The wagons of minimum weight for the transport of chopped cane are an alternative to reduce the costs of the harvesting, transport and delivery system of cane in the factory, since they allow to transport more cane with the same energy and less quantity of steel.
The wagons of minimum weight for the transport of chopped cane are an alternative to reduce the costs of the harvesting, transport and delivery system of cane in the factory, since they allow to transport more cane with the same energy and less quantity of steel.
With this objective, Cenicaña, through the CATE project, has led since 2010 the implementation of a side unloading system at the Providencia and Incauca sugar mills, with type 24000 side unloading wagons of minimum weight. For their part, the Mayagüez mills, Riopaila - Castilla and Manuelita adopted the concept of low weight wagons to implement it in their high discharge systems and developed type 24000 and 32000 transport wagons.
In order to validate the economic impact of these transportation systems, Cenicaña carried out a prospective analysis of the operation of the type 24000 low-weight side-discharge wagons and the 24000 and 32000 low-weight high-unload wagons compared to HD20000 wagons.
The economic quantification includes the valuation of supplies, repairs, fuel, lubricants, tires, insurance, storage, operator and depreciation for the analyzed transport wagons and transport equipment.
Result
In four years of operation of the type 24000 minimum weight side unloading wagons at the Providencia and Incauca sugar mills, it was identified that:
- Average load values of 24.3 tons of chopped cane per wagon were registered, which represents an increase of close to 20% in the cane transported compared to HD 20000 wagons.
- Approximately 7,642,653 tons of cane were transported, with a reduction of nearly 11% in the cost of transportation.
For the same monitoring period, the type 24000 and 32000 low structural weight high-discharge wagons in sugarcane harvesting and reception operations at the Riopaila - Castilla, Mayagüez and Manuelita sugar mills, it was identified that:
- 4,325,649 tons of cane were transported.
- Transportation cost decreased 13% on average compared to HD 20000 wagons.
Currently, 14 harvest fronts in the region use the minimum weight transport wagons.Conclusions
- The economic valuation of the systems made it possible to establish that with their implementation, savings of $ 18,255 million were achieved in four years in the six sugar mills.
- The transport systems with low-weight wagons showed advantages in terms of a greater quantity of cane transported per trip than the HD 20000 wagons and a decrease in fuel consumption (by building wagons with less steel and combining the effect of a greater quantity of cane transported and a lower tare per train).
- Through a rigorous process of technological innovation, safe, efficient and profitable products are obtained.
KEEP IN MIND
The use of transport wagons of minimum weight type DL 24000, HD 24000 and HD 32000 represents for the year 2015 24% of the transport fleet.
Writers:
CAMILO H. ISAACS. Agricultural Engineer, Technical Cooperation and Technology Transfer Service - Cenicaña.
ALEJANDRO ESTRADA. Agro-industrial engineer. CATE - Cenicaña.
