A urea loading unit in big bags has been commissioned at Metafrax
The new equipment of the Russian company Vselug is installed in one of the storage buildings of the Ammonia-Urea-Melamine (AUM) complex at Metafrax Chemicals.
The contractor Kontinentalstroy completed installation works in a short time. The unit passed commissioning in December last year and has been in operation since the beginning of this year.
Albert Khudaibirdin, Managing Director for Production at Metafrax Chemicals:
"The urea packaging project in big bags, implemented as part of the company's investment program, will allow us to significantly expand the range of urea consumers. Now the company can ship the product not only by rail in special mineral hoppers, but in soft packaging by road and rail, for example, by open cars, also for export.”
There is a demand for urea in big bags, because not all consumers have the infrastructure to receive and unload railway trains.
Alexander Ushakov, division head for shipment of finished products at AUM complex:
“Such enterprises purchase packaged urea and deliver it by road or by rail in open cars. Mainly they are agricultural producers, we’re ready to provide urea in big bags with a capacity of 800 and 1000 kg.”
The loading goes automatically.
“Urea from the prilling tower passes through the conveyor into the 70-ton loading hopper. There is another one under it, a weighing hopper, which automatically measures the set weight of urea: 800 or 1000 kg. Then an operator fastens a big bag on the loading unit, which receives exactly as much urea as we need from the weighing hopper. Further, the bag is sealed and moves along the conveyor belt to the urea shipment station, where the next batch is already being collected in the weighing hopper. The unit can load up to 60 big bags per hour. We take a sample from every fifth big bag to the laboratory, where the grade, batch and data are put into the system based on the analysis results."
The shipment station of packaged urea is also brilliantly conceived. It’s equipped with a modern bridge crane on fixed supports for loading big bags into trucks and open cars. The crane driver's cabin is automated and equipped with climate control, which allows the driver to work comfortably both in winter and summer.
The first consumer of packaged urea produced by Metafrax Chemicals became the Gubakha branch of Metadynea, which had been purchasing the product from a third-party manufacturer until this year. Today, transportation and unloading have already been established. The company will minimize transportation costs with its own product. According to the employees from the pre-production workshop, interest in Gubakha urea in soft packaging and from other domestic consumers is gradually increasing.
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Urea is used in industry for the production of plastics, adhesives, resins, as a feed additive for ruminants and as an all-purpose nitrogen fertilizer in agriculture for basic application to the soil, fertilizing in early spring and during the growing season. It’s used on all types of soils for any crops.