“Ports must consider the objective of the equipment they are buying, in terms of dust emissions and what they are buying it for,” says Ian Barnard, owner of Cleveland Cascades.“If you just want something to get cement into a ship, a drainpipe could do it. But if you want control of dust and ease of operation, it is quite another thing.

“The problem with cheap freefall systems is that you create the problem from hell and try to suck it up with a hoover.”

Customers are demanding better and better dust control when handling cement and this is particularly the case when ports’ activities have the potential to impact on nearby tourist activities, says Mr Barnard.

“You have pressures from government,local bodies,etc. and you can have a real problem.” He says that when he goes to talk to a potential customer and asks what they want to achieve,“usually they only mention price.

“And that is nothing to do with dust control. Still, very few contracts are tied into environmental emissions – but it is starting to get through. Local authorities used to say you have to improve on that but they didn’t know what they wanted to improve on.

They are becoming more educated and starting to ask for levels of dust emission, etc.” Cleveland Cascades started out as a subsidiary of Cleveland Potash, successfully marketing its patented cascade technology for handling dusty bulk cargoes. The Cascade System creates mass flow of bulk material at low velocity, so minimising dust escape.The system eliminates air movement down the chute – and if no air escapes from the lower end of the chute, no dust escapes, and fan-assisted dust extraction is not required.

In 2004, Ian Barnard – one of those behind the original invention – bought the company from Cleveland Potash and relocated to a purpose-built 27,000 square foot facility on a nearby industrial estate. Since then the business has almost doubled in size, following the decision to expand into all types of loading systems, including freefall, tanker and roadloading chutes.

Handling cement presents a real challenge for operators, says Mr Barnard.“It fluidises extremely easily – it accelerates and is difficult to control, and falls through the hatch like water. And, of course, it sets like concrete if it gets damp.

A recent innovation from the company is the Cem- Glide system for loading cement to ships with closed hatches.“This system can monitor upward, downward and sideways movements of the ship, adjusting the chute to keep it in the hole at the top of the hatches,” says Mr Barnard.

Another new product is the Resitain (residual material containment) valve. This tackles the problem of material left over in the chute when the chute is lifted out of the ship.“Whatever is left in the chute can spill all over the quay,”he says.“This valve prevents that happening.We have supplied a dozen of these already – people are becoming more interesting in these sorts of products.”