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HOW A MODERN SUGA -BEET FACTORY IS RUN

4th March 1938, Page 42
4th March 1938
Page 42
Page 43
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Page 42, 4th March 1938 — HOW A MODERN SUGA -BEET FACTORY IS RUN
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THE arrangements for handling deliveries of sugarbeet by road are better at Alls9ott than at any other factory that I have visited. It is strange that there should be a crop of grumbles by hauliers about these arrangements.

This article is the culmination of a series of arguments which commenced after a meeting of hauliers which I addressed in Wellington in February of last year. At that meeting there were sundry complaints of the facilities at the Allscott factory. I gave publicity to the subject and Mr. E. W. James, the general manager, invited me to proceed there and make whatever investigations I pleased. This article briefly describes the outcome of my visits.

The provision for acceptance of sugar-beet by road is indicated by the accompanying sketch plan, which I have made from memory. Lorries carrying sugar-beet pass the weighbridge in the usual way. There are two sets of scales and a sufficiency of staff to ensure that the routine shall be carried through with a maximum of dispatch.

The only criticism which could be made is that the weighbridges themselves are not large enough to take the heaviest of six-wheeled vehicles in one weighing. In view of the fact that only a small minority of vehicles of this type comes to the factory, the criticism is not of great importance. In ordinary circumstances less than a minute suffices to clear a vehicle in either direction.

When the vehicles reach the unloading ground they have the alternative of the Elfa, by which the sugarbeet is unloaded by water jets, or of tipping or hand unloading into one of two shoots. There is, at present, no compulsion of choice. I have, myself, voiced the opinion that compulsion should be exercised.

The Ella is known to all haulage contractors. The shoots replace the silos Which are often used at sugarbeet factories. They are, in my opinion, infinitely better than silos. The wall of a shoot is not more than a foot high as compared with the 3-ft. to 3-ft. 6-in.

B32 wall of the usual type of silo. The beet can, therefore, be tipped into the shoots and, even if the wagon be not a tipper, unloading is easy.

The shoots do not get full because the beet falls on to a conveyor band and is at once taken away. From this conveyor band (A on the sketch) it is taken to another conveyor (B), which carries it part way to the factory—actually to a junction of conveyors, marked X on the plan. If for any reason the Ella be not working. this beet is transferred* another conveyor (C), which takes it into the factory.

If the Ella be working, the beet is diverted to one or other of the two conveyors marked D. These take it into two large store yards. On these conveyors are movable shoots which divert the beet from the conveyor into the yard at any convenient point.

The sugar-beet deposited in the storage yard (E) is piled into huge heaps by means of portable elevators. The beet from these heaps must, subsequently, be manhandled, transferred back to conveyor D, which is reversible, and thus conveyed into the factory, via conveyors D. and C.

Thd beet which is conveyed into storage yard F is dealt with in the same way as regards stacking, and some of it is taken into the factory by means of the conveyor D in reverse motion and conveyor C. In this storage yard, however, provision is made for an alternative means for getting the beet into the factory, namely, two flumes into which the beet is shovelled and washed into the factory by streams of water.

The beet which is washed off the wagons by the Ella goes immediately into the factory by means of a water flume, in the usual way..

The first thing to appreciate is that, when the Ella is working, it takes beet into the factory in quantities sufficient to keep the machinery working to capacity. The second factor to have in mind is that the Ella is liable from time to time to be stopped. This may be due to some slight derangement in the factory but is, more often than not, because some foreign body has

been washed oil the wagons intothe flume and has interfered with the working of the pump which lifts the sugar-beet from the flume and cOnveys. it into the factory.

There is a museum of obstacles which have been carried into the Pump and. amongst the foreign bodies are forks, pieces of spades and iron barsas much as 18 ins. long.

Theoretically, the provision thus outlined is more than ample to accommodate all the sugar-beet which the factory can slice. Assuming that each of the two hoppers accommodates four lorries, it means that eight vehicles can unload 4.3 tons at a time, this being the average load brought by wagons which do unload at the shoot. That amounts to.34 tons. 'At the same time another vehicle unloading six tons can be under 'the Ella. Taking an average unloading time of ten minutes per vehicle, that is equivalent to 240 tons per hour or 2,880 tons per day of 12 hours.

H34 Here it should be noted that the factory opens at 7 a.m. and closes at 7 p.m. At the latter time there is often quite a number of vehicles waiting to be unloaded.

The factory slicing capacity is 1,500 tons per 24 hours and actually only about 1,000 tons can be sliced during the 14 hours which are allocated to road deliveries. Rail-borne deliveries are passed into the factory only during the night, at week-ends, and one day per week when the factory is closed to road haulage.

All that is needed, in order that deliveries may be in accordance with the scheme just outlined, is that the vehicles themselves should arrive one by one at regular intervals throughout each week. It is hardly to be expected, however, that this should be the case, for various reasons among them being the weather .conditions.

The district, too, is one which is devoted to livestock breeding -and there is a demand for transport on this account during the early part of the week, or, alterna

tively, the farmers are too busy dealing with their livestock to concern themselves with their sugar-beet. The result is a considerable slackness on such days, involving increased activity for the rest of the week, which is broken because on :Thursday the factory accepts some of its railway-borne beet.

Again, many of the hauliers who cart beet are also engaged in other branches of haulage. They wish, as is only natural, to keep alive their regular connections. There are some, for example, who carry milk in the mornings and evenings and rush a few loads of beet into the factory between one milk round and the next. Others are engaged in haulage contracts in connection with local aerodromes.

Nor is the farmer free from blame. His reluctance to deal with sugar-beet in the early part of the week has aiready been mentioned. There are other occasions when he is apt to concentrate his requests for collection of his beet to one part of the week.

Hauliers' Behaviour Open to Criticism.

Hauliers, when they get into the factory yard, do not always behave in a manner conducive to easy clearance of their own loads. The Ella is so obviously the easiest way of discharging a load that many drivers ignore the alternative. I, myself, have seen queues of vehicles waiting for the Ella when, of the eight available spaces at the two shoots, two only were occupied.

It will be gathered that there is reason enough why practice differs so considerably from theory. It was with the object of reconciling some of these differences that a conference was held at the factory in the first week in January. Mr. G. F. Goodwin headed a deputation of local hauliers and was met by Mr. E. W. James with executives of the factory.

In the beginning Mr. James emphasized some of the points I have made above. He said that the Elfa was really intended to be used for emptying large lorries. He referred to the impossibility of avoiding occasional stoppages of the Elfa and to the fact that if drivers would persist in lining up for that, kiss of time was unavoidable.

Amongst suggestions which may be carried out are, that the day on which road haulage is stopped shall be changed from Thursday to Saturday; that, in order to eliminate some of the pressure at week-ends, permits

shall be made to run from Wednesday morning to the following Tuesday evening instead of, as at present, from Monday morning to Saturday evening.

Reference to congestion in another part of the factory was made, namely, the loading of wet pulp. Apparently, the fault here lies mainly with the farmers, who will accept delivery only towards the end of the month. Mr. James made the sound suggestion that hauliers should arrange their rates-fOr this work so that they can oiler a 10 per cent rebate to farmers who will spread their acceptances evenly throughout the

campaign. • Problems of the-Surplus Contract.

Of the many difficulties not mentioned above, one which gave rise to considerable discussion was that of small hauliers canvassing the farmers for work and taking on much more than they can carry. Later on, when such a man.finds himself in difficulties, he tries to sublet. Unfortunately, in order to obtain these surplus contracts, he has often quoted an uneconomic rate and finds him.self unable to persuade other hauliers to accept fork at that rate.

Another difficulty arising from this is that hauliers who might possibly take some of this work fear to do so because of the risk that the man from whom they obtain the work will not pay them. This lends importance to the scheme which is effective at Allscott and has already been referred to in The Commercial Motor (page 130, issue dated March 5, 1937), whereby hauliers can enter into an arrangement with the farmer that they shall be paid by the factory for the work they do.

It was unanimously agreed, as I have often advocated in these articles, that the only satisfactory way of dealing with these problems is for all those hauliers who are interested in the subject to get together andorganize the work as though they were one concern.

Mr. James expressed himself af being 'favourable to this idea of collective action. A . meeting is being arranged, I believe at Wellington, for March 17.' All hauliers, whether they belong to an Association or not, if they be interested in; beet haulage, should make a point of being present. I hope to be. there myself to give what assistance I can.

Those who have not yet seen, the announcements of this ,meeting can obtain details from Mr. G. F. Goodwin, 17, Dudley Street, Wolverhampton.


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