Give Siwertell the opportunity to amaze you Few investments can totally transform a business at a stroke, but Juha Huovilainen, Sales Director, Siwertell, explains how making the switch to a Siwertell screw type unloading system can save alumina plant owners and operators a fortune and offer major environmental benefits.

1. Give Siwertell the opportunity to amaze you _______ 54-58
SIWERTELL | AWJ 2016 53

2. Say goodbye
to crushing,
dust, spills, and
additional
fines in
alumina
unloading
Our free demonstration at your site will show you
what alumina handling should really look like.
You’ll wonder why you didn’t invest in a
Siwertell unloader years ago.
blksales@cargotec.com
youtube.com/siwertell
siwertell.com

3. Give Siwertell the opportunity to
amaze you
Few investments can totally trans-
form a business at a stroke, but
Juha Huovilainen, Sales Director,
Siwertell, explains how making
the switch to a Siwertell screw-
type unloading system can save
alumina plant owners and opera-
tors a fortune and offer major en-
vironmental benefits.
Siwertell screw-type unloaders
outperform established, traditional
equipment for alumina unloading
to such a high degree that opera-
tors would save so much, so quick-
ly, that their return on investment
would be unusually rapid, followed
by major cost savings stretching
ahead for decades.
If the industry as a whole made the
move from traditional grab cranes
and pneumatic systems and in-
vested in Siwertell unloaders on a
global scale, we estimate it would
result in annual savings of up to
US$1.0 billion.
You may think this is too good to be
true, but Siwertell has supporting
data showing conclusively that the
global aluminium production in-
dustry can profit significantly from
making the switch to its totally-en-
closed screw-type technology. The
advantages and consequent cost
savings are delivered in a number
of different ways, related to the
nature, value and processing re-
quirements of alumina. But in all
instances, it is the performance of
the Siwertell unloader that delivers
the results.
Figures explained
Alumina is a valuable commodity.
Spillage associated with tradition-
al unloading methods costs the
industry millions of dollars every
year. This is particularly true with
grab cranes. The picture of the grab
crane at work clearly demonstrates
the scale of the problem.
A Siwertell customer reports that
using a grab crane for unloading
alumina results in the loss of one
and a half percent of the materi-
al during the discharging process.
In contrast, discharging tests with
Siwertell road mobile unloaders
showed no loss of bulk material
whatsoever.
To present this in monetary terms,
we can consider a typical operation
with an annual intake of half a mil-
lion tonnes of alumina. With alumi-
na priced at US$400/tonne, the an-
nual value of cargo arriving at the
discharge berth is US$200,000,000.
Therefore the annual saving result-
ing from using a Siwertell unloader
is a massive US$3,000,000. On top
of this, there is a negligible amount
of cleaning necessary when using
a Siwertell unloader and working
55 AWJ 2016 | SIWERTELL

4. conditions are greatly improved.
We estimate that eliminating spill-
age right across the industry would
result in savings of up to US$600
million per annum.
Pneumatic systems are also widely
used for alumina unloading. While
they do not incur spillage on the
scale of grab cranes, pneumatic un-
loaders lose money in other ways.
They are less efficient than Siwer-
tell unloaders, and consume more
power per tonne of alumina un-
loaded. Far more importantly, the
use of pneumatic systems results
in high levels of cargo degradation
which has serious consequences
for the smelting process.
Putting the lid on smelting costs
Aluminium smelting requires a
massive amount of energy and
the process is very sensitive to the
amount of fines (powdery material)
in the alumina.
Siwertell customer Aluminij Mostar
reports that, in its experience, alu-
mina discharged with a pneumatic
unloader has a fines content with
a particle size of less than 45µm of
up to five percent.
Aluminij Mostar used a Siwertell
unloader for discharging alumina
for ten years (see separate text
box). During that time the alumina
had an average fines value of be-
tween 0.2 and 0.3 percent. The re-
duced amount of fines had a huge
positive impact to the energy con-
sumption of the plant because the
lower the percentage of fines, the
less energy required for the smelt-
ing process.
A number of smelters have closed
because the high cost of energy
made their operations uneconom-
ic. We estimate that minimising
cargo degradation by using our
screw-type unloaders could save
the global industry up to US$400
million every year.
Environmental credentials
Siwertell unloaders have unbeat-
able environmental performance
with zero spillage and virtually no
dust creation. Aside from the eco-
nomic advantages of receiving 100
percent of the shipped cargo, op-
erations as clean as this are vital
for those importers with facilities
close to centres of population and
commerce who are finding it diffi-
cult to meet increasingly stringent
environmental regulations.
Unloaders to suit operations of
any size
For alumina importers with a high
throughput, Siwertell can offer suit-
able unloaders with rated capacities
up to 2,000t/h. These can be fixed
installations or they can run on rails.
SIWERTELL | AWJ 2016 56

5. Some models can be equipped
with rubber tyres to allow self-pro-
pelled operations without the
need for rails. For smaller scale
operations our road-mobile un-
loaders offer the perfect solution.
Road-mobile units are also ideal
for operators discharging alumina
at multiple locations.
Interested but still not convinced?
We realise that asking operators to
replace their cranes and pneumatic
systems before they have reached
the end of their useful life is a big
ask; certainly not a decision to be
taken without being absolutely
certain that it will deliver all that
is promised. This is why we have
a free, no obligation offer to bring
one of our road-mobile unloaders
to your import terminal so you
can see for yourself exactly how it
performs. You can make your own
measurements and observations
to confirm our claims regarding the
cleanliness, the power consump-
tion, the rate of discharge, the
level of cargo degradation and the
minimal clean up requirements. In
preparation for such a demonstra-
tion we can provide you with de-
tailed reports of similar tests car-
ried out in Northern Europe.
This is not a gimmick and there
is nothing altruistic about it. We
are all in business to succeed. We
know we can give you a massive
commercial advantage and we
want to sell our unloaders to you.
We all have much to gain.
Finally, if your company’s tradi-
tional alumina unloading system
is near the end of its useful life;
please think very carefully about
your next move. You have the
choice between giving your com-
pany a massive commercial advan-
tage or committing it to decades
more of sub-optimal performance.
To support our business case we
are prepared to give substantial
guarantees related both to the
performance of the unloader as
well as the degradation of the bulk
material.
57 AWJ 2016 |SIWERTELL
Well-established in alumina
loading
Siwertell loaders have been
delivering reliable service for
alumina exporters around
the world for decades.
Siwertell’s well-known attri-
butes of clean, careful han-
dling and low power con-
sumption are exactly what
this market demands. On
top of that, operators derive
great confidence from the
support provided by Siwer-
tell’s global service network
and our remote monitoring
and fault-finding capabilities.
Siwertellloadersareespecial-
ly well suited to the particular
demands of handling alumi-
na, because they make use of
aeroslides and Cleveland cas-
cade-type vertical telescopic
loading spouts that handle
the material very gently, re-
sulting in minimal cargo deg-
radation. Dust collectors are
fitted at all transfer points to
reduce dust emissions to an
absolute minimum, allowing
exceptionally clean, high ca-
pacity loading.
The highest capacity Siwertell
alumina loader delivered to
date is a Siwertell HST-1800
with a rated capacity of
2,500t/h. It has been operated
by Hydro Alunorte in Brazil
since 2008.
Say goodbye
to crushing,
dust, spills, and
additional
fines in
alumina
unloading
Our free demonstration at your site will show you
what alumina handling should really look like.
You’ll wonder why you didn’t invest in a
Siwertell unloader years ago.
blksales@cargotec.com
youtube.com/siwertell
siwertell.com

6. First delivery demonstrates
performance capabilities
The first Siwertell unloader to be
used for handling alumina was a
5000 S, road-mobile unit delivered
to Aluminij Mostar’s import termi-
nal in Ploce, Croatia in 1997.
Equipped with a double-loading
bellows system and radio remote
control, it had a rated unloading
capacity of 150t/h, handling ships
and barges of up to 5,000 dwt.
A major factor in Aluminij Mostar’s
decision to purchase a Siwertell
system was its desire for a clean,
environmentally-friendly operation.
However, the company soon found
that it had also made a very wise
decision for wider-reaching com-
mercial reasons.
Commenting on its unloader in
2001, it said that the machine was
operating to its complete satisfac-
tion, handling over 100,000 tonnes
of alumina per annum, and exceed-
ing its specified unloading rate by
30 percent. The company described
it as: “environmentally superior
and very efficient”.
Operations at Ploce ceased in 2006.
By that time the unloader had
logged 10,550 hours, discharging
over 1,250,000 tonnes of alumina,
delivering an impressive overall
through-the-ship rate of nearly
120t/h.
Siwertell gained valuable experi-
ence from providing solutions to
some early teething troubles re-
lating to bearings and their seal-
ing and lubrication arrangements.
These were quickly resolved to the
customer’s satisfaction and from
then on operations were virtually
trouble-free. The screws experi-
enced no significant wear.
Building on this early experience
and through subsequent develop-
ments and improvements, today’s
Siwertell unloaders are perfectly
specified for alumina handling.
SIWERTELL | AWJ 2016 58