Can't keep pressure in pneumatic

We had macks able to accept a manual throttle set the knob you pull all the way out and lock, that fixes the idle at redline. (In my R model that they gave me it was 2600 and in the paystar it was around 2400 if need be) And the blower just got one consideration from me. Or two rather. First, the blower is not allowed to cough or clank. That means you are fixing to plug. And second Mr Pyro in the dash needs to be 1400 or so not higher.

Blower speed? HA, the thing could go into outer space for all I cared. In our day it was just a big turbo.

Plant air was usually a 440 volt 400 horse electric hummer about the size of a old 50's era vacumn tube. As long Mr Hum is happy alls well. But if she slowed just a little bit towards a growl, thats a subtle warning for a plug.

Now if you were in Say Lehigh Elevators export across from Fort McHenry at the Harbor I have no idea what the hell they use. It's like a big locomotive engine supporting many silos at once. Its really intense loading there because any tanker truck could drain the whole facility if left unattended for a moment.

 

I watched a guy unloading Fly Ash at Union Bridge scatter his blower across the parking lot one day. Rumor has it he was running his truck at 1500 rpms to unload Ash. It started smoking a bit, then squealing, then it locked up and scattered itself

 

Aw what a mess. I know exactly where Union Bridge is at. There is a Lehigh there that ships. They recently closed a quarry that was there before we were America and opened another 5 miles away by conveyor today I think.

I never hear a squeal or cry from those things like you described. I probably would have shut off the pot and ran inside waiting for the boom.

 

Of all the stuff we haul in pneumatics cement is the easiest to unload. Popcorn lime is the worst. That stuff will plug in a heartbeat.
I take that back...rocksalt was the worst thing we hauled. We hauled two loads of it only because we couldn't believe the first load was so bad. We wound up bottom dropping it in windrows. Never again.
We mostly haul cement, flyash, lime, and ammonium nitrate.
The drivers hate the ammonium nitrate hauls...it takes three hours to unload because high air pressure breaks up the prill and that's to be avoided. The prill goes to make ANFO and they don't want dust.

 

I'd go ballistic with something like that!

 

We have some guys here that that's all they've ever unloaded. And they grumble about it being difficult. If only they ever had to unload something difficult

 

How do you post a question on here?

 

We had Mortar once. They gave me a old tired Butler trailer older than I am and told me to fetch Mortar.

Went to the Hammerman location of one of the major local mills in US 40 and proceeded to unload.

COUGH. WTF. fiddle with line and tank pressures. Get it moving again. Cough. &^%$

Then I hear laughing above me from the tower crew above. They called me roach with all that hopping.

That mortar took 3 hours to get out of that POS trailer. Nothing against Butler but I was sure it was retribution for some imagined sin by the suits that be in the company. I think it only paid like 46.50 or so for half a day.