Splitting of cane feed from one tippler to dual milling trains

The expansion of Marian Mill to process an average throughput of 670 tonne cane per hour (tc/h) included the installation of a second milling train and required an important decision regarding the most economical method of upgrading the cane receival, cane unloading and shredder feeding systems. The options were to retain the existing station (peak capacity of 500 tc/h) and construct a second independent weighbridge/tippler/carrier/cane conveyor system, or to upgrade totally the single station and split the cane stream onto a belt conveyor to each mill. The latter options was adopted after considering the relative merits of each. This paper describes these and the system installed and its operation, and includes an overview of the cane splitter control strategy.