Successful Caribbean installation for containerised weighbridge

Weightron Bilanciai have installed an export version of their highly successful Eurodeck weighbridge for leading Caribbean minerals company Trincarb Ltd at their upgraded aggregates plant on the island of Trinidad.

The modular surface mounted, 15 metre, 50-tonne weighbridge is specially designed to fit inside a standard 40-foot shipping container for cost-effective world-wide transportation. On arrival at site, the 1.5 metre wide sections are simply removed from the container and bolted side by side to form the requisite standard size deck modules.

The Eurodeck has an excellent reputation for strength and durability in the harshest of environments. Available in standard lengths of 9, 15 and 18 metres with capacities up to 80 tonnes, the weighbridge features fully welded stainless steel load cells and a special restraint system to minimise the damaging effects of harsh vehicle braking. The structural beams, which support a robust durbar deck, run lengthways, consistent with traffic flow and have sufficient depth so that they do not need stiffening plates. This gives a consistent, well-drained weighing surface, avoiding any build up of condensation. The unsupported span between these beams is only 165 mm, which means that with maximum loading in the centre of a standard module, there is minimum deflection.

It was a difficult task to decide which Weightron engineer should have to ‘suffer’ the Caribbean climate to install the bridge around New Year, but someone had to do it and seasoned engineer James Wilson drew the long straw. In this application, the weighbridge is fitted with Weightron’s CPD digital load cells, which were pre-calibrated prior to shipping to save valuable time on site. Once these were installed, only fine tuning was required to complete the calibration procedure. The weighbridge system took less than five days to fully install, wire, commission and calibrate, leaving just long enough for James to sample the sunshine and the local rum!

As James concludes: “It’s always difficult to know what might present itself in these sorts of far off installations and you can’t just pop back to the factory for a spare part. However, we have extensive experience working remotely and always ensure we plan such projects well in advance to avoid any problems. In this case, everything went like clockwork, even though the pace of life on the island is somewhat relaxed. The local engineers were very co-operative and they had done an excellent job with the foundations for the weighbridge.”