Mechanical Technology August 2016

⎪ Materials handling and minerals processing ⎪

Above: Weba Chute Systems are custom-engineered to meet the specific criteria of each transfer point, and factors such as belt speed, belt width, material size, shape and throughput are taken into account. Right: Weba Chute Systems at the Isdemir Steel Plant in Turkey replace the conventional flopper door arrangement in the bifur- cated chutes with a custom-engineered articulating trolley section.

cant reduction in degradation with the sinter breakage rate dropping to 12.4%. This translates in to a 50% improvement. The noise levels recorded with the previous chutes was 95 dB, and this had a detrimental effect on plant maintenance as the permitted exposure time for per- sonnel at this extremely high noise level is between 30 minutes to an hour. This

made equipment inspections difficult and thorough evaluation almost impossible. Operating with the Weba Chute Systems in the plant has seen the noise level decrease by more than 10 dB to 83 dB, which allows a period of eight hours at this level of exposure. “The intellectual property of our engi- neers remains the crux of our innovative

custom-engineered solutions, however we do believe in complementing our practical knowledge with discrete ele- ment modelling (DEM) simulation as a verification tool,” Nienaber says. “Our primary objective remains engi- neering a tailor-made best practice chute solution for each and every customer,” he concludes. q

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Mechanical Technology — August 2016

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