Material conveyor and silo unit
A material conveyor and silo unit ( MFS ) is a track construction wagon and is used to transport ballast or overburden as part of the ballast bed cleaning or subsoil renovation.
On the floor of each MFS there is a conveyor belt that extends over the entire width of the car . The rear face is closed. At the front end of the wagon there is a conveyor belt that can be swiveled to the left or right and is used for unloading or passing on the goods to be transported, so that the material can be conveyed to rail wagons, container transport wagons, trucks or stockpiles. For the power supply of the conveyor belts is below the rear frame of the vehicle , a diesel engine provided with hydraulic components.
The first MFS 33s equipped with hybrid drives have been in use on construction sites in Switzerland since 2017. In pure electric mode, powered by a battery pack, a full work shift is possible without emissions. This offers great added value, especially in the tunnel and agglomeration area.
Working method
Loading process
The excavated material falls from the machine (e.g. ballast cleaning machine or excavator ) onto the conveyor belt on the floor of an MFS, is transported to the transfer conveyor belt and handed over to the next MFS. This process is repeated until the last MFS in the train is reached. With this MFS, the transfer belt and the conveyor belt located in the floor are in the rest position until the upper filling limit is reached. Then the conveyor belt located in the floor is set in motion and free space is created in the transfer area of the previous MFS for further loading.
If an MFS is full, it is either driven individually or - if additional MFS have been filled - in a train formation to an unloading point and unloaded there through the pivoting transfer belts.
Unloading process
The transfer conveyor belt on most MFS can be swiveled and is therefore able to reach areas outside the track. After the transfer belt has been set in motion, the conveyor belt located in the floor is activated and the MFS is completely emptied. The unloading time of an MFS 40 (payload 33 tons) is approx. Eight minutes.
Types
A distinction is made between the following types:
- Material conveyor and silo unit (MFS 33)
- Material conveyor and silo unit (MFS 38)
- Material conveyor and silo unit (MFS 40)
- Material conveyor and silo unit (MFS 40 D)
- Material conveyor and silo unit (MFS 60)
- Material conveyor and silo unit (MFS 100-S)
- Material conveyor and silo unit (MFS 250)
- Tape storage device (BSG 60)
- Bunker bulk goods wagon (BSW 2000), corresponding to MFS 38
- Two-way MFS
literature
- Lothar Marx, Detlef Bugenhagen, Dietmar Moßmann: Working methods for the maintenance of the superstructure , Eisenbahn-Fachverlag, ISBN 3-9801093-7-2
