manufacturers produce many types of equipment, that make the movement of most liquids both safe and efficient. Their efforts can give satisfaction to the user only if he chooses carefully the best type of equipment offered for his particular need, and then ensures that deterioration and wear are not unnecessarily accelerated by neglect.