The Idea

Dry bulk like grains, certain types of ore and other minerals needs to stay dry at all times. Therefore, currently all bulk loading operations are depended on clement weather and need to be interrupted and suspend at the onset of rain.

The here proposed system for a retractable ship loading bay cover provides a protection against inclement weather during the bulk loading operation of bulk carrier vessels. The system spans a series of canvases over the pier and the vessel itself, which are fitted to arches that move along the pier supported on rails on the land side and floatation device on the water side. The system of arches and canvas can be moved and folded to one side to give space for the vessel to manoeuvre in and out of port.

The loading of the bulk carrier vessel require that the whole vessel is loaded and unloaded evenly. Therefore, the bulk holds of a bulk carrier vessel need to be loaded up or unloaded in parallel, so that the vessel as a whole is loaded to the same level in all compartments. This can be accomplished either by moving a cover and the loader system over the open hatch quickly or to cover a series of open hatches and move the loader system.

To ease the mooring of the vessels themselves the proposed system is retracted to make room for manoeuvring the vessel. Also, if the weather should be clement enough that the bulk material stays dry, the retractable ship covers do not need to be deployed. Most ports have already a very well established infrastructure and any system to protect the bulk loading operation against rain must be able to be fitted to existing facilities. The actual installation of the here proposed system will have little impact on to the on going operation of the port activities.

Addtional Information

There is an European Patent for this idea EP3124704 this patent is already expired

Here some useful links:
Bulk Carrier Guide
Wipidedia – Bulk Carrier
Port of Hamburg
Port of Rotterdam
Port of Antwerp
Port of Vancouver

Closing Words

Even though the patent has already expired, I would very much appreciate if you will let me know when you want to explore this idea any further. Since I have already put in quite a bit of thought into realizing the idea, I believe I could be of some use to future endeavours. But essential I would be very pleased, if something should come of this idea.