WAGON TIPPLER AND LOADER
WAGON TIPPLER
• Huge quantity of bulk material received by process plants via railway, ship / barge or truck needs mechanized
means for unloading. In case of material received from the mines / ports by the railway wagons, the wagon
unloading system is required.
• Two types of wagons are generally used in the Indian industry viz. BOXN wagons and BOBRN wagons. In case of
BOXN wagons, the material is discharged from the top while in the case of BOBRN wagons, it is discharged from
the bottom. Hence two different types of wagon unloading systems/equipment are adopted for unloading the
material from these wagons.
• A system consisting of wagon tipplers is used for BOXN type wagons whereas unloading system for BOBRN
wagons consists of track hopper below the rail track.
• The wagon tippling system is designed to unload materials like coal, ore, limestone, etc. from the open type
railway wagons. It consists of a wagon tippler, the wagon positioning equipment, underground hopper, and
feeder below the hopper for evacuating the material unloaded into the hopper.
• Wagon tippler consists of a table for positioning the wagon, wagon holding mechanism, gears and pinions for
rotation, drive unit, etc. Generally, tipplers are provided with side arm charger for positioning of wagons on the
tippler.
• The tipplers can be of side discharge (rotaside) type or rotary type. There are two types of rotary wagon tipplers:
C-type and O-type.
Side Discharge (Rotaside) Wagon Tippler
• The tippler with end rings and shafts is supported on trunnion
bearings. Moveable side support fitted with side beam is so
designed that it has a facility of forward/backward movement,
such that it should be able to move and touch the different width
of wagon without applying any pressure on the wagon side wall.
• The top clamping arrangement facilitates proper clamping of
different height and width of wagons. The tippler raises wagons
above rail level and tilts/inverts them to one side through an
angle of 135° (maximum 160°) so as to discharge the material
into the hopper.
O-type Rotary Wagon Tippler
• O-type rotary tipples are generally used to unload rake of
wagons in which all wagons are of the same design and
equipped with rotating couplings, allowing them to be
unloaded without uncoupling. To empty wagons, the tippler is
rotated by 180° (minimum 160°).
• Positioning of wagons on the tippler platform is done using
rope driven side arm charger.
• As wagons with rotary couplings are not utilized in India, the O-
type tippler is not popular in India.
C-type Rotary Wagon Tippler
• With a section of the end rings omitted as compared to O-type
rotary wagon tippler, the C-type rotary wagon tippler, sometimes
referred as crescent or C-frame tippler, allows the wagon
positioner to move straight through the tippler.
• As wagon rotation is close to its own center of gravity, O-type and
C-type rotary wagon tipplers provide faster duty cycles.
Field of Application and Advantages/Disadvantages of different types of tipplers
Side discharge (rotaside) tipplers shall normally be considered for use when:
• The material is comparatively free flowing.
• Depth of underground hopper is required to be restricted.
The rotary tippler shall normally be considered for use when:
• The material is not comparatively free flowing.
• Depth of underground hopper is not required to be restricted.
• In case of side discharge tipplers, equipment and installation cost are lower due to reduced depth of receiving
hopper, minimizing civil work and foundation requirements.
• Rotary tipplers require four to five meters deeper underground civil construction work than side discharge
tipplers.
• Maintenance cost of side discharge tipplers is also low due to fewer component parts as compared to rotary
tipplers.
• However, the energy requirement of side discharge tipplers is much higher due to the lifting the wagon while
unloading. They also require heavy counterweights to even out the mechanical effort.
• In contrast, as rotary tipplers rotate the wagons about their center of gravity, no counterweights are required
and hence they are energy efficient. Rotary tipplers also provide faster duty cycles as compared to side discharge
tipplers.
Side Arm Charger
• There are different types of wagon positioning
equipment like side arm charger, beetle charger and
shunting locos. The side arm chargers are being used in
most of the plants in India as this equipment is much
faster compared to the others.
• Side arm charger is a marshalling device to position the
loaded wagon centrally on tippler platform one by one
for unloading operation by wagon tippler. Side arm
charger is a rail mounted machine used to pull the
loaded wagon along with the rake and push out the
empty wagon from the tippler platform after tippling.
Operation of Side Arm Charger
• The full rake of 58 wagons is brought in by locomotive and stopped with the first wagon within range of the side
arm charger. The locomotive is then taken away.
• The charger is driven towards the first wagon, its arm is lowered and it is coupled to the first wagon of the rake.
• The charger then hauls the rake forward by one wagon length and stopped. Here the first wagon is decoupled
from the rake. The charger then propels the first wagon on to the tippler table centrally, gets decoupled and
clears off the tippler. Now the wagon tippler is ready for operation.
• In the meanwhile, the side arm charger moves back to initial position for next cycle. In the next cycle, the rake is
drawn up by the one wagon length, and the previously tippled wagon is ejected simultaneously.
• The side arm charger is run on a separate pair of rails which runs parallel to wagon tippler rail. Approximate
travel length of the charger is 33 meters. Side arm charger’s movement on the rail is actuated by the rack and
pinion arrangement. The pinions are driven by hydraulic motors.
• The side arm charger is connected to the rake of wagon by a swing arm. The swing arm is raised and lowered by
a hydraulic system.
