Animal products manufacturer Fletcher International Exports is using its own rolling stock as part of a recently updated production process in NSW.
Fletcher has large pastoral holdings in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia, with abattoirs in Albany and Dubbo.
A private family-owned company that has grown substantially over the last 35 years, its origins relate back to Roger Fletcher when he started as a drover in outback NSW. The company supplies sheep meat, wool and by-products to over 90 countries around the world.
From its inland abattoir location of Dubbo, it rails its product to seaports for export.
Fletchers recently purchased its own rolling stock of three locomotives and 62 wagons to run between Dubbo and Botany three times a week.
The rail also transports the company’s grains, pulses and livestock.
But its investment in rail has allowed it to expand its Dubbo operations, with Fletcher now supplying a cement/slag product to nearby mines.
Cement and slag arrive from overseas in bulk bags at the railhead, where the new handling system is installed.
For 11 years, Fletcher’s rail head unloading system was part of a different operation, and handled limestone and soda ash. But bulk handling engineer Kockums Bulk Systems, which originally installed the system at a Melbourne plant in 1997, was able to help Fletcher convert it for its new use.
Originally designed to load silos with powders tipped by a front-end loader, Kockums was able to adjust the system so it can be fed with bulk bags straight from the rail head. Once loaded into the system, the product is kept in silos, which load the product into trucks for localised distribution.
Commencing a new operation for the old equipment meant the need for refurbishment of valves, air filters and silo aeration systems to bring the equipment back to ‘as new’ condition.
“I was pleased to see the quality of the installation, which is achieving the high rate of 32 tonnes per hour throughput from product arriving in bulk bags. It is good to see a system rejuvenated and performing well, meeting a new need,” Kockums director Ivan Price, a part of the original installation of the bulk system in 1997, said.
“I congratulate Fletchers on their engineering expertise and how they handled the process in an efficient and effective manner.”
This is an edited version of an article which originally appeared in Rail Express sister publication, the Australian Bulk Handling Review.