GREEN-CANE harvesting has reduced the mass of cane in a cane wagon and
increased cane transport costs by requiring more cane wagon volume to transport
the same mass of sugar cane to the sugar mill. This implies that the components
of a cane wagon are under less stress for a train hauling green cane than for a
train hauling burnt cane. A fundamental requirement to reduce cane transport
costs is to carry the highest practical axle load per wheel set. Further
improvements with the load carrying capacity of the 15! wheel set and the
favourable field results achieved with the five joined 4 tonne bin prototypes
during the past year have enabled the development of a 10 tonne cane wagon on
two axles. The benefits of the 10 tonne cane wagon developed for the Herbert
include the lowest cost per tonne cane and lowest tare mass per tonne cane, cane
wagon for the Australian sugar industry. This wagon takes the next step in
realising improved cane transfer efficiency from haul-out to mill yard with a
simple cost effective design. The tare mass of the 10 tonne cane wagon is 1.2
tonne. A back-to-basics approach was used to eliminate members with low
stress, simplify the wheel set thereby reducing capital, operating and
maintenance costs, and introduce a polypropylene bi-axially oriented integrally
extruded geo-grid with rigid junctions and stiff ribs as a sling to carry the cane
load.