A grain terminal in East Asia has installed four DustCone dust suppression hoppers on maize intake to its flat storage bays, addressing a fugitive dust problem that had drawn complaints from neighbouring premises.
Each bay is served by four bare overhead discharge outlets, with material falling around 6.5 metres to the bay floor. Over that distance the stream aerated and the fine fraction separated, filling the loading corridor with airborne dust during every intake and escaping through the building openings. Alongside the nuisance, the operator was losing saleable product with every tonne handled.
Four DC Mini FT hoppers in SS304 were fitted, one per bay, at a loading rate of 50tph (tonnes per hour). The Flange Top configuration bolts directly to the existing chute outlet, creating a sealed transfer with no modification to the overhead structure.
The hopper body is suspended on springs around a fixed internal cone. Material load extends the springs and opens the discharge gap in proportion to flow, so the unit regulates itself with no sensors, controls or electrical connection. Material discharges as a dense, coherent column, keeping fines within the moving stream rather than releasing them to the air. No power, filters, compressed air, water or consumables are required, and maintenance is limited to periodic spring inspection.
Maize discharging from a DC Mini FT as a dense solid column.
The terminal also reported a second, unlooked-for effect. A freely falling stream sorts on the way down: some fines become airborne, while the rest settle on the surface of the pile rather than filling the gaps between the coarse grain. The result is a heap that is steep, loose and sorted. Material arriving as a consolidated solid column is still mixed when it lands, and its collective momentum on impact drives the pile outward. With the fines packing into the voids between the coarse particles rather than resting on the surface, the pile settles to a shallower angle of repose, spreading across the bay floor instead of heaping under the fill point.
Maize loading through a single DC Mini FT.
Two of the four outlets were typically needed to fill a bay to even coverage. With a single DustCone fitted to one outlet in each bay, the site now fills the bay from that outlet alone.
The site reported, through DustCone's global representative, that both the dust reduction and the change in the pile profile were significant. The site has requested a quotation for additional units for its soybean meal bays.
DustCone Hopper Systems Sdn Bhd manufactures passive mechanical dust suppression hoppers in Malaysia for shiploading, truck loading, silo discharge, and warehouse loading applications. Units are engineered to order in mild steel, Corten, SS304, SS316L, and Hardox, with optional polyurea coating for abrasive or corrosive service.