To: Dee Jay who wrote (2607 ) 10/14/1999 2:24:00 AM From: jmhollen Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 2696
This PhD, with 42 years of experience in the field, who has created and implemented plans for cement manufacturing projects worldwide, who spent 12 years with the World Bank analyzing such projects as to feasibility, etc. and who is now an independent consultant, says he has never heard of a bag capable of holding 12 tons of cement. Well DJ... Your '..good buddy..' must obviously be retired, like yourself. Large loads of coffee beans are currently being airveyed into large fabric containments (..bags..) weighing out at three times (x3) the weight of which you speak; i.e.; 45+ tons. The beans are blown into the bags, in trailers at the receiving port, trucked to the appropriate blending/roasting plants, up-ended on a hydraulic trailer-tilter, and then dumped into a receiving hopper. At this stage, the beans are airveyed to appropriate scale and blending bins, prior to transfer to roasting - or relocation to re-shipping silos. Then same methodology is being applied in other industries, in some cases involving rail cars - which transport 100+ tons each. Coors has been doing similar processes with scrap aluminum since 1980+/-. As for coffee, the "..bean bags.." fill the entire bed of a typical grain trailer, and avoid having to transport the beans in burlap sacks; which have to be sliced open, compacted and recycled or landfilled. Doing the same thing with cement would be a snap, and I'm available to engineer the entire power, controls and instrumentation systems should Larry requires some recent expertise. I have several mechanical and structural engineering peers that would also be available to re-demonstrate the technology. In my 28+ years of applied engineering, the one thing I have found regarding PhDs, physicists, and former pencil-necked bean-heads is that the majority couldn't build a doghouse kit from K-Mart with "..connect-the-dots.."-level instructions. Perhaps this is why the World Bank is such a world class 'cock up', as the Brits put it! Does your leg ever get tired from pushing the peddle on that early American, antique, axe grinder of yours? Oh, and - if your beef is with Larry's cement operation - why don't you mosey over to the HTEH thread and beat your keyboard to death over there..?? This is the "..train.." thread here, remember..!! John :-)