baffles

I'm baffled....

 

Call the MTO to find out. They will be able to direct you to the web site or someone who can let you know the requirement.

 

Food Grade I know can not be Baffled calle di hauled it in the past. Most Tankers are not baffled for one reason Getting them CLEAN if your going to change Products. Dealing with Surge or Slosh is just part of the job when pulling a tanker. Kinda a nice feeling when 48-50K pounds hits you right between the shoulder blades aint it.

 

DOT tanker design specifications allow baffles. You will find them mostly in MC 303, MC 306 and DOT 406 elliptical trailers usually aluminum and used for fuels. Not all of them will be baffled.

You also find them in Cryogenic 'thermos bottle' trailers used for liquid oxygen, Liquid nitrogen, etc.; we were told that feeling slosh in them was a sign that it was time for a re-build as the baffles had become detached.

Most chemical and food trailers will not be baffled, not because you can't clean behind 'em BUT because the shipper can't check that you got it clean. The technology exists but the customers won't buy it.

Slop is directly related to product density and weight. Sulfuric acid at 15.63 lbs/gal means a 48K payload is only 3250 gal.

Worse was a large tanker w/ a light alcohol or a thin solvent like acetone, you could put 7500 gal in an 8000 gal tank, it didn't slop as much as 'jiggle'...

 

It was always my understanding that it was for cleaning purposes. Most food grade shippers that I know of accept a wash certificate so there is no need to "check" and see of it is clean, and once you open the dome (or whatever access) to check then its subject to letting contaminants in anyway. You could have baffled chem. and food trailers but then you would have two or more dome lids plus most wash bays would have to retrofit to add more washers in line with the first one which is not feasible, nor is washing one compartment at a time.

 

Most MC307/DOT407 tankwagons have 'washout' caps running down the top, they are three inch nipples that extend up thru the insulation and outer jacket.

Most washbays have multiple spinners and have the capability to clean thru the washouts, especially when doing a 'pre-solve' on something like a fiberglass resin or some other gooey sticky and viscous product that has to be cut from the sides and top of the barrel.

These same openings are used to induce simple jets of steam when cleaning out evaporators like acetone and similar solvents like some denatured ethanol. Steam and a blow job is usually the cheapest cleanout.

The larger Sellers and Butterworth spinners are used for solution [detergent or caustic] washes and are placed in the manway often using a large 'false dome' on chain fall. These are usually fed by 2" hoses. At Matlack we used 50hp pumps to feed the solutions.

Compartments are a fact of tanker life, you usually pay the standard tankwash price plus a 'per compartment' fee for the extra holes.