GETTING THE MOST FROM YOUR SLINGER. Tips for operating with a Deflector with 2 of the most common applications.

As I am sure you know, I live and breath material placing. In particular the Slingers and the advantages they bring a project or company. The efficiency and savings they bring are irrefutable, no doubt. Now while I have been bashing on about the benefits of this equipment I have failed to cover some of the operating techniques involved with this equipment. So I thought I would start to cover some of this.

With a recent post we (Oryx Consulting) posted, a customer of a CAS FATBOY reached out and ask for some tips for using the Deflector plate. No sooner had we put an email together with some videos and pictures, there was another request, followed by a third. You don't need to tell me twice.......well actually 3 times Haha! It's obvious that the guys who are running this equipment could use a little help with some tips of the trade from time to time.

Now the deflectors (I am sure CAS call them something else), as we call them are a removable steel plate that is attached to the end of the Placing Conveyor. We use these in a lot of the pipeline equipment (which I have been around for some 24 years now) so they are second nature to me. We have modified many over the years to do different things. For example, splitting two “rows” in the bottom of a trench when backfilling and crazy things like this. 

The one that comes with your CAS Slinger is a basic, manually operated one and is primarily used for manipulating the product to aid in placing. Unless you have a TR30, then it is hydraulically operated. In its very basic form, if you put the deflector at 90 degrees to the placing belt, the material hits and shoots downward. Now when running like this for backfilling, you cannot shoot the material at great speeds. The only thing that will happen if you have too much speed is the material will hit and shoot up, out, down…..all over the place. This can be a little limiting if you want to “bulk backfill” a trench. 

In these situations I will slow down the PC (placing conveyor) belt but speed up the feed belt to give as much material as possible without overloading the PC belt. I will then start increasing the speed of the PC belt until I have a maximum “control-able” speed of the material. If you still are not getting as much material as you like then what I would do is kick the deflection a little past the 90 degrees to the PC. This shoots the material “out” a little and you can then increase the speed and feed a bit.

If you are looking to “sheet” a road, you turn the deflector upside down so the deflector looks like your cupped hand facing up. Now how much “up” rake you have on the deflector will dictate the spread of the material. What I mean by this is that if the deflector is angled up a lot, the material coming off the PC hits it and sprays up, like a fan. If you go up too much, it will just go everywhere. If you have too shallow of an angle, the material just skims off the deflector. 

Finding the right balance really comes down to the type of material and type of placing you are looking at doing. Once you have an angle that is working for the material you are using (different materials act in totally different ways) then you can start playing around with the speed. The faster you hit the material onto the deflector, usually the greater the spray that you get with a lighter material. You can really play around with this and the speed will effect different materials in different ways. I would use this “upward cupped” deflector for spreading materials on banks, batters and general landscaping type or spreading works.

While you are playing around with speed, you can also play around with the "feed" conveyor speed. More speed will give you more material. More material hitting the deflector will act in different ways. If you are spreading topsoil, I would be inclined to use a fast "feed" speed for volume and a fast "placing" speed which will give a good volume spray. Again, different products act in different ways so play around when you can.

Now if you do exactly the same as above but face the deflector down, this is used for a more bulk application of material and sometimes better control of the material. You could use this for the sheeting of a road but the above works better for light applications. 

The deflector is really something you can play around with. It would be beneficial to even go to a landscape or material supply yard and try it out to get some practice and better understanding of how they operate. Even the landscape or supply yard could get some videos for their customers as this equipment helps them and their customers out to no end.

As you gain more experience and understanding of this, it will become second nature. It will also significantly help with placing material with more efficiency as it spreads, sprays and directs material where it needs to go. Do not be afraid to try some modification to your deflector also to achieve something that suits your needs and applications. Some modifications can be as easy as wrapping some insertion rubber to form a chute or maybe welding on some chains to assist with spreading. There is no right or wrong, it's what works best with you and your material.

As always we are here to help to get the most out of your equipment. Having a fantastic piece of equipment is one thing, getting the most out of it is quite another thing. Productivity and efficiency is what we are all about here at Oryx Consulting.