System for Stacking and Reclaiming Bulk Materials

One mission of a material handling system is to stack coal, iron ore, fertilizer, and other bulk materials in piles, or to reclaim and move them from storage to another location. The operation of building a pile is called “stacking,” and removing and relocating operations are called “reclaiming.” Stackers and reclaimers are specialized for their respective operations, but a stacker-reclaimer is capable of handling both.
This system is indispensable at ironworks, power plants, ports, and mines. Kawasaki has been developing stackers, reclaimers, as well as stacker-reclaimers, based on its technologies for gantry cranes which load containers to ships and for ship loaders that load bulk materials onto ships.
A system of the size shown upper right is capable of stacking 2,000 tons of materials per hour, but there are also models with a 5,000 tons per hour capacity.