COUPLING LINKS-THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRODUCTION MODEL

THERE IS AN urgent need to reduce operating costs in the Australian Sugar Industry. The development work undertaken on the coupling link has continued and has been consolidated with further design iterations, culminating in a production model for this concept. The effective coupling of cane bins remains an area of high cost to the raw sugar business. The coupling link and Willison Coupling combination is considered the most effective means of coupling cane bins together today, incurring the lowest whole-of-life cost. The coupling link concept requires two cane bins to be permanently linked together into a ‘bin-pair’. Another benefit of a ‘bin-pair’ includes the elimination of single bin pushers at the tippler. The introduction of coupling links into a cane bin fleet is only possible if field and factory operations are performed in two bin modules. Further design improvements were explored through modelling work and laboratory tests using field data to validate the design. The final result is a robust coupling system that is less prone to derailment, exhibits higher reliability and a reduced ownership cost when compared to other cane train coupling systems.