The most economical automatic storage facility using a stacker reclaimer system in outdoors applications. These machines are designed around a central column solidly anchored to the ground via foundations or piling. The reclaimer is located at the lower portion of the system, and is composed of a machinery room made of heavy plates and sections, connected to the central column using a large diameter sluing ring with gear.Inside the machinery room, two planetary type sluing drive gear reducers engage their pinions extending through the bottom of the structure, onto the sluing ring gearing, which is fixed with respect to the central column, thus allowing the reclaimer sluing movement.

At the lower portion of the machinery room structure, two smaller sluing rings connect the reclaiming boom to the machinery room allowing luffing movement of the boom, via a hoist drum and cable system located on top of the machinery room, and a hoisting boom attached to it. The reclaiming boom is fitted out with chains and blades for scraping the product from the pile and bringing it, via an elevating trough attached to the reclaimer machinery room, into a chute located around the lower portion of the central column.The chain device is driven, via chain sprockets, by one or two spiral bevel gear reducers directly attached to the chain drive shaft. The chain required tension is achieved by gravity using the catenary’s effect of the chain upper strand. A screw type take-up is used for positioning the take-up sprockets and adjusting the length of the catenaries. The reclaimer boom vertical load is equilibrated using large concrete counterweights placed onto the machinery room tail portion, at the opposite side of the reclaimer arm connection. This counterweight is calculated to optimize the overhang load that is applied to the sluing ring.
The reclaimer is equipped with a motor control center housing the electrical switch gear and PLC cabinet for both the stacker and the reclaimer. Electrical feed is achieved by bringing power and control cables through one of the legs of the central column into a box located inside the central column.
A cable chain system is used for allowing a full 360° rotation to the reclaimer if so desired. This cable chain system carries also the cables going from the motor control center and PLC cabinet to the stacker.

An operator cabin is located at an elevated level on the front of the machinery room. This cabin houses an operator interface terminal allowing full control and monitoring of the reclaimer and the stacker. Access to the reclaimer is arranged from the bottom level by a short ladder first to allow the reclaimer to come very close to the reclaim conveyor, and then by stairways and generously sized platforms. The top of the machinery room is receiving a circular platform giving access to the sluing stacker. The stacker is located at the top of the central column and could be designed to carry some of the incoming loads of the field feeder conveyor. A sluing support is attached to the top of the central column using a large diameter sluing ring with internal gear. If conveyor loads are to be accounted for then a second sluing ring will be placed on top of the sluing support thus allowing to have an incoming conveyor support that is independent from the stacker sluing.
The incoming conveyor can then be supported on this structure by using a roller system eliminating the horizontal loads due to the heat expansion and conveyor take-up loads. The sluing movement of the stacker is achieved using a planetary gear with spur gear pinion engaging directly to the sluing ring internal gear. The stacker boom is attached to the sluing support via tow pillow blocks and a shaft. Depending on the size of the stacker and also upon client’s requirements, the luffing movement of this machine could be arranged using hoist winding drum and cable or hydraulic cylinders and power pack. When hydraulic power pack and cylinders are used, the stacker counterweight is directly attached to the end of the luffing stacker boom for counterbalancing the boom overhang load and some of the product load. When cable hoist is used, the counterweight does not counterbalance the boom directly but only the sluing support.The hoist boom is equipped with conveyor pulleys, troughing and return idlers, belt scrapers, chutes and skirt boards, end baffle plate, and more generally all components required to design a safe conveyor system. The stacker is controlled from the operator cabin located on the reclaimer. It can build piles in two different manners either cone shell type piles (the best suited) or chevron piles upon request by the operator.