Pulling up at Vigan’s gates in Nivelles, just outside Brussels, there is not much initially to catch the eye. Other than the company name and logo above the entrance, and the knowledge gleaned from its website that the facility contains 10,000 m2 of floor space, there is little to give away what kind of company lives and works within.

1. Digital Re-print November | December 2013
PORTS: 70 guys in Nivelles:
VIGAN Engineering industry report
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2. PORTS
70 guys in Nivelles:
VIGAN Engineering industry report
by Richard Sillett, deputy editor
P
ulling up at Vigan’s gates in Nivelles,
just outside Brussels, there is not
much initially to catch the eye.
Other than the company name and logo
above the entrance, and the knowledge
gleaned from its website that the facility
contains 10,000 m2 of floor space,
there is little to give away what kind of
company lives and works within.
Entering the factory, which doubles up
as Vigan HQ, what it is that sets the company apart becomes apparent. The building’s
office space, corridors and meeting rooms
are dominated by photographs – floor-toceiling in some cases – of the many projects
the company has taken on at ports around
the world since 1968. A map of the world
on Vigan’s website tells a similar story: details,
images, technical drawings and addresses of
over a hundred of the company’s 1,200 total
projects are marked across Europe, Asia,
Africa and the Americas. It demonstrates
that although they are based in Brussels and
within easy reach of some of Europe’s biggest ports, Vigan is not only a regional player.
It also demonstrates a level of transparency and willingness to credit the customer
first that is rare in any industry. “A few
things are crucial for Vigan,” explained
managing director Nicolas Dechamps. “We
put ourselves in our customer’s shoes,
we’re not hiding from anyone. We know
all our customers by name, we know the
machine that’s at their port, and we know
the people who operate it. We’re just 70
guys in Nivelles, but we’re reaching out to
the world.”
Agribulk specialists
Vigan Engineering operates in the highly
specialised field of agribulk handling in ports.
Their core business – though not their
exclusive one – is manufacturing unloaders for ships and barges in grain terminals.
Corrosion is enemy number one for port
equipment. Most parts are hot-dip galvanised, but for larger pieces where that would
be impractical – like the crane cabins – the
metal is shot-blasted and treated with anticorrosion paint before the final colour layer
is applied.
Vigan components are shot-blasted
prior to painting
34 | november - december 2013
The Engineering Department builds
detailed 3D drawings for customers
Each port is different in terms of geography, capacity, and the markets they serve, so
each job demands a different approach, and
a bespoke design from Vigan. Smaller ports,
like many European canals, only require
Vigan to cater for smaller ships and barges.
These require shorter booms, which in
turn does away with the need for a counterweight. The machinery can be lighter,
cheaper and simpler, and the need for a
mobile gantry is usually removed.
Finished components after painting
&feed millinG technoloGy
Grain

3. Vigan equipment is pre-assembed on
site before shipping
Larger ports can contain larger ships,
which means longer booms and counterweighted unloaders. Gantries are a must to
raise the unloading equipment to the height
required, which brings the additional question
of how many. Port authorities have been
careful to try to save money by loading high
capacity machinery on the smallest gantries
possible, in order to maximise the unloading
efficiency and to reduce tie-up delays.
major competitors, the company provides
both pneumatic and mechanical systems
for unloading. The solutions aren’t only
different in terms of technology, and when
used effectively they can have distinct and
complementary functions.
Vigan’s mechanical unloaders work by the
combination of a feeder and two belts which
sandwich the grain. The feeder consists of a
central paddle wheel, with side screw con-
Towers in the process of pre-assembly: they will be broken back down and
prepared for transportation
And which agribulk material is passing
through the port? Grain is abrasive and dusty,
and pneumatic unloaders require significant
filtration. Substances like urea are quite sticky,
and can only be coaxed into flowing freely
with mechanical action. These are all worries
which port operators hope to be able to pass
on to their bulk handling specialists.
Pneumatic vs mechanical?
The problem of sticky and non-free flowing cargo also serves to highlight a strength
of Vigan’s core product range. Unlike its
&feed millinG technoloGy
Grain
veyors making sure it receives a continuous
flow of grain. Upward pressure is applied by
the feeder to bring the grain away from the
vessel and towards its destination. Pneumatic
unloaders, which form the vast majority
of the company’s sales, use turboblowers
direct-driven by high-speed electric motors.
These create a 0.5 bar vacuum to suck the
product out of ship holds. It’s a maritime
vacuum cleaner: indeed, Vigan has brought
well-known brands of domestic vacuum
cleaners and industrial turbines into the factory to strip down and test.
The unloader's cabin is pre-assembled
before shipping to the customer
So what’s the difference? At peak level
mechanical has a much greater flow rate
(up to 1,500 t/h, compared with a current
maximum of 600-650 t/h for pneumatic),
and is more energy efficient, since the
conveying system acts directly on the grain,
rather than on the surrounding air. However,
this doesn’t tell the full story. Peak loads are
one thing, but pneumatic races back into
contention at the end of the process, during
hold cleaning when most of the grain has
been picked up. The mechanical device must
work at full power trying to scrape up the
last bits of grain, and afterwards the vessel
still requires cleaning. The pneumatic system,
meanwhile, is optimised for these situations.
Taking an average across the whole process,
Vigan believes that their pneumatic system is
in fact more energy efficient.
“Think of a small spoon and a big spoon,”
commented Dechamps. “You go with the
big spoon first, but you still need a small
spoon at the end.”
There are other engineering challenges
to getting the most out of pneumatic conveyors. The pipes must be telescopic while
maintaining an airtight seal between inner
and outer pipes, to allow effective suction.
Across 25 metres of very hard steel, this
is a unique undertaking for designers and
fabricators alike. Air speed must be kept
down in order to keep the grains in pristine
condition. A change to boom design allowed
wider pipes, which maintained the suction
force on the grains while reducing the stress
placed upon them. Although the greater
complexity and number of moving parts in
mechanical unloaders increases the likelihood of breakdowns, pneumatic unloaders
suffer from wear more, which creates its
own maintenance and logistical challenges.
Ultimately, some customers require
a mechanical solution, often because of
the need to integrate unloading technology with other equipment already on site.
Dechamps is willing to keep a foot in both
camps, as a look at Vigan’s product range
will indicate.
“People are always asking, ‘pneumatic
or mechanical?’ We say ‘pneumatic and
november - december 2013 | 35

4. PORTS
Factory philosophy
It is the philosophy
within the factory that
Dechamps believes sets his
company apart from competitors. One reason for
Vigan’s huge facility is that
all equipment is pre-assembled there before being
shipped to their destination
(usually having been broken
back down again into their
constituent parts). “It’s a
huge amount of work,” he
Managing Director Nicolas Dechamps (left) with
explained, “because we do
a colleague from the production line
the job twice.”
“We’re unique because
mechanical. If you have a port, use both. The we control everything here at the factory. From drawing, to welding, to the final
two can complement each other.”
Vigan fights hard for market share with on-site assembly, everything comes through
the likes of Bühler and Neuero, who favour here. It’s a pain when you have to make
mechanical and pneumatic solutions for changes here, but a bigger pain to make the
continuous vessel unloading respectively. changes on site. We’re not just sending a
The decision to supply both reflects a larger set of parts to be assembled in Africa, Asia
split in port handling between continuous or anywhere else around the world. Our
and discontinuous unloaders, such as grabs. customers know what they’re buying.”
Sitting around the table at Vigan HQ,
Versatile, relatively low-tech and suitable
for a wide variety of bulk goods, salesmen Dechamps appears genuine in his desire to
for all those companies have a job on their build his company around his customers’
hands to emphasise the efficiency and loss- needs. After all, he’s in the business of feeding the world. A recent project in Djibouti
minimising benefits of continuous systems.
There’s a huge silo and a huge
vessel. And we are the link in
between
involved an unloading facility handling 85
percent of Ethiopia’s wheat imports.
“The people coming to IAOM have
a mission to mill and to feed, and we’re
proud to be part of that chain. Our growth
markets are where the population is growing and where the population is hungry. We
are very proud to be part of such a ‘good’
business.” Dechamps points to a photo of a
ship docked by an unloader. “There’s a huge
silo and a huge vessel. And we are the link
in between. And that part of the chain has
to be reliable.”
ite
we b s
ou r
Vi sit vigan.com
www.
VIGAN manufactures dry agribulk materials handling systems:
Latest references
• Portable pneumatic conveyors or grain pumps (100 - 250 tph);
• Pneumatic Continuous barge & Ship Unloaders (160 - 800 tph);
• Mechanical Continuous Ship Unloaders (up to 1,500 tph);
• Mechanical loaders (up to 1,200 tph).
as well as complete storage systems in ports and the agricultural industries.
PYEONGTAEK PORT
South Korea
1 NIV 400 tph
On rails with cable reels
LATTAKIA PORT
Syria
2 Mobile T200
2 x 250 tph
From project design to complete turnkey bulk handling solutions
and port terminals with mechanical and/or pneumatic
reliable and cost effective equipment.
SWINOUJSCIE
Poland (BUNGE GROUP)
1 Loader 600 tph
An affiliate company of VAN DE WIELE group.
VIGAN Engineering s.a. • Rue de l’Industrie, 16 • B-1400 Nivelles (Belgium)
Phone : +32 67 89 50 41 • Fax : +32 67 89 50 60 • Web : www.vigan.com • E-mail : info@vigan.com
36 | november - december 2013
Ann A5 victam 0212.indd 1
&feed millinG technoloGy
21/02/12 15:37:04
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