the company

Dr. Harold Wright [PhD, BSc, MIMech, Mem ASME] is a director of Dr H Wright & Associates, a consulting engineering company that provides clients with very practical, operations orientated, experience from conceptual design through to commissioning in the field of storage, handling, transport and processing of bulk solids. He is the author of over 40 technical papers and is currently Vice Chairman of the of the IMechE's Process Industries Board.

Harold Wright began his career with Ashmore Benson Pease/Davy Ashmore, at the time one of the UK's largest plant design contractors. In 1966 he joined BISRA (British Iron & Steel Research Association) as a Senior Scientific Officer in the Raw Materials Handling Section of the newly formed Teesside Research Laboratories. During this time his mentors were Sir Charles Goodeve FRS, Dr George Wistreich DSc and Herbert Wilkinson BSc.

In 1970, under the tutorship of Dr JC Williams, he obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Bradford for work relating to the silo design theories of Dr Andrew Jenike.

Seventeen years were spent with BISRA/BSC as a specialist plant engineer solving problems in belt conveying, crushing, screening & test sieving, segregation, degradation and silo design and latterly as Head of the Materials Handling at the Teesside Laboratories.

In 1983 he stepped into the world of consulting engineering specialising in giving clients very practical, operations orientated, experience from conceptual design through to commissioning re the storage, handling, transport and physical processing of bulk materials. He is the author of over 50 technical papers in the field of bulk materials handling. Papers and seminars have been given in the U.K., Belgium, China, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and USA.

Past projects have involved advanced techniques covering bunker and silo storage including continuous laser scanning of bunker/silo surface profiles, chutes, screening, dust control, segregation, degradation, crushing, conveyer power requirements, feeder design, electrostatic effects associated with pneumatic conveying and handleability ranking derived from on-line moisture meter data.

He is an author of 8 ISBN publications covering topics such as (i) Bunker Design, (ii) Flow Aids, (iii) Degradation & Segregation, (iv) Screening & Test Sieving Theory & Practice, (v) Coal Handling and (vi) Rules of Thumb in Bulk Handling.

Over the last 25 years Dr Wright has three times Chaired the IMechE's Bulk Materials Handling Committee.

Harold Wright's specialisation is storage systems and he has been responsible for the design of about £50 million of bunkers, bins, hoppers and silos in the UK and other countries. His database of flow properties extends to over 550 bulk solids and powders ranging from arsenic trioxide to zinc oxide and includes about 200 U.K. and overseas steam and coking coals and a range of biomass materials. Over 170 projects have been successfully completed for over 40 clients in the UK and in 11 other countries. (website:- www.drhwright.com).

He was Leader of the BSI's UK Delegation over the period 1990 - 2000, on the European Union (EU) CEN - TC 148 - WG4 (prEN 617) Standards Committee re: "Continuous handling equipment and systems - Safety and EMC requirements for the equipment for the storage of bulk materials in silos, bunkers, bins and hoppers" (BS EN 617:2001).

On the 31st October 2001 Dr H Wright was formally retained by Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., (KHI), Tokyo, Japan, to assist in the setting up of a Marketing and Sales presence for the Flow Dynamics Conveyor (FDC) plus all their other Materials Handling capabilities in the UK and Europe.

At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Materials Handling Engineers Association (www.mhea.co.uk) held on the 25th April 2002, Dr Harold Wright was appointed Secretary of the Association. He has provided technical assistance regarding the planning of the BULK2001, BULK2002 and BULK2003 Technical Awareness Seminars all of which attracted over 80 delegates.

In June 2003, Dr Wright produced the 1st Draft of BS 8439 "Continuous handling equipment and systems - Guide to properties of powders and bulk materials"

On the 14th October 2003 at the IMechE HQ in London, Dr Harold Wright was presented with the Institution's Solids Handling Award for lifetime service in the field of handling, transport, physical processing and storage of bulk and powdered materials. The award was sponsored by Ajax Equipment Ltd.