Babraham Farms, Cambridgeshire

The brief was to speed up the out-loading equipment in an existing store.

The work involved:

1. Dismantling the bottom conveyor and replacing it with new.

The conveyor was sitting in a trench 28m long, between 2 rows of crittall bins.

Once installed, the new conveyor had to have 16no. special top inlets manufactured on site, complete each with individual control slides.

2. Dismantle 2no. elevators and replace.

The dismantling work was completed relatively quickly once the catwalk was removed, but re-installing was a little more complicated.

The head of the new elevator was very close to the ridge height of the building and much of the timber structure around had to be reassembled.

3. Replace short top conveyor and raise bulk bin.

To out load, the grain was transferred from the crittall bins into the lorry loading hopper.  When the hopper was originally installed the lorries were smaller than today, thus we had to raise the bin.

This involved dismantling a short top conveyor, lifting the bin with a crane and installing short stubs to the bottom of each leg.  We then installed a new conveyor with catwalk and safety platform to allow access to the motor for servicing.

The conveyor was also extended beyond the bulk bin to allow a lorry to be filled from the bulk bin and the top conveyor at the same time.