2014 is an important year for Neuero. It is celebrating 100 years of manufacturering for the grain handling business. But when we arrive in late December, celebrations at the company were all about Christmas, with a tree in the lobby to compliment the array of blue and sliver Neuero equipment and apparatus photographs. It was December after all. There were at least another three trees elsewhere in the building and a Christmas angel on the factory floor too!

1. Digital Re-print January | February 2014
PORTS - A global company reaches
its 100th Anniversary
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2. P
PORTS
“we believe in a culture of
continuous improvement.
We also value simplicity,
the more simple a product
while maintaining efficiency is
always best. Easy to repair,
maintain, clean and produce.”
2
014 is an important year for Neuero.
It is celebrating 100 years of manufacturering for the grain handling business.
But when we arrive in late December,
celebrations at the company were all about
Christmas, with a tree in the lobby to compliment the array of blue and sliver Neuero
equipment and apparatus photographs. It
was December after all. There were at least
another three trees elsewhere in the building
and a Christmas angel on the factory floor too!
For the 50 staff at the factory in Melle,
Germany, the 2014 celebration will be low
key affair when they join with two other
companies by the same name but which
are each run independently, says Neuero’s
managing director Tomas Kisslinger.
“I used to think “wow 100 years!” but
really, things go so fast that it is more
important what you have done in the past
five years. Companies are changing so fast, I
agree that its good to say that it is 100 years.
But you cannot rely solely on that – you are
only ever as good as your last job.
“We must always keep in front and never
look back,” he says.
GFMT are visiting the Neuero company
manufacturing grain handling equipment.
Three cheers for Neuero, Neuero
and Neuero
A global company reaches its
100th Anniversary
GFMT interviews Tomas Kisslinger, Managing Director of Neuero
The three used to be one, but in 1988
split into three individual identities; Neuero
Industrietechnik, Neuero Farm and Neuero
Technology.
“We have all our bases here and share
the same founding – it has caused a lot of
issues with the post office. We keep the
name out of tradition; we are planning a big
event for our three companies and now just
trying to decide on a day for our centennial!”
Neuero has two key product lines:
unloaders and loaders. The company places
huge importance on its R&D effort, with a
focus on better understanding their customers’ needs.
“We are especially technically oriented,”
says Mr Kisslinger.
“The market for loaders is increasing due
to growth in Eastern Europe, the Ukraine
and Russia. It’s more spread around with
fewer producers for exports, and more
spread around with operators importing
grain.’
The big equipment goes to seaports. But
the company also serves the inland waterways of Europe.
While Europe and Russia are the company’s key markets, the Middle East is also a
good area for business with money for expan-
sion. Other areas, including India can become
important markets but have restrictions.
“It is a potentially large market, there is
a massive need, but there are other factors
that need to be taken into account.”
He points to manual labour where in
other parts of the world automation and
machinery would be more efficient.
“The issue is that a machine would be
more qualified for the job and more effective, but this causes unrest as there are so
many people that need jobs,” he adds.
A lack of market information
“The bulk handling market is difficult to
quantify – there’s no reliable statistic about
equipment need in the market you can
use to measure it. After all, what is bulk? It
includes coal and sand as well as grain, which
each present thier own challenges.’
Environment protection laws make permits hard to obtain for river operation, due
to factors like noise, dust and oil pollution.
“A big challenge is the need or willingness among industries to change the system
they’re already using,” he adds.
“However, politics in one country, or even
one region, causes everything to founder.”
Pneumatic handling systems have come

3. 31 | January - February 2014
a long way since the sceptism by some in
the past, indeed there still seems to be
some unfounded propaganda within the
industry, but this is based on outdated
information not applicable to our modern
systems.
“We buy the steel structure, we developed new blowers - which is a key component we developed in the last few years
- that make a big difference nowadays as
they reduce things we had in the past: pulleys, belts and bearing blocks – all of these
have wear and tear.
“We integrated the motor shaft so there
is nothing in between.
“Eliminating mechanical loss as well as
improving efficiency, control as well as safety.
Sensors for temperature and vibration allow
us to use bearings that can be controlled and
monitored,” he explains.
In mainland Europe, most of the market
is grains, meals and other feedstuffs and
some fertilizer. Alumina plays a part, but is
mostly loaded/unloaded at bigger, specialized
seaports.
For non-free flowing material, you can
use the Flexiport technology, which works a
bit like Siwertell’s device but with pneumatic
instead of screw conveying.
There’s a bigger machine used for fishmeal
in Norway with one under construction for
Marine Harvest. For example, a boom used
for grain unloading equipment is much lighter
than the heavy-duty fishmeal kind.
“Fishmeal is an unusual product to handle.
It’s sticky, not very free-flowing, and can be
Grain
very complicated. Capacities will be around
300t/h.
“When handling fishmeal you need to be
active, not passive.”
Stickier materials like fishmeal must be
cut and placed into the feeder, instead of
just flowing into the space left by grains that
are removed.
“You need stronger machinery for this,
and more power.”
The biomass challenge
In 2002 a new challenge emerged – biomass.
“There was a slowdown in the economy
at the time, so we took on the challenge.
Others followed, but only after us.’
Neuero found that for small ships unloading had to be continuous – with no stage
where you take the nozzle out and then
reapply it.
“That method takes too long, and results
in too low an average capacity. Biomass is
transported in different vessel sizes around
the world.
The use of mechanical systems may only
make sense if a single machine needs to
achive over 1.000t/h. It is however in many
cases better to have two smaller machines
for same cost but increasing efficiency.
In Indonesia, for example, Neuero
recently updated two unloaders of 1.000t/h
each that had been originally supplied
20 years ago. In this period of time no
major part replacements took place. They
extended some booms to get better reach,
&Feed millinG technoloGy
and updated the system back to original
capacity.
The miller coming from a company using
mechanical unloaders wanted a mechanical
system, but after the update, and realising
that with 20 years of working the machines
had required such an extremely low maintenance cost he is now totally convinced that
the pneumatic system is the best choice for
his company.
"Some customers are very traditional,
and request the use of roots blowers. We
respect their experience, but many things
have changed in recent years".
Another example of listening to clients involved those wanting the electronics
housed separately from the blower and suction equipment. Neuero built it in a separate
room that was air conditioned and insulated
from dust and sand.
“You cannot avoid new technology,” Mr
Kisslinger says.
“The mentality is going away from ports
and doing everything themselves. Mills are
getting very automated nowadays. There’s
not much willingness to take control of
systems and maintenance.
“A major mill said they didn’t want an
ATEX system - for preventing dust build-up/
explosion risk -, they wanted to remove the
dust at source.”
The big engineering priority for pneumatic unloaders is to increase the suction
power of the blowers. You can’t just increase
the volume because losses increase as you
do that.
ite
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P

4. P
PORTS
PLCs allow online control
The elbow bend, or any other part that
diverts the direction of the flow, is the most
energy-consuming piece of equipment. It
also has the greatest wear, and it is important
that it be checked from time to time. The
bend itself is 100 degrees, not 90 – Neuero
changed this because it’s more efficient and
better utilizes the effect of gravity on flow
rate.
Wear reduction strategies: Neuero recommend you rotate a pipe by 90 degrees for
every million tonnes of throughput. Although
this figure can come up or down depending
on the quality of the grain handled. Some
varieties, for instance Indian, as opposed to
cleaner Australian or Canadian grain, have a
higher sand/impurity content, which reduces
the life of the machinery.
“This is not just a problem for loading and
unloading equipment, but also for the mills.’
Improvements in technology: Neuero’s
standard is to lower the boom closer to the
ground for easy access to the horizontal pipe.
Pneumatic vs mechanical
“If you use only pneumatic, you have
a good average capacity’ [throughput]
Mechanical, not so much.
“Using both systems together can be
good, but in our experience it’s an extra
complication and clients don’t understand
why it’s necessary. It’s like travelling from
London to Hamburg and then getting the
train here to Melle. Better to have a solution
that does the whole job in one.
“And it’s better to have two 600t/h pneumatic unloaders than a 1200t/h mechanical
unloader, with all the cleaning equipment
that goes with it.’
In the Philippines a customer, a brewery,
bought a 600t/h pneumatic unloader and a
600t/h mechanical one: A rare opportunity for
a direct comparison between the technologies.
“‘It will be interesting to see the comparison over time,” says Mr Kisslinger.
Mechanical unloaders are less ‘plug and
play’ than pneumatic, you can’t just unload
the vessel and go. Cleaning is difficult when
grain has been mechanically unloaded – but
vital as otherwise the remnants rot and
contaminate the hold.
You must clean every detail to get the
most out of some unloaders as well. And
while it is not necessary to do it each time, it
should be done, says Mr Kisslinger.
“The problem with grain is if you don’t
clean properly, then mycotoxins will cause
contamination and the grain will become
rotten. To help us, the ship industry must
also make ships easier to clean.
“Today, at least the bottom is smooth.
You have some ships that have hull reinforcement in the transport hull, so how you
mechanically deal with it is impossible as you
may damage the ship,” he adds.
Neuero’s USP
“I believe that we’ve developed a lot of
high-quality equipment in the past years.
From bringing the horizontal pipe closer to
the ground, to the pipes themselves".
One area that the company saw as having
great potential for improving thier customers
experience, was in some of the ancillary
equipment that was supplied alongside thier
machines, and to this end made the bold
descision to take the design and manufacture
in these areas in-house.
As part of this program Neureo have
now developed thier own blowers and
winches to ensure they meet the highest
specifications possible.
"Sometimes we need to develop and
manufacture our own solutions when the
market does not provide one to the very
specific standards we are looking for. Today,
Neuero equipment has even better mechanical efficiency: For example, fewer bearings,
shaft connected directly to the impeller
(removing belt drive) are developments that
have come within the last 2 years
The programmable logic controller (PLC)
is another example of in-house development.
This equipment can be controlled from
the crane’s PLC programmable logic controller (PLC), which is more efficient from the
user’s perspective.
“All the troubleshooting can be done by
our engineers.”
The company offers the standard oneyear warranty with more for certain projects.
“We fully warrant for one year, although
some tenders require two years – so we
must add a little extra for that; because we
have to provide more components. This is
when the contract can get complicated.
“Even if the warranty is over and we feel
a problem is something we have made – we
will attempt to fix it.
“A hydraulic tank, where there was paint
on the inside mixed in with the oil causing a
hydraulic problem. It was seven years old, so we
split the cost with the supplier. Our approach
is to first solve the problem then to see who is
responsible, not the opposite way around.”
“Every day brings new challenges in our
business.
“Sometimes our clients need a special
conveyor for different heights. And our new
loading system can accomodate this, using
a counterbalance we can optimise it to the
client’s set up.
“It also has a dust suppression system built
in. It slows down the air/grain mixture, concentrating the volume of product and expelling the air. If you limit the amount of air, you
limit the amount of dust that can be caught in
it and spread around, this is very effective as
dust suppression,” adds Mr Kisslinger.
“The other advantage to this system is
that we get less wear.
“Wear is conditioned by the square of
the speed of the throughput, so the reduced
speed reduces the damage done to the
pipes. The best thing is that because there’s
no air taking up the extra space, the volume
of product flow is maintained.”
He says it’s a popular loader, and that the
company has sold quite a few in Russia and
the Ukraine.
“We have also had people ordering
complete projects from us.”
At the factory
“We are driven to solve problems, not boast
about them.” That’s the philosophy of the company and one that is promoted from the top.
By working closer together, the company
has developed a culture among the staff that
is supportive. “Your company’s knowledge is
based on its people. They’re the ones that
make the difference. You can buy in your
steel from elsewhere."
Hiring a new generation of engineers
helped Neuero take a step forward, he adds.
A new factory extension was completed
last year which helps with both assembly and
on-site testing. Equipment is assembled and
tested on-site, then disassembled and painted.
“All important equipment arrives at the
factory for testing before going out to
clients.”
Thursday at the Neuero factory is Sausage
Day. They order in 100-150 bratwurst and
have a barbecue each week. Everyone eats
at a long table.
“I have no special wurst,” he concludes
brilliantly.

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January - February 2014
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