SOLOMON speeds up and reduces the costs of bulk transhipment

“SOLOMON is an innovation that shakes the ground and makes a crane with an operator redundant during transshipment. In short, the SOLOMON machine makes storage on (construction) sites and loading of inland ships with bulk goods simultaneously faster and cheaper,” explains Johan Deprez, Senior Advisor at Deprez.

With SOLOMON, Deprez addresses a well-known loading and transshipment challenge. The Kortemark-based company solves this with their latest innovation project. SOLOMON is an avant-garde, ready-to-use mobile machine that eliminates the need for a standby crane and operator during bulk handling. Storage processes also become virtually automatic. Johan Deprez is happy to explain how the process works—but first, a look at the current, cumbersome and costly method.

Cumbersome and costly workflow

Many of us are familiar with the situation: bulk goods such as sand, gravel, soil, or demolition waste are delivered by truck or dumper and tipped on the construction site or at the recycling facility. A crane with an operator stands by all day to manage the growing pile and create stock.

A similar situation often occurs at quays: bulk goods are delivered, tipped, and then picked up again with a crane or grab crane and dumped directly into the hold of an inland vessel. Sometimes the material is first dumped into a hopper and then transported by conveyor belt into the ship’s hold.

“These are very time-consuming and expensive operations—but with SOLOMON and its transshipment capacity of 500 tons per hour, it becomes profitable from the first minute,” says Johan Deprez, whose company recently won both the national and West Flanders “SME of the Year” awards.

SOLOMON replaces the crane

SOLOMON is a mobile machine with a wide hopper and a swiveling telescopic conveyor belt. The strength of this combination is that the entire loading and transshipment process is automatic. The crane and operator can now be deployed elsewhere during the day.

The wide hopper and conveyor combination is also much faster than traditional methods. A truck backs up to the 3,350 mm wide hopper, dumps its load directly, and drives off for the next round. Meanwhile, the conveyor deposits the bulk goods onto stock or directly into a vessel. In practice, this is extremely fast: every 3 minutes, a 25-ton dumper can fill ships, train wagons, etc., and quickly build high stockpiles.

Benefits

SOLOMON weighs 60 tons and has 750 mm wide tracks for optimal ground pressure. The swiveling conveyor is 15 meters long. It is delivered by low-loader and immediately operational, making it versatile across multiple locations. Key advantages:

• Fully autonomous – no operator required
• Direct tipping into the hopper – no contamination
• Tracks allow use on any terrain
• Telescopic conveyor swivels ±90° for maximum reach
• Electric drives reduce noise and COâ‚‚ emissions

SOLOMON deployed for road works on the E34: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoyCXS7FcmU