Capital Equipment News July 2019

MINING NEWS

FLSmidth’s Ferrocer panels offer longer wear life

Optimising screen economy Trials of FLSmidth’s FerroCer ® modular impact wear panels will soon begin in Africa, with tests being conducted on sites in Zambia and Mozambique. The game-changing panel represents a significant breakthrough in materials technology, providing significantly better wear life than conventional panels. “The design of the panel takes advantage of the wear characteristics of multiple materials, and its matrix combines the strength and mal- leability of steel with the abrasion resistance of ceramics,” says Zwerus Voges, Ceramic & Wear Solutions specialist at FLSmidth. Each panel weighs only 5 kg and can easily be handled by one person, meeting all the safety regulations for size and weight. The compact shape also makes the panels safe and easy to install using standard hand tools. Voges says that the panels have delivered longer wear life in various applications which has meant increased uptime for customer operations. FerroCer impact wear panels are particularly suited to high impact wear locations in a process plant, and these include chutes, hoppers, bins, feed boxes and vibrating screen boxes as well as Harsh operating conditions on vibrating screens demand high quality engineering and the strictest tolerances for unbalanced motors and gearboxes, or they simply do not last. Kwatani designs its own range of motors and locally manufactures gearboxes for its vibrating screens with a zero tolerance approach to quality. According to Kenny Mayhew-Ridgers, chief operating officer at Kwatani, local design and manufacture to the highest standard is therefore a non-negotiable. The company designs its own range of motors and locally manufactures the gearboxes for its vibrating screens. “We design our own motors with local condi- tions in mind, giving the customer a high performance and long lasting product,” says Mayhew-Ridgers. This includes optimal sealing arrange- ments for keeping electrical components dry and clean. Power cables, for instance, must always enter from the underside to prevent water ingress. The design must consider various orientations of the motor, depending on the angle of installation. Dusty conditions on mines also present a challenge. “Dust ingress can compromise the

FerroCer panels’ low weight, compact shape and ease of installation make them an ideal solution for retrofitting into high impact zones.

“Since the FerroCer panels were installed over a year ago, not a single panel has had to be replaced in that application,” he says. Based on the success of the original FerroCer panel design, FLSmidth recently developed the FerroCer ® 22 product for lighter appli- cations where the material size is smaller. The larger ceramic surface area coverage on the panel reduces wear on the steel matrix. These panels weight only 2,8 kg. b

reclaimer and loader buckets. The panels have excelled in nickel, gold, copper and zinc applications, and Voges cites an example where FerroCer impact wear panels provided a solution in a tripper chute application. At this mining operation the previous panels in use were having to be replaced every three to four weeks, resulting in increased unplanned shutdowns with associated costs.

Exciter gearboxes are engineered and manufactured in-house to the most stringent quality standards.

sealing configuration of the lid,” he says. “Our design is therefore like a top-hat, so the O-ring is not on a flat surface but rather on a cylindrical, vertical surface. There is even a double-sealing arrangement for the lid, which includes a gasket.” Kwatani’s gearboxes are fully locally manufactured, with only the high quality

bearings imported direct from leading global producers. Gearboxes comprise two shafts, each with its own set of unbalanced weights linked to each other by a gear to achieve synchronised motion. Gears and shafts are locally fabricated by selected suppliers, while the housing is cast by a local foundry and machined to exacting specifications. b

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS JULY 2019 36