Pneumatic Tanks. Any advise?

What kind of product? Each product blows a little different. The best advice I can give is figure out what valve does what and know what your pressures need to be for the product your hauling. I haul sand and cement so I always try to hook up with as short of a hose as possible to get my blow time down.

 

I've never hauled lime but I've hauled soda ash which they tell me blows like lime expect long blow times.

 

Each trailer is different.. Listen to what your 'trainer' tells you as far as line and tank pressures, then unless you are going to be using that same trailer, take those numbers as an average. (My .02)

 

Monitor your tank pressure, too high of pressure you can "blow the top" off of the silos, not sure of the true definition of that but I have done it before and the product ends up coming out of the top of the silo, and the person responsible for fixing your mistake is never too happy. Don't allow your pressure to drop too low, at that point you risk plugging up.

When you close an empty pocket to start unloading your next full pocket make sure your pressure rebounds back to your target PSI, the best way for me to explain that is when you empty a pocket, you will lose your tank pressure as the pocket empties and your vibrators will kick on, I would tend to not let my pressure fall below 3psi before changing pockets, don't open your full pocket too fast because you risk plugging the line without enough pressure to push the product through, with the new full pocket open monitor your pressure and make tank adjustments accordingly until you're happy with where your pressure is at. With that said, lime would tend to take 35-45 minutes to unload.

When you're done emptying all pockets, go back through and make sure they're all empty, you're vibrators will see to it that all the product is out, and your PSI will show you when the pocket is empty, it will fall to zero. When you're done make sure you blow your tank down to release any pressure that remains. Hopefully this helps a little, it will make more sense as you actually learn the procedure, hopefully I didn't ramble on too much.

 

Try blowing out LEAD ! You'll think Father Time stopped the clock , just for you!

 

That's funny right there. When I'm unloading sand if it takes over 40 minutes I think time has stopped. The one and only load of soda ash I ever hauled was a train load and took 4 hours for the lead and 2 hours for the pup I was going absolutely insane.

 

Yea guys, i was a Pneumatic tanker driver for 5 years. I pumped Cement type 1-2 and 3. flyash,slag, sand,white cement and lime. If you are going to pump lime, tell your trainer what kind of lime is it? there is rice lime - granular - pebbles which is small and larger lime rocks that if you dont watch the pressue? you are going to be clogged and it's hell! Granular is like dust lime and flows very smooth. theres an agricultural lime for feed. theres also another lime known as slurry thats in a tanker mixed with water, some customers use that, theres also pulvorized lime that i used to take to tropicana orange juice in bradenton and they mix that lime with the orange peels and make cattle pellet food. Another i hydrated lime. Now whatever it is, some plants will not let you in without rubber boots, long pants, face shield, eye protection and hard hat. What Bullhaulerswife said is true, Lime has a chemical that when it mixes with water, it reacts and heats up. I seen some guys getting clooged and have to remove the hose, they unclogged the silo pipe and hose, they dont realized that lime residue is all over their necks. Suddenly it starts raining and that lime reacts and burn skin will start peeling from their skin. If pebble lime makes contact with your eyes, you could go blind for the rest of your life! Your eyes will melt! Not trying to scare you but thats why these plants are serious about your safety. Wear also a respirator. Not good for your lung. I saw a driver spit traces of blood for breathing it for years. I made good money hauling it. One more thing, never break the rutine the way your trainer teaches you how to connect the hoses. It starts with backing up towards the silo. A shorter hose will help with time. Once you back where the hose reaches the silo pipe and the discharge pipe from the tanker, install the pto hose just behind your cab, then make sur the blow down valve is closed, make sure all your product valves are closed, walk behind the trailer and install the hose from the trailer to the silo pipe. now the trainer will go through everything but some drivers have made the mistake of breaking this routine and connect the silo pipe hose first and by the time they come back to the cab, they forget to instal that pto hose. If you do that, the pressure release valve will kick and then you will notice the mistake, but when you try to remove that pto cap, there pressure already built from and when you release that cap, it will shoot up the sky and if it hits your face, you're going to the hospital. So the point is, never break the routine shown by your trainer. Pretty simple, you will learn it in one week how to manage the tank pressue gauge and the line pressure gauge. Good luck.