Modern Mining May 2022

CRUSHING SCREENING AND MILLING

Kwatani expertise delivers bespoke solutions While vibrating screen specialist Kwatani is known for its heavy duty ‘engineered for tonnage’ machines, its depth of expertise makes it capable of precision designs on the other end of the size spectrum.

A ccording to Kim Schoepflin, CEO of Kwatani, the company is a partner of choice to fellow original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in minerals processing. These partners fre quently have applications where their equipment must operate within tight specifications, and which may have other specific requirements that a stan dard range of screens would not accommodate. “This is where Kwatani’s engineers and met allurgists put their extensive on-site experience – supported by the company’s in-house laboratory and testing facilities – to best advantage,” she says. “They develop solutions using the full range of our technology and intellectual property, from structural dynamics to metallurgy.” Designing screens for minerals sorting equipment is a good example, she notes, where Kwatani has precision-engineered solutions to suit the exacting demands of these relatively sensitive applications. Screens serving this niche have to make sure that all the particles entering the minerals sorter have been specially treated by the screen. “Our designs ensure that all the particles mov ing across our vibrating screen achieve the required velocity to achieve the precision movement and size fraction required by the analysers of the sorter,” she says. There are other restrictions that may apply in these applications, including the protection of vital electronic systems. This means that the screen design must carefully contain any water

Kim Schoepflin, CEO of Kwatani.

that accompanies the feed material, so it does not damage delicate electronics on equipment at the feed-end. At the same time, water must also be effectively removed from the material so the sorter can deal optimally with the final feed. It is crucial that slimes are removed from the feed, as this fine material could interfere with the performance of downstream analysers. The Kwatani solution manages this range of detailed require ments while still minimising the structural dynamics. “We recently designed a screen feeder with a dynamic underpan which integrated into the vibrat ing unit – so that it delivers a two-fold function,” she says. “Firstly, it could contain and drain away the water from the feed material, but it also acted as a subframe to reduce the dynamic forces on the structure.” This is important because electronic analysers

Kwatani double deck vibrating screens nearing completion on the assembly shop floor.

need to be protected not only from possible damage, but also from interference arising due to vibra tions in the proximity. This requires controlling the dynamic loads of the screen – both when it is run ning and especially when it starts and stops. Schoepflin says that Kwatani’s depth of screen-related knowledge places the company in a good posi tion to conduct these innovations. Delivering the basic duty – includ ing throughput tonnages, particle sizes and output specifications – is just the beginning of the screen’s performance journey. It then needs to achieve this optimally with mini mal structural vibration.

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36  MODERN MINING  May 2022