Dock Mobile Pneumatic Ship Unloader

How the dock mobile pneumatic ship unloader works

A suction head on the 31 meter boom is lowered into the hold, and vacuum draws the cargo into one of two pressure vessels. While one vessel fills under vacuum, the other discharges under pressure, so the flow to the silo stays continuous. The head loosens packed material as it sweeps, which holds the discharge rate up as the hold empties. From the unit the cargo travels through a sealed pipeline, with no transfer point open to the weather.

Heavy Duty Filtration

Cartridge filters separate the cargo from the suction air and hold dust emission below 10 mg/Nm³. They clean themselves while the unit runs, and the system monitors filter condition during operation, so a failed element is flagged rather than discovered when dust appears on the quay.

Rail or Rubber-Tyred

A dock mobile pneumatic ship unloader is built to stay at the terminal, and how it moves along the quay is a choice made at the design stage. On rails it runs a fixed track along a dedicated berth, so positioning is repeatable to the same spot every call.

On rubber tires it rides its own chassis and is repositioned by a truck, which costs nothing in civil works and reaches berths a rail run would not cover. Either way the vessel stays where it is while the boom works the holds. At 100 tonnes the unit is not road-legal, and that is the trade-off against the road mobile Ariel.

Where a dock mobile pneumatic ship unloader makes sense

It suits a terminal with its own berth, regular calls above 15,000 DWT and storage set back from the quay. If calls are irregular or spread across several ports, the road mobile Ariel is usually the better answer. If the cargo goes straight into silo trucks at the quay, a mechanical unloader will move more tonnes for less power. Our article on dock-mobile versus road-mobile setups walks through that choice. Bring us your berth layout, pipeline run and vessel mix, and we will size the unit.