A bulk loader system is disclosed that may include a conveyor unit in connection with a fuel-powered engine powering a hydraulic motor. The hydraulic motor may be used to operate the conveyor unit. The system may be configured to function while being mounted on a bed of a truck or be operated as a stand-alone unit. The unit may be sized such that an operator can stand on the deck of the truck along with the unit. The fuel-hydraulic powered motor can enable the conveyor unit to operate at variable speeds. The conveyor unit can be adjustable to facilitate controlling the direction of the material being transported via the conveyor. Some embodiments can include operating the hydraulics of the motor from the Power Take-Off (PTO) of the truck. Some embodiments can facilitate operation of the system in a hot or other harsh environment.

A bulk material shipping container unloader apparatus having a plurality of unloaders and shared triple redundant power and control assembly.

A shipping container vibratory loading and unloading system includes a shipping container having an opening therein for transferring cargo; a chassis, the shipping container disposed thereon; and a vibratory system being configured to transfer the cargo relative to the shipping container. The vibratory system may be used to load and unload the cargo.

A device is provided for transferring bulk materials from a vehicle through a grate to a structure disposed below the grate. The device includes a plate disposed over the grate and defining an opening smaller than the grate. The device further includes a hopper configured to rest on the plate between the plate and the underside of the vehicle. The hopper defines a bottom opening configured for alignment with the opening in the plate and a top opening configured for alignment with a discharge spout on the vehicle and the top opening is larger than the bottom opening. The device further includes means for moving the hopper to an operating position in which the bottom and top openings are aligned with the opening in the plate and the discharge spout on the vehicle.

A conveyor used with a harvester such as a wind rower has a chute at its discharge end with a deflection surface which controls the throw trajectory and thus the throw range of crop being cut. The orientation angle of the deflection surface relatively to the conveyor may be varied as a function of the particular crop throw characteristics to change the throw range of the conveyor as needed to form merged windrows of a particular crop while avoiding windrow widths which are too wide for efficient harvesting.

A road-making machine is provided in the form of a road-finishing machine for producing a paving layer from a laying material or a charger vehicle for supplying the road-finishing machine with a laying material. The road-making machine comprises a material bunker, and a pushing means fixed forward of the material bunker at a chassis, such that pushing rollers of the pushing means may dock to rear tires of a truck. The pushing rollers comprise a pair of first pushing rollers mountable in a first position in a seat of a traverse of the pushing means. Either the pushing means is expandable by at least one changeable attachment to which the first pushing rollers may be mounted in a second position further forward with respect to the first position, or the pushing means comprises a pair of second pushing rollers which may be selectively positioned forward of the first pushing rollers.

A conveyor used with a harvester such as a wind rower has a chute at its discharge end with a deflection surface which controls the throw trajectory and thus the throw range of crop being cut. The orientation angle of the deflection surface relatively to the conveyor may be varied as a function of the particular crop throw characteristics to change the throw range of the conveyor as needed to form merged windrows of a particular crop while avoiding windrow widths which are too wide for efficient harvesting.

The present invention is a modular system for delivering material directly to a blender hopper. The system includes primary base and optional secondary base modules supporting surge hoppers which receive material from material containers. The surge hopper may then dispense the material directly and rapidly to the blender hopper by gravity feed. During continuous operation, exhausted material containers may be removed from the surge hoppers and replaced with full material containers as material empties from the surge hoppers. This allows steady, high-volume flow of material to the blender hopper.

In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a conveyor skirt system, the system comprising: a support member; a series of skirting panels releasably fixed to the support member; a rail assembly positioned outside the conveyor, extending in a direction substantially parallel to the direction of the conveyor; and a trolley assembly mounted on the rail assembly, the trolley assembly being adapted to engage and support one or more of the skirting panels.

A novel method and apparatus of controlling dough feeding to process and portioning machines in automated processing lines is provided. The completed system can supply dough and dough like materials to a portioner and or allow it to continue its operation during a period of time when the one or more feeding machine needs to go to a mixer to obtain another load of bulk material, a refill cycle, and returns to a home station so as to resume feeding operations of dough. The desired effect is to have a feeding system that can both store dough to continue dough supply to one or more portioning machine(s) while the feeding machine(s) can go to a mixer to obtain a new batch of bulk dough and again return to home position where it can feed dough to one or more conveyor system(s) to maintain feed of dough to portioning machine(s) without an interruption due to stoppages in feed arising from the need for the feeder to go to a mixer and receive additional dough from the mixer and then return to the feeding conveyors. Additionally the controller allows for a variety of settings regarding the dough level and the portioner to prevent air entrapment.