ABHR May 2020

www.bulkhandlingreview.com VOLUME 25, ISSUE 3 | MAY/JUNE 2020

In this issue: Bulk handling in the new normal How to turn your throughput ‘up to 11’ Choosing the right mechanical conveyor drive

KEEPING SAFE AND SUPPORTING BULK DURING COVID-19

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CONTENTS MAY/JUNE 2020

26

20

38

46

6 Industry news

30 Diacon safeguards bulk operations

36 Allied Grain Systems helps run Bordertown

14 Concetti bags a major pet food supply contract

32 Yalumba winery converts to bulk bag discharging of granular tartaric acid

38 Drying and cooling grain with ease

17 Bintech and SWR team up to release new sensor

50 Designing modular process plant buildings

18 Geared for change

54 New life for old conveyor pulleys

20 Bulk: An essential service dealing with the new normal

58 Taking it to 11

22 How green is your machine?

26 Going the extra mile 28 Polyurethane pulley solutions

62 Member profile: Sean Kinder

SILOS AND STORAGE

40 Tailoring silos for any occasion 42 Magnet for success

MOTORS, GEARS AND DRIVES 44 Kinder keeps motors clean 46 BULKtalk: Choosing the right mechanical conveyor drive

34 Flatpack silos: saving cash without compromise

www.bulkhandlingreview.com VOLUME 25, ISSUE 3 | MAY/JUNE 2020

In this issue: Bulk handling in the new normal How to turn your throughput ‘up to 11’ Choosing the right mechanical conveyor drive

KEEPING SAFE AND SUPPORTING BULK DURING COVID-19

GEARED FOR

CHANGE

GEARED FOR CHANGE COVID-19 has seen manufacturing centres temporarily close, causing shipping delays around the world. SEW-Eurodrive Australia, a manufacturer of indsutrial drive technology, has managed to keep its local supply chain secure and employees safe. ABHR speaks to Managing Director Robert Merola to find out how.

For the full story, see page 18.

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020 І 3

AUSTRALIA

EDITORIAL

Published by:

AUSTRALIA

REVIEW

REVIEW

Essential engineering 11-15 Buckhurst St South Melbourne VIC 3205 T: 03 9690 8766 www.primecreativemedia.com.au Publisher Christine Clancy E: christine.clancy@primecreative.com.au Editor William Arnott E: william.arnott@primecreative.com.au Business Development Manager Luke Ronca E: luke.ronca@primecreative.com.au Client Success Manager Janine Clements E: janine.clements@primecreative.com.au Design Production Manager Michelle Weston E: michelle.weston@primecreative.com.au Art Director Blake Storey Design Kerry Pert, Madeline McCarty Subscriptions T: 03 9690 8766 E: subscriptions@primecreative.com.au

www.bulkhandlingreview.com The Publisher reserves the right to alter or omit any article or advertisement submitted and requires indemnity from the advertisers and contributors against damages or liabilities that may arise from material published. © Copyright – No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the permission of the publisher.

4 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

It’s hard to believe that two months have passed since the last edition of Australian Bulk Handling Review.

So much has happened in that short period of time, it feels like every day has brought new announcements and responses to the growing pandemic. The bulk handling industry has not been immune to these changes, with new regulations and controls put in place to help contain the virus. On top of this, the long stretches of isolation have contributed to the days starting to blend into each other.

However, while the team working on ABHR have been doing their part to fight the coronavirus by working from home and practicing social distancing, that option is not open to everyone.

Employees working in essential industries are still required to provide vital labour. Without the workers within the mining industry, Australia would not have the coal it needs to fuel its power stations, the iron required to build our homes and infrastructure, or the minerals needed by the country’s manufacturing industry.

Further, workers are still needed to keep Australia’s agricultural industry moving, shipping grain around the country to ensure everyone has access to food. Some distilleries around the country have also swapped from spirits to hand sanitiser, turning their grain into ethanol to ensure local supplies can help protect the community during the pandemic.

The COVID-19 outbreak has also shone a light on how essential Australian manufacturing and supply chains are for businesses. Global supply chains have been affected, and it is not likely to be the last virus to do so. While smaller in scope, the H1N1 pandemic in 2009 also caused chaos for international transportation, food and tourism industries.

Unfortunately, business and political factors have created an environment that tends to favour overseas manufacturing. This has affected other industries, such as the automotive industry, alongside bulk handling.

On page 20, we speak to Fenner Dunlop about the importance of developing and maintaining a strong, local supply chain that helps keep jobs in Australia.

Finally, the team at ABHR would like all of Australia’s essential workers for their hard work keeping Australia running.

William Arnott Editor - ABHR

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NEWS

thyssenkrupp to supply Fortescue with country’s largest gyratory crusher The KB 63-130 type gyratory crusher is expected to be the largest installed in Australia.

THYSSENKRUPP HAS WON TWO contracts to supply equipment to Fortescue Metals Group (FMG)’s Iron Bridge Magnetite Project, including one of the largest gyratory crushers in Australia.

The company was awarded successive contracts to supply two gyratory crushers and a radial stacker for the project.

The Iron Bridge Magnetite Project is a joint venture between FMG Iron Bridge and Steel IB Pty Ltd. It aims to develop a new magnetite mine around 145 kilometres south of Port Hedland in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

The KB 63-130 type gyratory crusher

6 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

is expected to be the largest installed in Australia. The crushers will process raw iron ore material form the pit and transfer it to a receiving conveyor.

The slewing and luffing radial stacker will be used to stack secondary crushed magnetite ore onto a stockpile at the mine.

“We are proud to be part of this project and excited to install two of thyssenkrupp’s next generation gyratory crushers here in Western Australia,” thyssenkrupp’s mining business CEO Johann Rinnhofer says.

“These high capacity crushers are considered to be the largest and most

powerful in the world and are unrivalled when it comes to crushing blasted hard rock and ore.”

The Iron Bridge Magnetite Project aims to deliver 22 million tonnes of high grade 67 per cent FE magnetite concentrate product per year.

The first stage of the project was completed successfully by building and operating a full-scale pilot plant at the North Star mine site.

The second stage of the project will include the construction of a large-scale process plan and port infrastructure to support the production of 22 million wet metric tonnes per year.

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NEWS

BHP to hire 1500 to support economy BHP WILL HIRE 1500 ADDITIONAL people to support its workforce across Australia for the next six months.

The jobs will be offered as sixmonth contracts and will cover a range of skills required by BHP operations in the short term.

The company aims to support and bolster its existing workforce during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Roles will include machinery and production operators, truck and ancillary equipment drivers, excavator operators, diesel mechanics boilermakers, trades assistants, electricians, cleaners and warehousing roles across the company’s coal, iron ore and copper operations in Western Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia.

Jobs will be offered through existing labour hire partners and BHP contracts in each state.

Following the initial six-month contract, BHP will look to offer permanent roles for some of these jobs.

BHP says it will continue to assess the program and may increase the

The jobs will be offered as six-month contracts.

number of jobs available.

BHP Acting Minerals Australia President Edgar Basto says supporting the company’s people, communities and partners, safely, is the highest priority.

“As part of BHP’s social distancing measures we are introducing more small teams with critical skills to work dynamically across different shifts,” he says.

“The government has said that resources industry is vital in Australia’s response to the global pandemic. We are stepping up and providing jobs and contracts. Our suppliers, large and small, play a critical role in supporting our operations. It is a tough time for our communities and the economy. We must look out for each other as we manage through this together.”

New chairman for interflour THE CBH GROUP has appointed a new chairman of the Interflour Group Board following the retirement of Imre Mencshelyi.

Luke Bugeja, currently an Operating Partner at Hermes GOE and a NonExecutive Director for a number of portfolio companies, was selected for the role. He has held investment and operational roles at Qantas Airways, Virgin Blue, Macquarie Bank, Ontario Airports Investments and Changi Airport Group.

Mencshelyi retired from the Interflour Group Board in December 2019. He was appointed Chairman in 2005 following the forming of Interflour in a joint venture between CBH and Origold, which each hold a 50 per cent interest in the group.

The group has since grown from

having a daily milling capacity of 4200 tonnes per day across six mills to having a milling capacity of 7410 tonnes per day across 10 mills. It also operates the largest dedicated grain terminal in south Vietnam as well as a malt plant with a daily capacity of 360 tonnes per day.

CBH Chairman Wally Newman thanked Mencshelyi for his service and leadership during his 14 years at Interflour.

“Since Interflour was established in 2005, the business has grown significantly, diversified into malt production with the launch of Intermalt in Vietnam, and extended its service and product offerings for customers,” Newman says.

“Imre’s leadership assisted the Interflour management team during

the early period of change as well as in responding to the more recent heightening of competitive pressures in flour milling in Asia.

“While Interflour continues to operate in a highly competitive environment, efficiency and sales initiatives have resulted in improved performance, particularly from the core South East Asian flour business as well as at their Vietnamese port asset and the Intermalt facility.

Bugeja is based in Singapore and holds an MBA from Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia.

“I look forward to working with the Interflour Group Board and management as we continue implementing our strategy to generate greater value for our shareholders,” Bugeja says.

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020 І 9

NEWS

Ethanol producers ramp up manufacturing to keep up with hand sanitiser demand AUSTRALIAN ETHANOL producers have ramped up production to assist the Federal Government secure supplies for hand sanitiser manufacturing.

It comes as part of the Federal Government’s push to ensure local manufacturing can keep up with the increased demand amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

Industry, Science and Technology Minister Karen Andrews says manufacturers had already significantly increased their output and more was being done to grow that even further.

“I want to stress to Australians that we have the capacity and the raw ingredients here to continue to meet the increased demand,” Andrews says.

“Industry, with the help of government, is stepping up to meet the challenges being thrown at us by this virus.

“Our government will continue to do what it takes to ensure supply and increase domestic production of medical Australian distilleries are swapping from spirits to hand sanitiser to help fight COVID-19.

10 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

protection equipment – from sanitiser to masks to ventilators.”

Ego Pharmaceuticals manufactures hand sanitiser Aqium at its factory in Melbourne. The company’s managing director says the company has drastically increased how much is being made.

“In February we made five times what we forecast and our factory is now running 24 hours a day, five days a week,” Oppenheim says.

“We’re currently hiring to increase that to six days a week and we’ve stopped our little bit of exporting to prioritise Australian needs.”

The Federal Government has also approached ethanol manufacturers to secure the supply of raw materials.

Andrews says Australia’s producers have indicated they have capacity to make more pharmaceutical grade ethanol as needed.

“We have been helping to connect these producers with our hand sanitiser manufacturers, and manufacturers

are already placing new and increased orders,” she says.

Diageo, manufacturer of Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker and Bundaberg Rum, has pledged to enable the creation of more than eight million bottles of hand sanitiser by donating up to two million litres of alcohol to manufacturing partners.

It will provide grain neutral spirit at no cost around the world, with 100,000 litres of ethanol to be produced for the Queensland Government.

“Healthcare workers are at the forefront of fighting this pandemic and we are determined to do what we can to help protect them,” Diageo Chief Executive Ivan Menezes says.

“This is the quickest and most effective way for us to meet the surging demand for hand sanitiser around the world.”

In addition, one of Australia’s largest ethanol producers, Manildra Group, will also continue to produce ethanol around the clock.

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NEWS

Increased flour demand leads to bulk infrastructure boost New employees and infrastructure are helping keep up with demand for flour.

A QUEENSLAND ORGANIC grain company has been able to hire more people and expand its production capacity thanks to the growing demand for cooking ingredients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kialla Pure Foods at Greenmount, in Darling Downs, has hired six new people, including a musician whose gigs were cancelled and a miner whose work had dried up. All the new employees were redeployed after losing jobs during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Queensland Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries Minister Mark Furner says Kialla Pure Foods was one of 15 businesses in Queensland to receive a co-contribution Rural Economic Development (RED) Grant of up to $250,000 to improve their business under round one in 2019.

Furner says the grant was used to upgrade their blending system by installing a new mixer and packaging

12 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

“The new infrastructure, which has only just been commissioned, allowed Kialla Pure Foods to meet new demand for at-home baking and cooking products,” he says.

“The new mixer allows for effective clean downs between runs allowing them to avoid cross contamination between products, which is highly important when working with organic materials – and it’s proven very handy during this period of changing consumer demand.”

Kialla Pure Foods Managing Director Quentin Kennedy says orders started to increase in March and he had already seen a 300 per cent increase on previous fortnights.

“It was probably one or two weeks after the rush on flour in the main supermarkets that we started to see it move into our market in independents and health food stores,” Kennedy says.

“We very quickly moved to ramp up

production to catch up with demand.

“We wouldn’t have been able to handle it without the new equipment.

We’ve got more capacity with the new infrastructure, we’ve been able to double capacity on mixing and wouldn’t have been able to keep up with demand without it.”

He says demand had increased for all products, including 50 different kinds of grains and flours.

“We’re in a lucky position because COVID-19 has brought the focus back to food and food production. For a long time people considered food as a given but this has changed their views,” Kennedy says.

“With working from home we’ve seen a wave of home baking occurring and an increase in demand for flours.

“We’ve also seen a lift in the export side, which has driven demand and a fundamental shift in consumer value perception.”

Nominations open for 2021 Australian Bulk Handling Awards AUSTRALIAN BULK HANDLING REVIEW has opened calls for nominations for the 2021 Australian Bulk Handling Awards (ABHA), following the postponing of BULK2020.

The ABHA is the official awards program of BULK2021 and have been moved to next year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

All 2020 finalists will remain chosen and will be presented in addition to finalists for 2021 as a combined event.

Nominating is free and must be completed by 26 February 2021.

All products or technologies must be manufactured or commercially available in Australia. To be eligible for nomination, the company, project or technology must have been introduced, implemented or operational from 1 January 2019.

The finalists will be announced on Friday 5 March 2021, with the winners announced at a gala dinner on Thursday 15 April.

Nominations are open for the following categories:

Innovative Technology

• A technology designed to enhance bulk solids handling and processing.

• Nomination must demonstrate how technology improves bulk solids handling efficiency and cost-saving.

• Nomination must showcase how

technology improves at least one of the following: environment, production outputs, safety.

Dust Control Technology, Application or Practice A project that helps to keep dust creation in the bulk solids handling process to a minimum.

• Nomination must demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of the project to implement.

• Nomination must demonstrate how the project improves at least one of the following: health and safety hazards, explosion risk, environment, equipment maintenance costs.

Excellence in the Application of Gears, Motors or Drives A component or piece of equipment that provides a benefit to bulk solids handling operations.

• Nomination must demonstrate how the gears, motors and/or drives enhance bulk solids handling processing by focusing on at least one of the following: safety, efficiency, production outputs, cost-saving.

Excellence in Transport and/or Conveying A piece of equipment or conveying technology that moves bulk solids

materials from one location to another.

• Nomination must demonstrate company’s history and experience with transport and conveying of bulk solid goods, including any notable recent contract wins.

• Nomination must demonstrate how the equipment enhances the transport of bulk solids materials.

Best Practice in Safety A project or program that emphasises and upholds industry safety standards.

• Project or program may be internal to a company, or a marketable offering for the wider industry.

• Nomination must demonstrate practicality of project or program, with examples of implementation in workplaces to be included.

Supplier of the Year A supplier that is excelling in the bulk solids handling sector.

• Nomination must demonstrate scope of supplier’s services, looking at: locations, services offered, area of expertise.

• Nomination must be able to demonstrate supplier’s capabilities in at least one of the following areas: productivity, efficiency, sustainability, safety, cost-savings.

• Nomination must include at least one case study of a customer experience.

Bulk Handling Facility of the Year An outstanding facility that is for the processing of bulk solids materials, or manufacture of materials using bulk solids goods.

• Nomination must demonstrate how the facility enhances at least one of the following: productivity and output levels, cost-saving, sustainability, safety.

The Australian Bulk Handling Awards celebrate excellence within the sector.

• Nomination must justify the facility’s location and how this achieves positive outcomes for customers.

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020 І 13

NEWS

Concetti bags a major pet food supply contract CONCETTI HAS SUPPLIED A new version of its twin spout IPF 40 bag filling system to a British manufacturer of premium pet food.

Flexibility, seal appearance and integrity were crucial for the customer, which sells its product in the highly competitive supermarket sector.

The IPF can handle a wide range of bag sizes from 500 grams to five kilograms. The customer uses premade gusseted paper and polyethylene/ aluminium foil bags, which can come with handles and resealable zips, which the IPF can fill at speeds of up to 1800 bags per hour.

Concetti was required to supply a system that was flexible and ensured bags were appealing for the competitive supermarket sector.

14 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

Packs come in all shapes and sizes, with widths ranging from 140 to 300 millimetres and lengths measuring in anywhere from 270 to 600 millimetres.

Because of this, Concetti has included a variable geometry bag-holder that can adjust automatically to different sizes of packs.

Concetti has focused on delivering technological features that can improve the quality and shelf life of the product.

One example is the high-definition thermal camera, which is used alongside proprietary software to detect poor or potentially faulty packs by comparing each seal against a stored standard.

Imperfect seals are rejected automatically.

Two steered beam laser marking systems are also incorporated into the system. They analyse the bags before they are filled and look for flaws in the font, code or graphics on the design of each.

Cameras can then verify if the bags in the magazine match the selected program, and if not, reject the bag before it is filled.

The IPF 40 comes with servomotor control for most parameters, allowing rapid changeovers to occur in under 90 seconds. Quick release sealing jaws mean that different bag widths can be swapped easily when necessary. Plug and socket connections with built-in recognition check the jaws match the selected program. The machine has been supplied predisposed to permit a double seal if required.

Drop through metal detectors were supplied and diverters allow residual endof-batch product to be recovered without needing to be packed.

“Once again, Concetti demonstrates not just the product range and willingness to embrace new ideas, but also the engineering competence to integrate devices and complex solutions that match individual customers’ distinct needs,” Trevor Mitford, area sales manager says.

The system supplied to GA Petfood Partners is the first in the world to include this system for animal food.

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NEWS

Bintech and SWR team up to release new sensor SWR ENGINEERING, IN PARTNERSHIP with Bintech Systems, have launched a new microwave sensor specifically designed for continuous moisture measurement of solids during batching.

Named the M-Sens 3, the sensor monitors product flow for its moisture content and temperature, which can be used to detect how efficient the product stream is. Dusts, powders, granulate and other bulk solids can be constantly analysed to identify process failures, such as a defective screw or material clogging.

It does so by monitoring the material’s surface and capillary moisture, which influences the specific conductive capacity of a material.

This can then be compared to an averaged bulk density to determine if investigation is required.

In the result of a material process failure or caking around the sensor, an alarm can be sounded to ensure the validity of the measurements is high at all times.

The system is comprised of a welding flange, one to three sensors (each with a two-metre connection cable), and an evaluation unit in a wall-mounted housing of rail format.

The sensor probe is connected to the evaluation unit by a shielded, fourwire cable. The maximum distance between two components can be up to 300 metres. Precise, high-frequency measurement methods are used to gather data, which is then digitised.

The M-Sens 3 can provide accurate and reliable data for a number of different bulk solids handling operations. For example, installing the M-Sens 3 in a screw feeder can provide valuable insight on the process, as material passes by the sensor window in even intervals and with a relatively constant bulk density.

On a conveyor belt system, it can

The M-Sens 3 monitors product flow for moisture content and temperature.

measure moisture of the solids and allow operators to react in real time if material is too humid or dry, helping prevent plugging of aggregates.

Additionally, when mounted at a bin’s outlet, it can take advantage of the constant bulk density and almost unchanging measuring field for monitoring residual moisture. This helps operators stop material that is too damp from reaching the next production level.

The system itself has been designed for easy installation and calibration.

All an operator needs to do to calibrate the sensor is press a button and enter the referenced moisture content.

Measured fluctuations in bulk density and temperature are automatically compensated by an internal filter function.

Bintech Systems offers a range of pressure, level, temperature, remote monitoring and flow instruments for the petrochemical, water, chemical, food, oil, gas, engineering, pharmaceutical and dry solids industries.

SWR Engineering is a worldwide supplier of measurement and monitoring systems for powders, granules and dust. It is headquartered in Schliengen, Germany, and has been developing market-driven solutions for more than 25 years.

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020 І 17

COVER STORY

Robert Merola, Managing Director of SEW-Eurodrive.

Geared for change While COVID-19 has seen manufacturing centres temporarily close around the world, SEW-Eurodrive Australia has kept its local supply chain secure and employees safe. ABHR speaks to Managing Director Robert Merola to find out how.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, ONE OF the founding fathers of the United States, once allegedly wrote, “if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”.

This wisdom has been key to SEWEurodrive Australia’s response to the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic.

Robert Merola, Managing Director of SEW-Eurodrive, says he is used to planning for the unexpected.

“We always keep a large amount of stock available in the country because of

18 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

the tyranny of distance between Europe and Australia,” he says.

SEW-Eurodrive is a manufacturer of industrial drive technology, with its headquarters in Bruchsal, Germany. Its gearboxes, drives and motors have been used around the world for more than 85 years.

SEW-Eurodrive has operated the Australian branch of its business since 1982, where manufactured modular drive technology components are sent

to be assembled. Local sales, service and technical support are available to meet the individual needs of businesses in the bulk handling industry as quickly and efficiently as possible.

This method of operation is potentially susceptible to global supply chain disruption at the best of times, as heavy machinery needs to be shipped thousands of kilometres to its desired location.

Recently, Merola says transit

times from Europe to Australia have increased from required fumigations to combat the brown stinkbug, so the company was well prepared for further disruption.

“At the very beginning of [the coronavirus outbreak], we were advised that our production supply chain from France and Germany would be affected.

We made the conscious decision to stock an additional million dollars’ worth of inventory in Australia to ensure we could assist all essential services that would need our help during the crisis,” he says.

“We now have more than $30 million worth of stock in the country, which has insulated us from the effects of any disruption.”

In addition to local stock, there are around 28 containers of international stock on their way to Australia in various stages of delivery, with schedules back on track.

The biggest impact to the company’s operation was the dropping value of the Australian dollar. This made it more expensive to import goods from overseas and as a result a temporary surcharge was added and wound back as the economy began to bounce back.

Merola says staying well-stocked has been important to serving its customers with competitively short lead times.

“We provide our customers with what they want, when they want it, making adjustments where needed,” Merola says.

distancing requirements,” he says.

Staff who could work at home were then set up to allow them to work remotely, including Merola.

“I went in for a few hours a day to ensure the factory facilities are still operational and to help morale. About 67 of the around 250 people working at the company are now doing so from home,” Merola adds.

For two weeks in April, a skeleton crew ran production, while the company began to prepare its facilities to further encourage physical distancing and to deep clean the worksite.

Alongside a copious amount of hand sanitiser available for workers, SEW-Eurodrive has also implemented a temperature testing regime. All staff must be tested before they can enter the building, with a rotating sticker system to ensure that everyone knows who has been cleared.

“I’ve said to the staff that there have been no cases of COVID-19 at

SEW-Eurodrive, and the only way that it can get there is if it is brought there.

We want to provide a safe, hygienic workplace for all of our staff, which requires a team effort,” Merola says.

“Over the past 37 years of business, our main priority is to keep our doors open and ensure our workers can put food on the table for their families.”

Fast Fact SEW Eurodrive offers 24-hour support through a dedicated hotline and online support for emergency breakdowns and troubleshooting (1300 36 34 32). The company holds more than $30 million of additional stock to support the needs of the local industry. It has seven branches located around the country, including Townsville, Mackay, Brisbane, Perth, Sydney, and Adelaide and Melbourne.

“Our sales are up by around 30 per cent year-on-year compared to 2019, most likely due to bulk handling businesses looking to quickly purchase assets to ensure they’re also protected from disruption.”

Protecting its people Merola says the company’s main concern through the world-wide lockdown and spread of COVID-19 is the safety of its employees.

“SEW-Eurodrive are fortunate that our facilities are spacious and the required distancing requirements are already met, we only needed to ensure the break areas and times were modified to meet the physical

SEW has put physical distancing measures in place to protect its employees.

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020 І 19

COVID-19

Bulk: An essential service dealing with the new normal ABHR speaks to Fenner Dunlop’s Chief Operating Officer and TUNRA’s Operations Manager to learn how local manufacturing can support the bulk handling industry during challenging times.

IN THE FINAL MOMENTS OF 2019, the World Health Organisation was alerted to several cases of pneumonia symptoms in Wuhan City, in the Hubei Province of China.

The virus, which did not match any other at the time, began to raise concerns. Within weeks, the entire city of Wuhan was under lockdown and COVID-19 had begun to spread across the globe.

In March 2020, Australia began imposing social distancing laws, with State Governments moving to close nonessential services and major events to curb its spread.

However, Steve Abbott, Chief Operations Officer at Fenner Dunlop, says the option of shutting or slowing down wasn’t available to the bulk handling industry, as it is essential to keep powering the country.

“The industry as a whole is essential for its economic contribution to the country, alongside its support of key forms of infrastructure,” Steve says.

“Bulk handling is like the road or rail system. Without it, companies can’t get their goods to market.

“The mining industry in particular depends on conveyors. In many cases they are the only way to move the

product out of the ground and into a train or a ship. This is recognised by the mining industry - we’ve received letters from large mining customers recognising Fenner Dunlop as an essential supplier and service provider. This has been done to ensure governments understand our essential role in mining.”

Social distancing soon became the new normal for essential workers in the bulk handling sector, with major miners establishing their own methods of reducing risks to keep their employees safe.

Fenner Dunlop established a Crisis Management Team to oversee the

Fenner Dunlop has been manufacturing conveyor belts in its Footscray factory for 80 years.

20 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

“Our focus on local supply has been critical to responding to the crisis. We’ve seen global supply chains face uncertainty and disruption. This has put the value of a strong, diversified and nearby supply chain into the spotlight.”

Daniel Ausling, TUNRA Operations Manager

evolving situation. It has also ramped up site access controls, personnel hygiene measures and put additional screening procedures in place.

To date, no employee of Fenner Dunlop has tested positive for COVID-19, and the company has not seen a material impact on its ability to supply product.

At the time of writing, the company did not expect the crisis to have a material impact on future supply either, based on current available information.

Abbott says the reason for this is Fenner Dunlop’s business model is based on local supply.

“Fenner Dunlop has always had its own local supply chain for its materials.

Our business strategy has been to manufacture our components as close to our customer base as possible. We need to be able to respond quickly and ensure quality standards,” he says.

“Every conveyor is different. In order to provide the right engineered solutions for our customers, we need to understand them and have clear lines of communication with them.”

Fenner Dunlop manufacturers its conveyor products in Australia, with facilities located in Melbourne, Sydney, Kwinana (Western Australia), Brisbane, Mackay and on the Central Coast of NSW. This diversity and regionalisation helps reduce the risks to supply.

As a business, Fenner Dunlop has 1000 employees across every state in Australia. The majority of its workforce

are situated near clusters of bulk handling activity, helping insulate the business from restriction to movement across state lines.

“Our focus on local supply has been critical to responding to the crisis.

We’ve seen global supply chains face uncertainty and disruption. This has put the value of a strong, diversified and nearby supply chain into the spotlight,” he says.

“We’ve seen demand from customers rise substantially as existing customers begin firming up their own supply and customers that had traditionally bought from off-shore companies start to look local.”

The company has now begun to look to the future, taking the lessons the industry has learned so far and reaching out to policy makers to consider further support of Australian manufacturing.

Daniel Ausling, Operations Manager at TUNRA Bulk Solids, says the industry is as busy as ever, with enquiries up and no drop in business. However, he adds that it is possible a slowdown will hit the industry sometime in the future.

“It takes a while for the lack of demand to wash through the bulk handling industry,” he says. “The nerves are out there, and it may have an effect down the line, though it will

not be as steep as some other industries have faced.”

“I would like to think it would also put a spotlight on supporting the local supply chain after this, though there remain a number of political factors that make local manufacturing a difficult topic to influence,” he says.

Larger economies of scale and lower prices have made overseas manufacturing attractive to bulk handlers and seen much business move overseas, though this is not limited to the bulk handling industry.

Fenner Dunlop’s Abbott says that policy and regulation will be required after the crisis passes to ensure essential industries such as mining can be insulated against these global shocks.

“Governments, regulators and mining houses need to understand that if they want Australian made mining supplies, some form of local content legislation for supply to the mining industry will be required. This happens in other countries to ensure there is security of supply. ,” he says.

“The impact of the long-term decline of Australian manufacturing has been highlighted by COVID-19’s economic impacts. We need to make sure that this topic enters industry debate and reaches the policy makers.”

Fenner Dunlop has manufacturing facilities located in Melbourne, Sydney, Kwinana, Brisbane, Mackay and NSW’s Central Coast.

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020 І 21

SUSTAINABILITY

Advancements in drone technology have allowed for inspections that were not previously possible.

How green is your machine?

Automation, analysis and plant revamps are part of thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions’ push to modernise bulk handling operations and help reduce environmental impact. ABHR learns more.

WITH THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT of mining operations coming under increased scrutiny from environmental groups, it is becoming a high priority for mine owners and operators to ensure their plant and equipment are as efficient as possible to reduce emissions.

However, the current economic climate often means replacement of aging equipment with more modern, energy efficient options is not always feasible.

As an alternative, companies have begun to look to find ways to modernise their existing operation in a bid to reduce their environmental impact. thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions is one such company that offers these services to enhance productivity and allow natural resources to be used responsibly and efficiently.

It aims to do this by allowing clients to get the most from their existing

22 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

infrastructure as part of its ‘360 service’ approach. By providing plant and equipment servicing, technical and safety inspections, automation, optimisation and revamps, thyssenkrupp helps modernise plants and reduce energy costs as a result.

Modernising mines As part of thyssenkrupp’s suite of services to modernise plants, it can provide technical inspections and audits to detect and eliminate problems before damage can occur. In addition, it provides a comprehensive overview of the condition of existing plant and equipment and can give individual recommendations to increase the efficiency and availability of machines and components.

Scott Clenaghan, National Manager – Business Development at thyssenkrupp

Industrial Solutions (Australia) says the technological advancement of industrial drones has allowed for inspections of a whole new kind, making it easy to inspect larger areas in a shorter period of time.

“Due to their range and flexibility, industrial drones allow us to reach high and obstructed places, meaning expensive scaffolding or industrial climbers are no longer necessary,” he says. thyssenkrupp has a fleet of customisable drones, which can be mounted with different types of sensors as required. Cameras provide optical data to detect structural damage or erosion, and can be used to take high resolution images, videos and 3D scans. It is also possible to use thermal imaging to find thermal losses, pipe congestions, gas leakage points and more.

These data-driven services often act as the starting point for sustainable energy saving measures in plants and machine. Armed with the knowledge gathered through these methods, the operator can make better decisions about how to improve the plant.

Automation has become key to improving the safety and efficiency of mine sites around the world, with technologies that can be applied on different scales as required, from single machine to a fully automated site. “thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions takes a data-driven approach when it comes to automation,” Clenaghan says.

“Our ‘Evaluate and Predict’ portfolio includes solutions for the monitoring and maintenance of machines, with a focus on increasing efficiency and profitability.

Most plants and machines generate vast amounts of data which can be combined with digital and technical competencies and used to create measurable added value.”

For even more insight, thyssenkrupp can provide a 3D Plant Scan to create models and plans of plants that are accurate to within a centimetre. In addition, Internet of Things-capable sensors can allow for remote inspection and condition monitoring, predictive analysis, and digital telematics.

“These solutions help to future proof our customers systems, increasing the productivity and safety of plant and machinery, while reducing operating costs and downtime,” Clenaghan says.

“Digital products also help ensure compliance with safety standards. For example, solutions with integrated collision avoidance functions or sensor solutions that deliver directly measurable cost and productivity benefits.

“These sensors have been specially developed for the tough demands of mining and other industries, and they work efficiently and safely, even under the harshest weather and environmental conditions.”

Revamps and shutdowns Over time, the demands placed on production can change. As such, thyssenkrupp can provide a full revamp or renovation of a site to include the latest in process technology.

“Ongoing upgrades and modifications ensure customers maintain a competitive advantage through the entire life cycle of their plants and equipment,” Ian Austin, Manager Service Centre at thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions (Australia) says.

“However, time is money and reliable shutdown repairs and support in the event of any unplanned downtime is critical. “thyssenkrupp’s specialist maintenance services, repairs and revamps can be achieved in specific shutdown schedules and assist in emergency situations through failure identification, ad-hoc repairs and targeted improvements.”

The company often undertakes major shutdown projects throughout

SUSTAINABILITY

thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions (Australia)’s portfolio: • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• • • • • • •

Status analysis/Inspections Environmental analyses Feasibility studies Studies concerning the elimination of production bottlenecks (debottlenecking) Engineering and manufacturing of individual equipment Plant improvements Customer-specific revamps and retrofitting solutions Debottlenecking via capacity expansion Efficiency enhancement through equipment modernisation and upgrades Emission reduction Availability improvement Revamps and extensions, including EPC Supervision and execution of complex modernisation and extension projects, including EPC projects In-house basic, front-end und detail engineering Fully equipped heavy machining and fabrication workshop Manufacturing of individual components, with expediting/ quality assurance Customer-specific contract solutions for risk and profit sharing Shutdown management Management of plant shutdown Automation for increasing plant efficiency and safety

thyssenkrupp’s Brisbane Service Centre.

24 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

Western Australia’s Pilbara region and Australia wide, with jobs ranging from reclaimer bucket wheel change outs to gearbox change outs.

An example of its team in action can be seen when a reclaimer and stacker required maintenance at a mine in Newman, WA. thyssenkrupp’s field services team provided an original equipment manufacturer-based routing solution for its customer.

“Using our own specialist team of technicians in both mechanical and electrical disciplines, coupled with specialist tooling, we can provide expert solutions with consistency in execution and reporting,” Austin says.

“Our team know these machines like no other and perform routine inspections, rotable change outs, repairs, upgrades and structural welding to the highest standards.”

Not every shutdown is planned, so thyssenkrupp also specialises in emergency services. When a customer’s shiploader required an emergency slew bearing replacement, its teams worked day and night to replace the bearing and repair the damage and get the machine back into operation.

“Our client commended our team on the safety controls implemented for the high risk tasks required to have the machine back in operation so quickly,” Austin says.

“Our team can locally engineer and fabricate maintenance equipment to assist with any change out. We also have our specialised tooling and maintenance equipment managed and stored locally in the Pilbara, which allows for a speedy

response to planned and breakdown scenarios.”

Centres for service A global network of service centres providing connected support is what gives thyssenkrupp the resources to provide this holistic support.

According to Austin, these are hightech workshops, specialising in the complex processing of large wear parts for crushing, grinding, pyro processing and raw materials handling equipment.

“We provide fast, local and comprehensive assistance when it comes to supplying or overhauling strategic spare and wear parts,” Austin says.

“We also offer field service support, technical assistance, maintenance, inspections and further services as well as a fully equipped heavy equipment workshop with heavy machining and fabrication capabilities.”

The company has three such service centres in Australia, all fully equipped with supply chain backing, engineering support, and site service and installation capabilities.

Two of the service centres are located in Western Australia – one in Henderson, near Perth and the other in Wedgefield, Port Hedland – each provides more than 2000 square metres of dedicated space for multiple workshops and heavy industrial equipment. The Wedgefield site has the added benefit of maintaining a fully mobile workshop, consisting of boilermaker trucks, and a mobile workshop container.

The Wedgefield facility also has a dedicated machine for manufacturing Integrated Rail Joints for its customers

privately owned rail networks.

The most recent addition to the company’s service capacity was the Brisbane Service Centre, opened in May 2019. The operation has a full range of functions dedicated to the East Coast and Oceania market including project management and delivery, technical and engineering support, spare parts management including warehousing and field service technicians.

It has already proved central to a number of projects, including the planned shutdown of a shiploader to replace shuttle bogies and rails. thyssenkrupp provided everything for the job, from engineering pecialists to shutdown facilities, labour and materials.

Works involved air-arc gouging of 160 metres of fully-welded inverted rails, which required the erection of a 16-metre high, 40-metre long, 10-metre wide scaffold access platform.

Following the removal of the old rails

and bogies, the entire shuttle rail section was encapsulated for abrasive blasting and painting.

A jacking assembly with two, 250-tonne, hydraulic cylinders was installed on the bridge structure to lift the rear of the shuttle clear for

when the rail was removed, inspectors discovered significant stress fractures in the shuttle structure parent metal,” David Pickerill, Manager East Coast Services at thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions (Australia) says.

“The client requested thyssenkrupp

“Our team can locally engineer and fabricate maintenance equipment to assist with any change out. We also have our specialised tooling and maintenance equipment managed and stored locally in the Pilbara, which allows for a speedy response to planned and breakdown scenarios.” the removal and installation of the replacement bogie.

The new rail sections were thermite welded and trimmed to length on the ground before two cranes lifted the fulllength rail onto the support jig, where it was fastened to the underside of the shuttle for installation.

“During the shutdown, the site received more than 150 millimetres of rain across the two days. Further,

repair all cracks, validated by nondestructive testing, before 276 new rail clips were installed. The job was completed on time, with the client extremely satisfied with the results.

“The investment made by thyssenkrupp in its East Coast setup over the past two years has been well received by the market and the operation is expanding to match market demand.”

ENGINEERING

Azano started in Western Australia, but now provides services nation-wide.

Going the extra mile Service is engineering company Azano’s key to success when it comes to providing high quality, reliable solutions.

WHEN A LONGSTANDING CUSTOMER of engineering company Azano was having trouble with a bagging machine, the firm’s General Manager, Frank Oddi, hopped in the car and drove for hours into regional Victoria.

By the time he had arrived, it was one in the morning. Oddi explains that the machine wasn’t meeting the productivity objectives it was supposed to hit, but the problem couldn’t have been occurring from the machine itself.

“I knew it had to be something simple, our machines don’t just fail like that, they’re built with expertise to last,” he says.

Just as he had opened up his laptop, ready to download updates for the programmable logic controller, he noticed that someone had simply pressed a few wrong buttons and

26 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

changed the parameters. One easy fix later and the machine was back to normal, and that simple slip was prevented from ever happening again.

Oddi says Azano strives to go the extra mile when it comes to providing engineering solutions, aided by decades of engineering experience.

handling operation,” Oddi says.

“Sometimes they want a certain parameter, which we go and think about before incorporating into the design.

Sometimes we’ll also come back with a different approach that they may not have thought of, presenting them an array of practical options.”

“Developing the solutions takes advantage of our years of experience. We don’t just grab a manufacturing company and ask them to build us something. These are sophisticated items that have been tried and tested in markets all around the world.”

The company takes a customerdriven approach to eliminate barriers and provide cost saving efficiencies.

“We sit down with clients and work with them extensively to find out exactly what they’re looking for from their bulk

By listening closely to their customers, Azano gets a clear picture about the end objective and how best to approach it. Oddi says this clear understanding is of paramount importance, as it “means you understand

Azano takes a customer-driven approach when it comes to finding solutions.

what the customer is looking for, not what you think they are looking for”.

The company, established in 1989 in Western Australia, has spread across Australia to specialise in the design, manufacture and distribution of bulk packaging, filling and inspection systems.

Building relationships has been a vital piece of this growth. Azano ensures its

customers’ investments are protected through strategic partnerships with quality suppliers around the world.

Oddi says the equipment used in the company’s solutions are at the top end of quality, designed to last.

“Nothing we supply would be considered a throwaway. We take pride in providing a long-term, reliable product,”

he explains.

“Developing the solutions takes advantage of our years of experience. We don’t just grab a manufacturing company and ask them to build us something.

These are sophisticated items that have been tried and tested in markets all around the world.”

The company also partners with crews outside of its own expertise, making use of skilled electrical and control engineers.

Sales, service and manufacturing centres are scattered throughout the Asia Pacific region to provide the company’s customers with multifaceted support for food processing, weighing, packaging and bagging equipment.

Oddi adds that Azano also maintains a well-stocked inventory of spare parts.

“Our quality and reliability are what set Azano apart,” he says. “No matter the region, even if it’s international, if we have a customer, we make sure we can support them no matter what.”

ARE YOU A DESIGNER / MANUFACTURER / RESEARCHER / OPERATOR OF BULK SOLIDS HANDLING SYSTEMS / EQUIPMENT / STORAGE?

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PULLEY LAGGING

Polyurethane pulley solutions When a major conveyor maintenance company needed to replace damaged pulley lagging at an iron ore export port in the Pilbara, it turned to Elastotec for specialist support.

Conveyor CV05 Iron Ore Export terminal.

UNPLANNED DOWNTIME AND equipment failure have the potential to cost bulk handling companies millions of dollars in lost productivity, on top of hefty repair costs.

This is particularly the case for the mining industry, where conveyors transfer thousands of tonnes of ore every hour and operated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Elastotec Managing Director David Molesworth says that conveyor systems operating round the clock like this will inevitably suffer wear and/ or damage. High tension bend pulleys in contact with the dirty side of the belt are particular prone to wear and damage – this is due to the presence of carry back and also high localised shear forces that are generated in the centre of the pulley due to wear of the belt top cover that changes the belt profile. The more the belt cover wears the greater the localised shear forces and the greater the damage/wear of the lagging As a result, mining companies install pulley lagging onto their conveyors to help protect the pulley and the belt from damage and buildup. However, the lagging is also subject to the same conditions. If it gets damaged, it can expose the pulley shell and lead to further problems.

This is what a major iron ore port facility in the Pilbara, Western Australia, encountered on one of its high-tension bend pulleys (Pulley 3 1

3

7 5

2 4

6 Fig 1. Conveyor Diagram.

28 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

in Figure 1). The port operates 24/7 year round, with a handling capacity of around 180 million tonnes of iron ore per year, meaning the reliability of its conveyor system was critical to achieving the maximum ore throughput.

At the time, hot cast polyurethane lagging was specified for all nondrive pulleys by the port operator, however this requires removal of the pulley from the conveyor, and in this instance this was not possible. The lagging specification had recently been revised to nominate polyurethane lagging in place of the previously used Direct Bond Ceramic Lagging (DBCL) because of its ability to resist build-up.

Build-up from carry-back has been a problem on ceramic-lagged, nondrive pulleys in the region, causing belt tracking problems and damage to belt and belt splices.

The conveyor maintenance company contacted Elastotec to discuss the lagging options for on-site application. Elastotec’s recommendation was to install its 20-millimetre Plain Polyurethane (PU) lagging, which can be manufactured with bonding layers suitable for cold bonding or hot vulcanised applications. This was discussed with the port operator and the cold bonded

20-millimetre PU was selected because it could be applied with the pulley installed on the conveyor.

The 20-millimetre thickness was selected to provide a service life that would exceed the existing mechanical components, such as bearings and locking elements.

In December 2017, during a planned shut, the damaged ceramic lagging was removed and replaced with the Elastotec 20-millimetre PU lagging. In December 2019 a follow up check showed that the 20 millimetre PU lagging was still in service and was operating satisfactorily.

Molesworth says the company believes that rubber backed polyurethane lagging can successfully be used as an alternative to hot cast polyurethane.

“It can provide comparable service life with the added advantage of being suitable for on conveyor replacement of damaged or worn lagging,” he says.

“Hot vulcanised application of the Elastotec PU Lagging is always preferred as it ensures 100 per cent rubber tear bonding to the pulley shell and no joints between strips, however, like hot cast PU lagging, the pulley must be removed from the conveyor for this type of application.”

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SAFETY

Diacon safeguards bulk operations Conveyor safety guard manufacturer Diacon Australia has created a system that uses high-strength plastics instead of steel to protect staff on bulk handling sites.

CONVEYORS, LIKE MOST OTHER industrial machinery, can be dangerous if proper safety systems aren’t put into effect. With plenty of fast-moving components handling materials that can be hazardous to those nearby, choosing the right method of protecting workers is vital.

In 2010, Brendan Refalo, Managing Director at Diacon Australia, saw a need for significant improvements in conveyor productivity, machinery guarding, work area demarcation, and fall protection.

After around two years of research and development, the company had found a solution – the Diacon Conveyor Guard. The conveyor guard is a plastic mesh made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE), designed for easy installation and removal.

By using HDPE, the conveyor guards never have to be painted and there is no

Diacon’s conveyor guards are made from HDPE, which is much lighter than steel.

chance of rust or corrosion. On top of this, the system is significantly lighter than steel.

“HDPE is a very versatile material,” Refalo says. “It allows us to make specific adjustments to the guarding that just wouldn’t be possible with steel.

“It’s also very lightweight, which is a huge deal for people on sites that need to manually handle the conveyor guards.”

Additionally, because the conveyor guards are made of plastic, they don’t interfere with equipment such as metal detecting units or magnets.

The team at Diacon Australia has more than 30 years design experience, and has leveraged this to ensure the system is easy to use for bulk handling operators. For example, the conveyor guards come with an inbuilt hook that allows operators to hang them on a nearby walkway guardrail so they

don’t become a tripping hazard during maintenance periods.

The Diacon system is made up of three components – hungry boards, mounting brackets and guards. Installation only requires three steps: attaching the mounting bracket to the troughing frame, connecting the hungry board to the bracket with the locking wedge, and hanging and locking the safety guard panel to the bracket. During onsite installation no steps require hot work, removing a key potential hazard from the process.

All of Diacon’s guards are specifically engineered to meet the requirements of AS4024.3610-2015 for general conveyors and AS4024.3611-2015 for belt conveyors for bulk materials handling. In particular, the system focuses on the suitability of material for purpose, aperture size considerations relative to reach distance,

UV Resistant Diacon’s HDPE material has an expected life of 15-20 years in full sunlight. Long term sunlight exposure may cause colour fading and slight chalking of the surface.

The 10-millimetre thick material will still have more than seven millimetres of structural strength after this time. Lifespans exceeding 25 years is achievable with use of these guards inside conveyor galleries, tunnels, and other indoor or underground areas due to reduced sun exposure.

The same material has been used by Diacon’s sister company, Consolidated Plastics and Epoxy, to manufacture pump guards and drive pulley guards for more than 20 years, with all guards still providing appropriate protection in compliance with Australian Standards.

30 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

deflection criteria when the guard is under load, correct signage, and the ability to unlock through the use of a tool.

Refalo says Diacon designs and tests its guarding systems and products rigorously, using best practice manufacturing techniques and software.

“We use laser scanning equipment at a site to measure the conveyor system before designing the guarding on top of a 3D model that includes all of the potential interferences and obstacles,” he says.

“Then we can manufacturer the guards and provide a full installation that meets and exceeds Australian Standards in a full, turnkey package.”

Diacon has made additional design optimisations over the 10 years since the product was first introduced in Australia.

With decades of experience in the plastics industry and a significant amount of data from the field, the company is confident the Diacon Conveyor Guards are capable of lasting beyond 20 years.

Refalo says that Diacon’s experience in the market makes it one of the best in the industry.

Installing and removing the Diacon Conveyor Guard is easy to improve safety.

“We only use quality Australian materials to guarantee our conveyor guards can offer the longest life possible,” he says.

“On top of that, we are in it for the long-haul. Diacon doesn’t compromise on its quality and offers support through its network of distributors.”

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POWDER HANDLING

Yalumba winery converts to bulk bag discharging of granular tartaric acid When the price of liquid tartaric acid doubled, one Australian winery made the switch to bulk bags instead.

THE MODERN WINE BUSINESS is highly competitive, requiring successful wineries to keep up with changing consumer preferences and respond to fluctuations in the market price of key ingredients.

Such was the case in 2018, when one of Australia’s oldest family-owned wineries, Yalumba Family Winemakers, learned that tartaric acid would double in price.

In response, it switched from purchasing tartaric acid as a liquid, to purchasing it in granular form supplied in one-tonne bulk bags. This would require the installation of a bulk bag discharger with integral flexible screw conveyor.

Switching from bulk liquid to bulk solids Tartaric acid enables vintners to adjust and maintain the pH of grape juice as it turns into wine. At the correct pH, bacteria cease to grow, allowing the yeast to ferment the sugars while keeping the the wine fresh, lively and colorful.

“It’s a matter of getting that balance

Tartaric acid helps adjust and maintain the pH of grape juice as it is transformed into wine.

32 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

just right,” says Luke Wilson, Yalumba’s senior process engineer. But at twice the price, tartaric acid threatened to significantly impact the production budget.

Yalumba’s supplier of tartaric acid also offered a granular product in 15 kilogram bags, but manual dumping posed occupational health and safety concerns.

“It’s labour-intensive to mix into the wine,” Wilson says. “You’ve got an operator cutting open and emptying bags of 15 kilos. We purchase in the order of 100 tonnes of tartaric acid, and that makes a lot of bags to carry and mix by hand.”

However, tartaric acid in granular form was less costly, especially when purchased in one-tonne bulk bags, prompting Wilson to research a bulk bag discharger to handle the material.

Among his prime concerns was the equipment manufacturer’s experience at handling tartaric acid, and the ability of the equipment to operate with minimal human intervention.

Speed of delivery was also paramount, as the equipment needed to be operational

prior to the harvest of grapes. “We need it when we crush the grapes because we want to make all our pH adjustments early to give maximum protection to the wine,” Wilson explains.

Yalumba specified a Bulk-Out bulk bag discharger with an integral flexible screw conveyor from Flexicon Corporation Australia. The system was delivered and installed within eight weeks of order confirmation, allowing the winery to mix tartaric acid granules with water prior to the grape-crushing phase.

Transferring contents of an entire bag to the mixing tank The Flexicon BFF series discharger is equipped with a removable bag lifting frame used to forklift full bags from the plant floor into the discharger frame.

The flexible screw conveyor, Model 1450, transfers tartaric acid at a distance of three metres at a 48-degree incline at rates of 4.25 cubic metres per hour. All product-contact surfaces of the discharger and the conveyor are manufactured from 304 stainless steel, with the exception of the polymer conveyor tube.

A forklift positions the lifting frame above a full bulk bag on the plant floor, allowing an operator to connect four bag straps to corresponding Z-Clip bag strap holders. The frame with suspended bag is then forklifted onto spring-loaded PopTop bag extension devices atop the frame posts. A full bag compresses the springs, designed to progressively stretch the bag upwards as it lightens to compensate for elongation, promoting material flow through the bag spout.

To unload a bag, an operator pulls the bag spout into a hopper intake chute equipped with a side access door, sealing ring, and filter sock to contain dust.

Untying the spout’s drawstring allows material to fill a 110-litre capacity floor hopper. Side wall angles are engineered to promote flow into the charging adapter of the flexible screw conveyor.

“From an operations point of view, loading the discharger is quite simple,” Wilson says.

“The steady feed of tartaric acid mixes quickly and easily in the 2000-litre tank aided by an agitator.

At the conveyor’s inlet is a capacitive proximity level switch with a foodgrade Teflon shield. It is connected via a touchscreen programmable logic controller to a delay-off evacuation timer. Once the conveyor is started, it runs until the bulk bag is empty, stopping automatically after the level of tartaric acid falls below the low-level switch, and the delay-off time period has elapsed. This ensures that the full contents of the bulk bag are loaded into the mixing tank to achieve the desired 50:50 ratio of tartaric acid and water.

The combined actions of the spring-

Tartaric acid gravity feeds from the bulk bag into the hopper and is transported by the flexible screw conveyor into the mixing tank.

loaded bag extension posts, and FlowFlexer bag activators help achieve flow promotion. The activators raise and lower opposite bottom edges of the bag with increasingly longer strokes as the bag lightens. This raises the bag bottom into a steep ‘V’ shape free of dead spots.

The acid remains stable in the tank

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SILOS AND STORAGE

Flatpack silos: saving cash without compromise Building a silo from scratch can be expensive and time consuming, which is why bulk equipment manufacturer Transmin became the distributor of a fully containerised, bolted silo solution.

Additional equipment, such as screw conveyors, dust filters and powder valves are also available.

TYPICALLY, CONSTRUCTING OR installing a silo requires welding equipment and associated specialists to join the steel components together.

Often, this must also be done at height, adding potential safety risks to the process.

While this is an effective method for building durable silos, it can lead to higher installation costs than might be necessary.

To avoid this, Italian silo manufacturer Scutti has developed its range of silos to be built entirely through bolted construction.

According to Damian Thorpe, Product Manager for Reagent Plants & Silos at Transmin, these silos can be constructed like a Mecanno set, without sacrificing strength or durability.

“In fact, the Scutti silos can even be assembled on the ground and then lifted as modules for construction, meaning there is a reduced need to work at heights or use specialised hot equipment,” he says.

34 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

Scutti’s silos are manufactured in Italy, designed to be containerised and shipped anywhere in the world.

This allows the shipments to be made using existing supply chains and infrastructure, avoiding the need for specialised over-width or heavy vehicles.

Transmin, the exclusive distributor of Scutti products for the Australian market and can supply to the rest of the world, was attracted to this unique method of manufacturing and shipping.

“It was something the Australian mining and bulk handling industry hadn’t seen a lot of,” Aron Nicholson, Transmin’s Head of Supply Chain says.

“Scutti had also been developing the silos for more than 50 years at the time, and had been able to perfect its manufacturing process to build silos that would be suited for almost any situation, whether it was cold Arctic conditions, heat of the Pilbara or on fault lines in New Zealand.”

Transmin found the amount of flexibility valuable to its mining and heavy industry customer base. The silos can be set up in some of the most remote mine sites and installed by engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies that prefer to perform their own installations.

One thing that makes it easier for these teams is the amount of information and documentation provided by Scutti.

Building the silos doesn’t require specialists from Scutti or Transmin, with the economic benefits of on-site assembly making them cost competitive in the market.

Scutti also standardises its products, taking advantage of an economy of scale within its own manufacturing process and quality control, using Industry 4.0 technologies such as robotics.

Nicholson says Transmin and Scutti worked closely to develop a product that was suitable for the Australian market, modifying the silos to meet the Australian Standards.

“We’ve set up the silos so they meet all the wind loading, seismic, access and safety requirements to comply with the Australian standards by fine tuning and tweaking the designs,” he says.

“There are even incorporated designs for within industries and can provide different access points for specific plants or configurations if required.

If a more customised silo is required, Transmin can also offer its own in-house engineering.”

Originally built for the cement and lime industries, the silos can store most bulk solids, including, soda ash, sand, crushed glass, sugar or grain. Scutti’s silos have already been put to use in the Australian cement industry for many years. They are used to store and

then load trucks with cement, assist with water purification on mining sites and store sugar for refining into confectionary ingredients. Others have been installed at port facilities, using the modularised design of the silos to build square silos that make the most of the space available on the wharves.

Scutti and Transmin also offer additional equipment, such as screw conveyors, dust filters and powder valves along with the silo. In addition, the silos can be equipped with Scutti’s own condition monitoring system, WICOMSILO. Thorpe says the condition monitoring system is as easy to use and install as the rest of the silo and comes with plenty of “smarts”.

The silos are fully containerised, making transportation easy.

“The system is equipped to monitor dust filtration and has radar sensors to get an accurate indication of the levels within the silo,” he says.

“More importantly, they also come with an accurate and effective pressure

monitoring system to ensure the silos are not over-pressurised or under-pressurised.

To support companies during and after installation, Transmin also operates an aftermarket team made up of spare parts specialists, on-site service technicians and off-site engineers, based in Perth. These specialists are sent out to sites around the world to ensure any issues can be cleared up as quickly as possible.

In addition to the Scutti silos, Transmin is an original equipment manufacturer for the bulk material handing industry, with equipment ranging from rock breakers to low profile feeders, and the supply of conveyor parts via ConveyorPro, its conveyor business unit.

Thorpe says the range of equipment available to the company allows it to design fully-engineered turnkey solutions.

“Our product offering means we can provide the equipment for most bulk handling projects, whether it is for a lime preparation facility or a grain silo,” he says.

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SILOS AND STORAGE

Allied Grain Systems helps run Bordertown A sophisticated waste-to-energy system had the potential to slash energy costs for a South Australian oat manufacturer, but it required specific infrastructure – a live-bottom silo.

BLUE LAKE MILLING, AN OAT and grain manufacturer located in Bordertown, South Australia, processes around 24,000 tonnes of oat husk as part of its production process each year.

The oat husk, created as a by-product of the process, was sold to stock feeders to be used as bulk filler for feed pellets.

Blue Lake Milling is a 24-hour, fiveday-a-week operation, and was feeling the sting of increasing energy prices.

The silo has a twin auger at the bottom to remove material.

In 2017, the monthly power bill for the company’s operation in Bordertown was $50,000. By 2018, that number had reached $80,000 a month.

As a result, in 2018, the company’s chief executive officer Ben Abbot found a better, more valuable way to use the husk.

The solution was to use a process called anaerobic digestion, which involved placing the discarded oat husks in a tank of water with special bacteria to create methane gas, which could then be channelled into an engine to generate power.

“With the system that we are looking at, we would generate more than enough power ourselves; two thirds of it would go to the mill, and the remaining third could be put back into the grid, which is an added bonus,” Abbot says.

“It’s proven technology, and a West Australian company has also successfully adopted a similar system to process food waste.”

Bioenergy company Biogass specialises in providing anaerobic digestion systems for commercial and industrial waste and was selected to upgrade the company’s Bordertown facility.

As part of the scope of works, Biogass required a new silo to be constructed.

Oat husk is made up of fine particles and requires specialised equipment to avoid bridging or moisture hardening from interrupting the flow.

Biogass reached out to Allied Grain Systems, a provider of grain silos, conveyors and steel structures to build the silo, and to TUNRA Bulk Solids to provide a material analysis and design guidance.

Kristian Soini, Allied Grain System’s Project Manager, says that a live bottom silo was required for the project.

“In a regular silo, gravity is used to

36 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

move the product out and onto a conveyor below. However, because of the flow properties of the oat husk, that simply wasn’t viable,” he explains.

“Instead, we used a live bottom silo, which has a twin auger at the bottom that can take the material out effectively.”

The silo was designed with a specific opening on the silo flange, with a conical hopper angled to allow for material to flow most optimally.

Allied Grain Systems, based in Young, New South Wales, then set about installing the silo at the Bordertown site, around 900 kilometres away. The company operates its own truck fleet and was able to use its resources to coordinate the build.

At the site itself, space was at a premium. Usually, the roof would be built into place and rings would be added using hydraulic jacks, building it from the top down, before it is then lifted into place. At the site, there was only one concrete slab available for construction, which required additional crane work to ensure the silo was stable and secure at all times during

the construction.

Soini says the project was the first time the company had built a live bottom silo. He says the installation went well, with no surprises or hiccups.

“We had talked about building a live bottom silo for a while, but had never actually done it before. We were not familiar with the product, and thanks to TUNRA’s report, we were able to understand the product and how it behaves,” he says.

“While we specialise in grain silos, if we are able to get enough data on something to build knowledge, we can create purpose-built solutions.”

One of Biogass’ main reasons for selecting Allied Grain Systems was the company’s transparent and open communication style.

The two companies had previously not worked with each other before and to build trust, Allied Grain Systems endeavoured to be as communicative as possible during the project design, through to quoting and the installation.

Soini says Allied Grain Systems strives

to be as transparent as possible, letting their business partners know what they do and don’t know.

The company finds this approach useful when providing turnkey silo solutions. Allied Grain Systems first learns what its clients are looking for from a project before designing a product flow diagram, performing site inspections, and collaborating to decide what the best course of action is going forward.

Soini says building these relationships is critical, as it’s not something that can just be bought with money.

“People want to deal with people they like and can trust. That’s something that requires care and nurturing,” he says.

Part of this is supporting customers after installation. Allied Grain Systems offers a one-year warranty across all of its products and can provide support if there are any technical issues.

“We always provide support, especially for remote areas,” Soini says.

“One of the best ways of doing that is delivering a project so well that we don’t have to go back.”

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SILOS AND STORAGE

Drying and cooling grain with ease Ag Growth International plans to introduce a three-in-one cooling, drying, and storage silo to the Australian market to help local operators expand their infrastructure.

Ezee Dry can operate with a continuous, automatic operation.

REMOVING THE CONDITIONS THAT microorganisms thrive in helps keep grain in good condition for longer and protects crops from spoiling In regions such as the United States and Canada, the practice is widespread – especially thanks to the large corn and soy industries that require conditioning it in large quantities. However, according to Peter Forster, Business Manager at agricultural infrastructure provider Ag Growth International (AGI), drier climates such as Australia also have as much need for the process “Our air in Australia is quite dry in regions we can use, meaning we don’t just dry grain but cool as well,” he says.

“As a result, certain sectors such as the sorghum or macadamia industries have not been able to access drying technology they require on a scale that suits them. Large industrial drying plants are often overkill for these

38 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

operators and won’t provide a great return on investment.”

AGI’s response to this is the Ezee Dry Rooftop Grain Drying System.

Originally introduced in the US in the 1970s, the system places a grain dryer on top of a bin, combining the capabilities of a drying bin, cooling bin and storage bin into one package.

As grain is dried, it is dumped into the storage system below, reducing the need to include a dedicated dryer in an operation.

Keaton Frieson, Engineering Manager at MFS, says the system is excellent for operations looking to start developing their infrastructure.

“Its low initial costs allow you to add grain drying capabilities to an operation easily and affordably,” he says.

“The Ezee Dry offers an expandable system which allows you to grow your infrastructure without many moving

parts, making the system easy to use and learn. It also requires very low maintenance, keeping operations costs manageable and reduces the need for replacement and spare parts.”

Two main grain drying methods are available with the Ezee Dry – batch drying and continuous flow. Batch drying involves dumping a single batch of grain into the upper drying section of the system, where fans and heaters force hot air through an even layer of wet grain in the drying chamber.

Heat from previously dried grain is captured by outside air from the cooling fan and combined with aeration air to help dry the following batch, reducing energy costs.

When grain is dried to the specified temperature, fans and heaters stop operating and dump chutes are opened – either manually or automatically – to allow the grain to fall into the storage and cooling area, after which the drying chamber can be filled again for the next batch.

Ezee Dry can also operate with a continuous flow, which provides a 24hour, automatic operation. Under this method, grain is continuously dumped into the Ezee Dry, where the fans and heaters force hot air through the layers of grain at varying depths in the drying chamber.

When the grain is dried to the specified temperature, a set amount of hot grain is dumped and the chamber is refilled until there is no more wet grain. Temperature sensors in the grain column control an electric motor with hydraulic cylinder to automatically open and close dump spouts.

Frieson says the Ezee Dry system has reduced the amount of grain movement required in a facility, simplifying how operators dry and process grain.

“There has been a lot of development of the system over the

years to make it more efficient and effective, primarily around the fan and heaters to get a large amount of airflow through the ductwork and provide heat,” he says.

“The aeration system we’ve added to the drying ductwork is located on the side of the system, meaning there is no need for a separate pad of concrete. This lets the Ezee Dry be installed in a number of locations a standalone dryer wouldn’t fit.”

A number of design features are included in the Ezee Dry system to improve efficiency. For example, the use of solid eave flashing, instead of using perforation, forces air to move through the grain, speeding up the drying process and saving energy. It also makes the cleaning process easier and extends the life of the bin.

Dump chutes in the lower roof help to ensure even distribution of hot grain in the storage bin. By using gravity instead of belts or augurs, it reduces maintenance costs.

“Currently, we’re working on

adding AGI SureTrack capabilities to the control system, which will allow operators to use a mobile device to monitor and control the system,” Frieson adds.

AGI SureTrack enables farmers to make the most of the resources they have and assists producers to effectively manage inventories. It uses data to inform seed selection, irrigation and field management decisions and grain management.

Forster says AGI offers the technology through its local dealer network in Australia, which includes Allied Grain Systems and Harberger farm products.

“We work closely with our distributors to provide local expertise and support. They can draw on AGI’s global resources to help answer questions and provide solutions,” he says.

“They’re able to modify anything in order to meet the local standards and will provide spare parts and after sales support.”

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SILOS AND STORAGE

Tailoring silos for any occasion Founded by an engineer designing agricultural equipment for the local community, custom creations and innovation are still core to HE Silo’s business.

SILOS COME IN ALL SHAPES AND sizes, but for some bulk handlers, a more tailored approach is needed.

Custom silos have the benefit of being designed around the environment and systems they must work in, meaning they are often more effective than a stock model.

According to Stevie-Leigh Morrison, Business Manager at HE Silos, there has been a trend towards these custom designs as clients have seen a need to better meet storage requirements.

“We’ve had customers that operate breweries, pet food factories, flour mills and even a bean bag manufacturer that required a silo for the styrofoam balls.

We’ve even had requests for silos that could be pulled behind a ute, or situated high up to feed grain into the back of a truck with the press of a button,” she says.

“Each has had different storage requirements weren’t being met by a regular silo.”

HE Silos aims to help create a robust agricultural supply chain.

40 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

HE Silos, originally based in Hillston, New South Wales, began as an engineering company providing custom designs for the local agricultural industry.

This included anything from machinery and shearing sheds to commercial grain storage complexes.

While the family business has grown significantly over the past 50 years, Morrison says the engineering spirit of her grandfather hasn’t gone anywhere.

“We have a team of engineers that work together to design almost any type of silo, from a four-tonner to a 1000 tonne flat-bottom silo,” she says.

“We’re one of the only silo manufacturers in the country that have such a range of customisation available.”

Innovation and development are key parts of the design process. Staff at HE Silos are on hand to discuss detailed specifications with customers in order to create the right solution for a certain site and can then build and install it.

The company operates two factories, one in Forbes and another in Gunnedah, with custom designed manufacturing equipment, developed in-house. Morrison says this gives HE Silos a fundamental understanding of the manufacturing process. In addition, the factories make use of best-practice technologies and engineering processes to ensure maximum efficiency and safety.

As a result of its focus on innovation and design, the company has been able to keep up with market trends and offer expert advice for operators and farmers.

“We have all the resources available to provide a silo that is fit for almost any specification,” Morrison says.

“We’ve seen a great response from customers as well. They’ve seen the benefits of having a custom silo and find it allows them to expand their operations and provides a higher return on investment (ROI).

“We’ve had customers that operate breweries, pet food factories, flour mills and even a bean bag manufacturer that required a silo for the styrofoam balls. We’ve even had requests for silos that could be pulled behind a ute, or situated high up to feed grain into the back of a truck with the press of a button.”

“It’s important to us that we deliver the best ROI possible, because the company believe that every grain counts.”

Ensuring Australia’s food supply chain is well equipped is HE Silos’ mission, and has been working to provide the infrastructure required to make that happen. The company has helped farmers through times of drought and believes it has a role in ensuring the industry remains reliable in the wake of devastating bushfires and a pandemic.

Part of this is achieved by keeping the agricultural industry informed of the latest innovations and technologies designed to store grain.

Morrison says there is more to it than just placing grain in a silo, and that there

should be effort placed on maintaining the quality of the grain for as long as possible.

To help keep its customers and community informed, HE Silos launched an online platform with articles written by engineering and grain experts called ‘The Silologist’. The content aims to offer fast facts about the grain storage and agricultural industry that are easy to digest wherever someone is.

It also offers warrantees on all of the company’s silos, and can provide upgrades if a customer wants to continue developing down the track.

Morrison says the company has a few new announcements in the pipeline for 2020, but for the meantime, the focus is on providing overwhelming support.

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Custom silos can be designed to meet certain specifications to improve efficiency.

SILOS AND STORAGE

Magnet for success Small ferrous objects in a bulk solids stream can cause unscheduled downtime and thousands of dollars of damage to equipment. ABHR learns more about how magnetic separators can stop this.

FINDING FERROUS CONTAMINATION in a bulk solid stream can often be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Dozens, if not hundreds, of tonnes of material move across conveyor belts and into storage, but it only takes an errant nail in the mix to potentially cause catastrophic damage.

Ferrous contaminants come in many shapes and sizes, including nails, fencing wire, bar scrap, chains or even lost tools. They can originate from all manner of sources, such as a delivery truck, rail car or plant personnel accidentally dropping something into the system.

Tramp steel embedded into granular product can cause serious damage when it begins to move, capable of ripping belts, damaging conveyors, and other process equipment, or can create immovable bottlenecks. This then leads to production stoppages, grinding operations to a halt and cutting into production time.

Downtime in these situations can last anywhere from a few hours to several days, depending on the

equipment damaged. This leads to lost productivity and could also mean demurrage charges and expensive repairs.

Ezio Viti, Eriez Magnetics Regional Sales Director for the Asia-Pacific Region, says a simple way to stop this from occurring is to install a magnetic separator.

“Attention to product purity has never been greater and installing the correct magnetic separation equipment can not only eliminate metal contamination but keep production running smoothly with no unscheduled downtime,” he says.

“Magnetic separators are available in a wide variety of designs to remove tramp from dry or liquid products and this equipment can be tailored to meet any specific bulk handling need.”

Eriez offers a range of powerful, permanent magnetic protection designed for a number of bulk solids systems. It manufactures magnetic tubes, grates, plates, liquid line traps and grate-in-

Eriez manufactures magnetic separators of all kinds.

42 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

Eriez is headquartered in Pennsylvania, US where it undertakes significant testing and development.

housings in ceramic, rare earth and its own ‘Xtreme’ rare earth circuits.

Each type performs a specific task in the operation. For example, for dry free-flowing, granular product, a grate magnet may provide the best opportunity for the ferrous contamination to contact a magnet directly. Grates do the best job with vertical product flows, while plate magnets work well if the material is cascading down a chute.

Plate magnets are used in the bottom of an inclined chute or suspended above a thin burden of material on a belt conveyor or stainless-steel vibratory feeder to remove occasional pieces of ferrous contamination. Plate magnets are simple and economical to install and ideal for removing pieces of tramp steel.

Eriez uses permanent magnets in its line of separator products, which means that the magnetic holding strength of the magnet can last forever unless the separators are subject to extreme temperatures or gross mishandling.

Self-cleaning models are also available to reduce maintenance. The company designs and builds its separation equipment to perform in even the harshest conditions.

Viti says the company is a pioneer in magnetic separation, with a history that dates back to 1941 when the company’s

founder, Orange Fowler Merwin, began to provide magnetic separators to grain millers to protect their equipment.

“His customers complained that tramp iron found their way into the grain causing damage to milling equipment. Merwin investigated a new magnetic alloy called ‘alnico’, which possessed exceptional magnetic qualities, including a peak magnetic strength up to 30 times that of cobalt steel,” Viti says.

“He devised a permanent magnetic separator, sold it to a grain miller and Eriez Magnetics was born, which remains today, the world’s authority in magnetic separation solutions for industry.”

Eriez is headquartered in Erie, Pennsylvania, in the United States, but has established itself in markets around the world, including Australia. Besides its magnetic separation offering, Eriez Australia provides metal detection, materials handling and inspection Adv_australia_dic_18.pdf 1 14/12/18 equipment used throughout process 15:57

industries like food, packaging, plastics and chemicals, mining, aggregates, agriculture metalworking and resource recovery.

The material handling group comprises feeding, conveying and screening equipment to move dry materials with applications and capacities ranging from metering grams of flour to moving tonnes of coal.

The company’s technicians can also inspect bulk material equipment on-site and provide a detailed report outlining the best course of action for magnet installation. This can include preventative maintenance or replacing minor components, updating electronics, or carrying out a complete rebuild to original OEM specifications.

Eriez Australia provides its customers with full as new warranties, along with regular equipment checks, in-plant certifications and detailed reports.

Viti says most important is that Eriez understands the dangers associated with

Plate magnets are used in the bottom of an inclined chute or suspended above a belt conveyor to remove ferrous contamination.

handling permanent magnets.

“Its personnel are specially trained and follow specific job safety procedures to properly handle high-strength magnetic elements,” he says.

“Regular equipment checks, process audits and in-plant certifications by Eriez will help prevent downtime and maximise life. Eriez has the complete in-house capability necessary to service, repair and refurbish damaged equipment quickly and safely.”

MOTORS, GEARS AND DRIVES

Kinder keeps motors clean A dirty motor can suffer from overheating, increased maintenance requirements and constant breakdowns, which is why Kinder Australia has designed a cleaning solution.

ENSURING MOTORS CLEAN ON A bulk handling site is often easier said than done. Dust, spillage and other potential messes can easily clog up a motor’s air flow fins and reduce its efficiency.

This was the case for a major paper mill that supplied around 600,000 tonnes of paper to publishers and commercial printers throughout Australia.

Located in Boyer, Tasmania, the mill produces around 40 per cent of the paper used in Australian news print production and aims to provide innovative in logistics and services systems.

“In the past, the mill had used a custom metal covering to prevent the pulp building up on the motors, which in turn would reduce airflow over the cooling fins, resulting in the bearing temperatures increasing significantly,” Neil Kinder, CEO of Kinder Australia says.

“When one of the motors overheats, it

The K-Motorshield keeps dust, spillage or other mess from clogging a motor’s air flow fins.

44 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

needs to be rewound twice as frequently as a clean motor with free airflow. It was a necessary but inefficient manpower issue.”

In addition to the constant maintenance stoppages, the metal covers required regular washing, which lead to rust build up. This meant the covers needed to be replaced on an ongoing basis and became a costly option.

The mill reached out to Kinder Australia, a manufacturer of conveyor products, which installed its K-MotorShield Motor Covers at the site.

The K-MotorShield is designed out of lightweight and durable materials that can withstand a wide range of conditions common in bulk materials handling operations. They help prevent environmental debris and particles from destroying bearings, windings and brushed on drive motors, improving the overall motor longevity.

“The K-MotorShield Motor Covers are simple to install. Because they are made of fibreglass they are very lightweight and easy to manoeuvre,” Kinder says.

“They were put to good use at the mill, keeping the motors pulp-free and stopping them from running hot. They are a really fantastic low-maintenance and long-term return on investment product.”

The K-MotorShield motor covers have been used in hundreds of sites around Australia and across the globe.

Victoria’s Maryvale Mill is another example of a site taking advantage of the motor covers. The mill is Australia’s largest integrated fine paper-making and packaging papers complex, capable of producing more than 500,000 tonnes of paper a year. It operates three pulp mills, five paper making machines, a bleach plant, a pulp lapping machine, a finishing facility, and a waste paper processing plant.

Before it reached out to Kinder, the mill was not using any sort of cover for its motors. Because of the facility’s high material spillage rates, it began to experience regular winding failures, bearing failures and counterproductive motor temperatures due to the pulp contamination on the motor frames and air intakes.

Kinder says maintenance stops were becoming time-consuming and costly for the company.

“Installing the K-MotorShield Motor Covers couldn’t have been easier. It was a one-man job to fit because they are so lightweight and simple to snap on,” Kinder says.

“They have been very effective in minimising the pulp getting in the end covers and clogging up the fins that was causing the previous overheating problems. I predict significant cost savings for the mill in terms of money spent on the maintenance and repairs of the motors.”

Sites that require maximum equipment uptime and efficiency can benefit from the K-Motorshield.

Heavy duty for heavy industry Kinder’s K-MotorShields are ideal for use on sites with demanding production needs that require equipment to operate at peak performance for as long as possible.

One such site is a quarry located in North Western Victoria, which specialises in producing high-quality basalt products,

and was processing more than 100 tonnes of material per hour.

Routine site inspections found the motors under the secondary and tertiary crushers were unprotected, leading to a build-up of dust, rock and other debris.

Over time, this resulted in the motor drives overheating, reducing the operating

life of the motor.

The environmental factors also meant that in order to ensure maximum efficiency, maintenance work was required to manually clean the motors each day.

Kinder provided a number of K-MotorShield Motor Covers for installation at the site as a preventative measure to protect and improve the operational efficiency of the motors.

Following the installation, the quarry site found the motors were cleaner. This made maintenance easier, and reduced clean-up costs and downtime.

“The protective motors have reduced the amount of environmental debris building up on the motors, destroying bearings, windings and brushes on drive motors,” Kinder says.

“This effectively creates efficiency in airflow of up to 140 per cent through the cooling fins. Prevention of motors from overheating improving profitability through extended motor life was also a highlight for this installation.”

the pain of SAME

Whoosh, Clang...Sigh! Thud....

Whoosh, Clang...Sigh! Thud.... & the beat goes on, & ON!

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MOTORS, GEARS AND DRIVES

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Choosing the right mechanical conveyor drive STEVE DAVIS In his regular BULKtalk column, Steve Davis considers the basics of bulk handling that sites often struggle with.

He shares his insights gained from more than 30 years in bulk materials handling.

Steve has worked in bulk handling for 30 years, for both resource companies and professional engineering firms, in Australia, South Africa, the Middle East and Canada.

His experience encompasses such commodities as iron ore, coal, potash, phosphates, petcoke, sulphur, sands and grain.

Steve Davis, Senior bulk handling expert at Advisian, explains what to look for when selecting, installing and maintaining mechanical drives.

MECHANICAL DRIVES THAT HAVE BEEN installed and maintained well can last upwards of 50 years. Earlier failures or repetitive failures may be an indication of poor selection, operation or maintenance.

Most drives should be overdesigned for continuous operation to allow for starting, peak loads and temperatures, dirty conditions and upsets.

Define the conveyor operating parameters and check conformity once the drive is selected. Most drive components are available in step capacity ranges, and when combined may show some risk if not matched correctly. All components in a drive system should be capable of carrying the load associated with the worst-case operating conditions.

Electric motors will deliver power and torque to capacity unless limited. They can run at 110 per cent of their rated power or close to breakdown torque for some time. Motors will reach locked rotor torque on every start where the system is overloaded beyond capacity.

In our mining industry, upset conditions are common. Ensure that all drive components are capable of the upset loads or are protected by mechanical or electrical means. If not, reduced life and/or failure will result.

When a failure does occur, confirm the root cause.

One situation involved failure of three fluid couplings at the same time in a triple conveyor drive. The conveyor ran back, and much damage resulted. The owner blamed the runback damage on the concept of having fluid couplings and was trying to find a fault with the couplings. The root cause was that holdbacks had been removed, and brake maintenance was incorrect, so the brakes eventually stopped holding.

When the inclined belt accelerated backwards with a full load, the resulting speed of the coupling caused casings to explode under the centrifugal forces. There was nothing wrong with the couplings.

I have seen similar damage on a take-up winch maintenance drive, where the weight dropped and over sped the drive.

Figure 1. Brand new drive with motor, fluid coupling, high speed brake, bevel helical gearbox (Shute Upton)

46 | Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

Drive components are rated for power, torque, and thermal capacity, often with a defined safety factor for specific conditions such as shock loading and vibration levels.

Understand the relationships between the factors, as it may not be possible to run with all ratings at maximum. What are the potential upset conditions, and can these be limited by control or monitoring?

• Temperature extremes and duration, exposure, cleanliness.

Thermal ratings assume a clean radiating surface to radiate heat.

Direct exposure to sunlight can raise the surface temperature well above ambient, reducing cooling.

Cooling systems can extend thermal ratings, but is the added cost and complexity better than a larger drive component? If direct sunlight or spillage is unavoidable, add a shade/ shedder system. Components may need air breathers, and these must be suitable for the environment and not allow dust or water transmission. Simple plug filters are rarely adequate in a mining environment, consider heavy-duty wash down resistant desiccant and filter systems.

• Are all mechanical components capable of worst-case duty? For example, a perfect gearbox can be damaged through failure of an under sized coupling, hold-back or similar. Re-check all drive selections when the electric motor is selected as stall torques vary between makes by large percentages. Does variable speed operation change drive loading?

• Standardisation can result in undersized or oversized drives.

A horizontal fines conveyor with good feed control, and an inclined primary ore conveyor fed by apron feeder may have the same nominal power requirement and speed but will have significantly different operational loads. On one project my client requested only two drive configurations for all conveyors, resulting in some on the limit and many significantly oversize. Was this a good selection?

• Brakes and holdbacks are most effective when installed directly on pulley shafts, but also most expensive. High-speed brakes and holdbacks work through a gearbox and coupling, increasing modes of failure and stress on these components. High-speed brakes must be located on the gearbox input shaft, not the motor output.

Remember that any conveyor in Australia where uncontrolled movement could result in injury or damage should have two independent holding devices, both rated for the worst case.

• Lubricant selection impacts component life. Standardisation can result in use of inappropriate lubricant, leading to metal contact, high wear and temperature. Viscosity varies with temperature and may change starting torque demand.

Don’t assume all lubricants of the same grade/description have the same lubricating properties.

Inadequate lubrication generally shows after a period of operation.

Failure modes for bearings and gears are well documented, so easy to determine if lubricant at fault.

Upset conditions often result in damage or failure of components. We can monitor many things and shutdown if necessary, but we monitor the effect, not the cause. Damage may already have occurred. Temperature levels over thresholds, high vibration levels, high motor currents, contaminated lubricants are all the result of an upset.

Early failure of faulty components is always a possibility, and these failures can be rapid and difficult to anticipate.

If drives are critical, increase the level of non-destructive testing and quality assurance during manufacture and installation. Spare components and rotable drives reduce repair times.

Implement controls to limit impact from upsets. Examples include flow control (weight or volume), which limits the possibility of overfilling/ overloading the conveyor. Weighers must be calibrated and checked regularly. Correct installation of skirts systems and good chute design reduce the pull-out drive torque when starting.

Drive selection should allow for pull out when fully loaded with a bogged chute. Electric motor current and thermal capacity control can trip the drive before damage occurs. Electronic

“Drive components are rated for power, torque, and thermal capacity, often with a defined safety factor for specific conditions such as shock loading and vibration.”

• Consider lubricant sampling, filtration and change facilities to maximise life and cleanliness. Install ground level fill and drain lines for large oil capacity units to avoid manual filling. What components need automated relubrication?

• Installation and commissioning must be confirmed correct. Often a judgement call must be made on which upset conditions to design for.

Poor installation and commissioning upsets cause many early failures and reduced life. Check and recheck alignment, preassembled and prealigned drives can change during transport and installation. Check all earth paths as stray currents through drive components are a source of failure and a potential safety issue.

variable drive can be used to manage motor torque, limiting overload.

Load capacity can be reduced when temperatures are extreme. Automated and remote operation of materials handling systems can leave control settings open to abuse.

Selecting an example A typical shaft mounted conveyor drive consists of a four pole motor with high speed coupling, gearbox and low speed coupling mounted to a pulley. Demand power at design operating conditions is 195 kilowatts and motor starting torque is 3300 newton metres with a blocked chute.

We would normally select a 200-kilowatt or more likely a 250-kilowatt motor for power to give

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020 | 47

MOTORS, GEARS AND DRIVES

a margin, as calculations use many variable factors, and to give a margin for operating error. A good 250-kilowatt motor might achieve locked rotor torque of 3300 newton metres and could be accepted knowing the potential for a few aborted starts during the life of the system. Select a 315-kilowatt motor and Locked Rotor Torque is more than 4000 newton metres. Add an electronic variable speed (VFD) and move the motor torque curve to the left and we could approach 5000 newton metres breakdown torque at start up in an overload. Fluid couplings have a similar effect to VFD. Changing motor supplier or perhaps designing National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) B and buying NEMA C will change the torque values and possibly the power capacity of the motor.

Combining variability between different motors, control limits, and

Figure 3. Typical electric motor torque curves.

sizing couplings and gearbox (which also have stepped capacities and ratios) for the correct power and torque at all speeds to have an integrated drive

needs some thought. Stability of the electrical supply is also a consideration, as torque is voltage dependent and high starting torques draw higher currents.

The final drive system selection is a trade-off between cost, potential downtime and overall life reduction from exceeding component capacity during operation.

Poor and unsafe access for inspection and maintenance is inexcusable and can be designed out. If access is poor, inspection and maintenance are completed badly or not at all, leading to early failure.

For existing drives, many of which have many years operation and one or more upgrades, the design can be checked to confirm drive capacity. This could identify the root cause of any short service life and failure and lead to retrospective upgrades. Other than this, consider the measures included above to keep the drive clean and within capacity limits. Improve access if possible and add some monitoring.

System change

Figure 2. How much has the cooling capacity of this gearbox been reduced?

48 | Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

A common cause of early failure is change to a system without fully evaluating the consequences. The failure often occurs later and is not attributed to the change. Common root causes are: • Changing variable frequency drive (VFD) settings or oil fill on fluid couplings will change the torque that

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can be delivered and the duration of delivery. Changing to a larger motor generally increases power and torque.

Changed time, temperature and overload control settings may result in many aborted stops sending large forces through the conveyor.

A classic situation is to reposition a blocked chute sensor to reduce stoppages rather than mitigate the cause of the blocked chute. The load on the receiving belt increases in a blocked chute situation and it will not pull away. This doesn’t happen for several months. Analysis looks at drive components, motor and VFD settings, changes out the motor and so on, but forgets the sensor change.

Increasing conveyor throughput, because the motor draws less than full current at design load, and without considering the capacity of the mechanical components and additional upset loads.

Increasing speed and using drive components’ design margins can lead to early failures, and increased control and monitoring trips.

Use of a thicker belt cover to get better life. Almost any change to belt, idler rolls, chute and skirt design should merit a design check and a review of the likelihood of reduced mean time between failures.

• Often outcomes from change are attributed to unrelated issues. For example, drive coupling failure increased from never to every eight months after a conveyor upgrade. The coupling was replaced several times by different supplier units before a new engineer asked questions. Site had blamed quality and ‘forgot’ the upgrade. There are many similar examples, where an assumption is made that the cause of a failure was at time of failure.

• Lubricant specification change, extended oil change period without testing, changing filter cartridges to coarser filtration to extend filter life, bypassing filters, increasing oil temperature trip setting. These can all damage gearbox internals and bearings. Lubricants and filters are perceived high cost, and I have seen some failures through changing to save money.

I evaluated some bearings that were running hot after being in acceptable service for many years. Root cause was a change in lube supplier. The new grease complied with a poorly written specification and had a lower base oil viscosity than the old, making the grease inadequate. It took over a year for the problem to be reported after air and water cooling were used to lower temperature to avoid tripping, and at which time the bearings were unusable.

A final note when selecting drives: be open to options such as using motors with different synchronous speeds, gearless drives and other options. I selected a drive needing a 600-kilowatt motor to run continuously, but the staring torque for a few degrees of motion was much higher than this motor could deliver. We installed a low power pony drive with a one way coupling for break away with the main motor taking over after one revolution. Main motor and drive system were much smaller and cheaper, and we gained a creep drive for maintenance.

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PLANT DESIGN

Modules were assembled in China and then shipped to Port Pirie.

Designing modular process plant buildings Process plant design and installation involves a number of special loading conditions not covered by Australian Standards. David Arnold from Aspec Engineering explains how advanced structural analysis is required for such a task.

PORT PIRIE, A MULTI-METALS PLANT located in South Australia, is one of the largest primary lead smelting facilities and silver producers in the world.

To reduce emission levels at the plant, the site required a new furnace building, which would house a new top submerged lance (TSL) furnace and waste heat boiler.

Measuring in at 75 metres high on a 30by 30-metre base, the building would comprise of 4000 tonnes of structural steel, 2000 tonnes of mechanical and process equipment, nine major modules, interconnecting flat-pack floor panels and modular exterior cladding panels.

The furnace building itself was constructed in a module yard in China, with each module fitted out with mechanical equipment, process piping and electrical equipment. At this stage the 200-tonne waste heat boiler was installed, which was delivered in six subassemblies across three building modules.

50 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

The boiler’s ancillary equipment such as feed water pumps and steam drum were also fitted, as was the coal injection equipment, which included a coal silo and pneumatic powder handling equipment.

Assembling the modules in China was an important method of avoiding interferences with the smelter’s operation.

The Port Pirie smelter is a crowded, brown-field site, with infrastructure buildings and operational process plant surrounding the site of the TSL building.

This also meant the logistics of unloading the modules at the smelter wharf was key, as transporting them through the existing plant to the building site would require strict design limits for module dimensions and mass.

Australian design standards are written primarily for the requirements of designing conventional buildings for human occupation. Design loads for buildings are typically limited to a small

number of simply defined action types.

The complexities of process plant design require that these load types be expanded to separate dead loads and imposed loads into sub-actions.

For transport and erection of a modular building, additional actions must be considered.

Sea transport The furnace building modules were transported from China to Australia on heavy lift ships. Wind and wave actions on the ship imposed large inertia loads on the modules. These loads were often governed the design of columns and bracing, particularly for modules located higher in the building. Additional temporary bracing was usually necessary to resist the lateral inertia loads.

To secure the modules for sea transport, they had to be securely lashed to the deck of the ship.

Self-propelled modular transporters The modules were transported on land using self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs). Each module was provided with a temporary grillage to support the modules on the SPMTs. SPMTs are used around the world for moving large and heavy loads. By arranging transporter modules together in the required configuration, modules of almost any size could be handled.

The design actions imposed during SPMT transport are similar to those described for sea transport. However, the slow, controlled movement of the SPMT group imposes much smaller design accelerations.

Lifting The furnace building modules were designed for a four-point crane lift that involved loading and unloading from the ship for installation. A four-point lift was the basis for the design, with vertical slings attached to nominated lifting points on the modules. Standard,

200-tonne, working load limit pad eyes were bolted to the nominated lifting points while slings and spreader bars were arranged to distribute and share the load between them.

Additional temporary bracing was necessary to transfer the module loads to the lifting points.

The process equipment was a large proportion of the live loads imposed on the TSL furnace building structure. The loads were assessed and applied to allow for the range of operating scenarios that may occur during the life of the plant.

An area live load of five kilopascals usually provides an adequate allowance for personnel access, material laydown, and process spillage on the operating floors of a process plant. To cater for the special maintenance requirements of the TSL furnace, floor live loads of up to 25 kilopascals were applied in specifically nominated areas of the furnace building.

Wind loads, including allowance for dynamic effects, were applied to the TSL furnace building in accordance with

AS1170.2. Different design wind speeds were used for the various phases of the building life.

The TSL building is supported on deep piles bored into deep soft clays. The soils, in combination with a relatively high site hazard factor, resulted in relatively high seismic loads

by Australian standards. However, for overall design of the building, wind loads exceeded the seismic loads.

Analysis of the different structural configurations, boundary conditions, and transport loading scenarios would typically require breaking up the building analysis model into separate models for each module, with individual models modified to suit the shipping and transport loading requirements.

This approach is both time consuming and a potential source of design error. With suitable software, the analysis and design of the individual modules, and of the completed building, can all be performed within the one model.

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PLANT DESIGN

applied to transport, lifting, operating loads, equipment moving loads, wind loads, and seismic loads.

The load combinations defined in AS1170.0 do not adequately cover the complexities of the loading scenarios applicable to process plant design.

Imposed loads for peak operating and extreme operating conditions in a process plant have a lower probability of exceedance than the normal operating loads.

For example, it is virtually impossible to exceed a flooded process vessel load that is based on upper bound values for both filled volume and contents density.

The Port Pirie smelting facility is one of the largest primary lead and silver producers in the world.

Software Analysis of the building was performed using Strand7 software. Strand7 provides a number of advanced modelling features which were particularly useful for the analysis of the furnace building, such as definition and analysis of multiple boundary conditions, definitions of analysis stages and the ability to graphically copy and paste models into other models.

Design of the steel framing members was completed using BCDsteel software.

BCDsteel accesses the Strand7 analysis results to perform code checks in accordance with AS4100, and provides graphical output of member capacity utilisation ratios.

Modelling strategy The magnitude of the design task required the workload to be shared across a team of structural engineers. To ensure efficient coordination of the team effort, a modelling strategy was implemented.

This included the creation of a master model template that incorporated a standardised section library, primary framing to define building grids, floor levels, columns and module splits, and primary load cases for all loads. In addition, the master model included element groups, analysis stages, load combinations and freedom cases for all design scenarios.

Individual engineers developed detailed designs for individual building floors using the master model template, which they then copied into the master

52 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

model. Following this, designs for transport bracing and grillages for the individual modules were also developed and included in the master model.

A column and bracing design was then created before a final code check for all design scenarios was performed in the master model. Any subsequent design changes were implemented only in the master model.

Load application The transporting and handling of the modules involved inertia loads in various directions. By using non-structural masses for all structure and equipment dead loads, in conjunction with relevant accelerations, the application of these inertia loads was greatly simplified.

The use of non-structural masses also enabled the mass and centre of gravity of the modules to be directly extracted from the model.

Analysis stages were defined to enable the building and modules to be analysed using the one model. For each stage, only the relevant parts of the model, together with the appropriate freedom case, were activated.

The use of stages also simplified the application of moving loads to the building. For each moving load, a single primary load case was defined, with the loads attached to the model via links.

Stages were defined to activate or suppress the links for the different load positions.

Analysis of the furnace building for all scenarios required 94 separate analysis stages and 1171 load combinations. This

Weight control The logistics of each phase of construction, from module yard to final erection, require careful planning to ensure that the rigging and handling of modules is carried out in a safe and stable manner at all times. It is essential that the mass and centre gravity of each module is accurately determined.

To implement weight control for the furnace building, a register of all mechanical and process equipment in the building was maintained.

This included a record of equipment name and number, equipment loads, floor level and module in which the equipment was located, vendor drawing numbers, and equipment data status.

In addition, the equipment register was checked and updated as each issue of vendor data was received and the equipment loads in the analysis model were cross checked against the equipment register and vendor data.

The mass and centre of gravity for each module were reported directly from the analysis model.

The structural design of modular buildings for process plant requires the consideration of complex loading scenarios for the construction and operation of the plant. For the TSL furnace building, this challenge was met by the application of well-defined project design criteria, use of structural analysis software with advanced modelling features, and leveraging the software capabilities through application of modelling strategies.

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PULLEYS

New life for old conveyor pulleys Pulleys are designed to last, but can suffer damage from wear over time. Thomas Greaves, General Manager of Dyna Engineering, discusses when you should refurb rather than replace.

PULLEYS ARE A HEAVY DUTY, consistently running piece of machinery designed to last. But after many years of consistent use, wear and tear eventually occurs and the pulley can become worn or damaged.

Regular maintenance of conveyor equipment, including pulleys, is essential to reducing wear rate and prolonging service life. Reconditioning or refurbishing the pulley will help avoid the excessive cost of a complete pulley replacement.

Visibly worn lagging Pulley lagging is the layer of material which is bonded to the shell of a conveyor pulley. Its function is to protect the shell from damage, to increase friction with the conveyor belt and dispense water off the pulley.

There are several distinct types of pulley lagging, such as plain rubber, grooved rubber and ceramic lagging.

Each type of pulley lagging has different variations, specifications, and is optimally suited to certain types of materials being conveyed and relative conditions.

Lagging that has been worn down is a sure sign that a refurbishment is needed. If the lagging is worn, which is to be expected over time, the pulley will become susceptible to abrasive damage.

If the lagging has worn down to the point

Thomas Greaves, DYNA Engineering’s General Manager, inspecting a DYNA pulley.

where the pulley shell is exposed, it is critical that the pulley be refurbished with new lagging. Damage to the pulley shell may have already occurred.

pulley shell will occur. This can also cause significant damage to the belt and other conveyor elements.

Lagging coming loose from the pulley

Seized bearings can be caused by lack of grease, old age, fatigue, product buildup and other factors. They will cause the rotation of the pulley to malfunction.

This can lead to a multitude of issues for your entire conveyor operation. Proper maintenance procedures and inspections leading to refurbishments will help avoid further serious and expensive consequences.

Lagging that has come loose from the pulley and is flapping about is a sign the bonding adhesive has deteriorated. The sections that have come off will need to be reapplied to prevent further damage to the pulley and to the belt. If this isn’t attended to, rapid escalation of further sections of lagging coming loose from the

Seized bearings

Extreme rusting or corrosion of elements

Pulley before and after DYNA’s refurbishment.

54 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

Over time, pulley housings and bearings will naturally rust or corrode. While slight rusting or fading is not necessarily a huge concern, badly degraded pulley elements may indicate the need for complete replacement. Heavily worn bearings and housings can lead to seizures and breakdowns. Preventative maintenance and regular inspections will assist in avoiding such problems.

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Abnormal noises Strange noises coming from your pulley might be another sign that it requires refurbishment. A safe and proper investigation of the source of the noise will determine what solution is required.

Lagging that has come loose, or bearings that have cracked or seized will probably make a noise, alerting you to a pulley in need of attention. The objective of locating the source of such abnormal noises is to help avoid the expensive and timeconsuming process of a complete replacement of the pulley.

It makes a lot of sense to conduct regular preventative maintenance than perhaps having to shut down and pay big dollars for a new pulley replacement.

Types of pulley lagging Different lagging materials can be used, normally selected in relation to the operating conditions, life requirements and economics.

Grooves or patterns are typically applied to the surface of the lagging to assist with increasing the co-efficient of friction of the pulley to belt. Grooves also assist with dispersing water and mud from the surface of the pulley.

Choosing the best lagging for your particular conveyor system and operating conditions will help ensure the conveyor belt operates efficiently and lasts as long as possible.

Rubber lagging The most common specification is rubber lagging, which can be applied as hot vulcanised or cold bonded. It is a relatively ‘soft’ material which offers good traction and is quite resilient to wear.

Other benefits include protection for the pulley shell and more friction for conveyor belts. Rubber lagging can be grooved and shaped to offer greater flexibility depending on your application.

Rubber is one of the most affordable types of pulley lagging. Depending on your application, different properties such as thickness and hardness can be utilised to achieve the best outcomes.

Dyna Engineering has developed a range of highly wearresistant rubber compounds to maximise the lagging life under diverse or arduous conditions.

Hot vulcanised rubber lagging is applied as a continuous un-joined layer around the pulley shell, and then steam cured

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PULLEYS

to significantly reduce the risk of the lagging separating from the shell. Lagging is then machined to a smooth, blemish free surface. It is typically grooved with a 120-degree diamond pattern to assist with the dispersion of mud and water.

Cold-bonded lagging is available in a range of thicknesses and patterns including straight, diamond groove and more. Dyna Engineering typically uses Flexco or Kolag, however, other brands are available upon request.

Ceramic lagging Another common type of pulley lagging is ceramic. Harsh conditions and abrasive material are the two usual reasons why ceramic lagging is considered. The most common types of ceramic lagging are ‘smooth’ and ‘dimple’. Both of these products offer a significant increase in friction, grip and tracking of the belt, and elimination or reduction of belt slippage.

Ceramic lagging can be applied to the pulley shell as a rubber backed ceramic strip or sheet. The rubber backing is bonded to the pulley shell. The other method is to directly bond the ceramic tiles to the pulley shell.

Ceramic lagging is a more expensive option than rubber lagging, but has a greater service life and reduced lagging wear. It can also be used to increase wear resistance depending on specific needs and budgets.

Drive pulleys are usually lagged with dimple ceramic lagging because the increased friction and grip assists in

A rusted pulley bearing.

56 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

A seized pulley bearing.

driving the conveyor belt. The coverage of ceramic on the surface of the lagging can be customised depending on the application and is used to increase or decrease friction and grip.

Non-drive pulleys can be lagged with smooth ceramic lagging. However, this is less common than on drive pulleys as ceramic lagging is more expensive and only used when necessary.

There are some issues with ceramic lagging that need to be considered before making the decision to go with ceramic. It can be fragile and prone

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to cracking. Falling material and hard objects caught between the lagging and belt are the usual cause of this issue. Furthermore, conveyor design, transition distances and drive traction should all be carefully taken into account.

Other lagging options

Another type of pulley lagging is polyurethane or plastic lagging.

Polyurethane lagging can be applied as a sheet or strip. The method of bonding is usually rubber backed polyurethane or cast the polyurethane directly on to the pulley shell. Although not as common as rubber and ceramic, polyurethane lagging is gaining popularity in some applications and can provide good service life. Cast polyurethane lagging can be very expensive to apply and extremely difficult to remove for repair. It is generally only used when rubber and ceramic lagging has proved less serviceable.

A less common option is to leave the pulley shell bare and apply no lagging. This option offers the lowest friction because the conveyor belt is in direct contact with the pulley shell. The disadvantage of not utilising any lagging is that the pulley shell has no protection to wear, which will often result in total replacement of the pulley shell.

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ENGINEERING

Taking it to 11 No matter what your ‘10’ equates to in terms of throughput, there are times when you need to go to ‘11’. Corin Holmes, Operations Manager at Jenike & Johanson, explains what you need to know before fiddling with your plant’s throughput dial.

IF YOUR PLANT FEATURES BULK

58 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

The Perfect Production Day

-39%

Also Revenue ($/day)

}

Ore Throughput (dmt/day)

solids within its value chain, uprating throughput is not as easy as turning the dial.

The inconvenient truth is that bulk solids do not flow like liquids.

Bulk solid flow properties are typically very sensitive to rate/velocity, time, processing history as well as what happens upstream. All this makes for a complex system where performance at each step depends on others, in often mysterious and sensitive ways.

They frequently run balanced on the proverbial knife edge with a very small sweet spot, where even a modest 10 per cent increase in rate is enough to push it over the edge resulting with a nonreversible loss of controlled flow.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has jolted markets globally and the world is witnessing vast market disruption which may potentially have long-term effects. As an example, the pandemic and ancillary lockdowns and restrictions are expected to reduce the supply of iron ore by around 18 million tonnes. For most bulk solids handling operations, revenue is directly proportional to the ability to maintain bulk solid flow and squeezing every ounce of production from your supply chain will be critical to business success.

Elapsed Time (Days)

Producers in all industries will want to ‘go to 11’ on the throughput dial, but this will come with increases in bottlenecks as a result of material handling issues that were considered or accounted for.

Bottlenecks are defined as any point in the value chain where the desired flow rate cannot be achieved.

They can occur for various reasons like increasing throughput in a value chain system originally designed for a lower rate, changing material characteristics (finer material or increased moisture content), changing to a new type of material or blend which alters handleability, or changes in operating conditions due to equipment availability or process utilisation.

Unlike in fluid systems, bottlenecks in value chains featuring bulk solids depend on the properties of the material flowing causing them to alternate frequently. This situation creates a moving target and gives rise to a characteristically noisy throughput run chart (see Figure 1) and downtime whack-a-mole. While all value chains by definition, have a bottleneck somewhere, the trick is to prevent them from affecting/throttling revenue.

The Pain of the same PERIOD AVERAGE

Figure 1: Daily operation feed run-chart.

Potential sources of bottlenecks Consider a typical iron ore handling value chain which may consist of car dumpers, conveyors, stackers, stockpiles, reclaim hoppers, bins, belt/ apron feeders, and transfer chutes.

Bottlenecks will result in various problems throughout this value chain.

Stockpiles: Material may discharge through a central flow channel resulting in the formation of a stable rathole. This can cause insufficient discharge one moment but then, due to collapse, cause material to flood the downstream system. Material feed may be segregated, causing downstream processes expecting a uniform distribution to fall out of control.

Bins and hoppers: If material flow properties are not considered in the context of increased throughput the geometry of the equipment may be incorrect. The geometry of the bin needs to be tied to the material via the underpinning science. In doing so, proper outlet sizes and adequate wall angles can be defined to ensure reliable flow. In addition, if material has a high fines component then rate restrictions may occur as a result of two-phase solids/air flow.

Feeders: Consideration of the feeder type, size, and interface with downstream equipment is needed.

Figure 2 shows how an improperly designed feeder interface can affect material flow from the hopper above.

Activating the entire cross section of the hopper above is critical and knowing the material flow properties will ensure that rate increases are aligned with the feeder and interface thereby ensuring reliable flow.

Transfer chutes: An example of what can happen when increasing throughput is not considered is shown in Figure 3. This transfer chute was designed to reliably handle a sticky/cohesive ore. At its design tonnage rate it worked well but by simply dialling up the throughput rate resulted in plugging because the cross-sectional area of the chute was not large enough to allow flow.

Wear: Increased throughput will result in increased abrasive wear. In some cases, this may be the result of improper design or incorrect wear liner type selection. Maintenance schedules are routinely based on ‘life of liner’ and increasing throughput without consideration to the effect of wear liner life could result in skyrocketing maintenance costs or increased downtime required for the change-out of liners.

Matching test work to handling problems The ability to increase throughput and avoid bottlenecks will hinge on reliable feed of bulk solids into and out of the unit processes by considering ‘flowability’. Defined as the ability of a

Figure 3: DEM output showing plugging at increased throughput rate.

bulk solid to flow through a given piece of equipment reliably, it considers the relationship of the material itself to the equipment in which it is to be handled.

A poor-flowing, difficult-to-handle material may be reliably handled in properly designed equipment while an easy-flowing material may exhibit flow problems in incorrectly designed equipment. The most critical flow properties to aid assessing a material’s flowability in relation to the handling equipment are: •C ohesive strength (the ability of particles to pack together and form arches and ratholes) •W all friction (measure of friction between particles and flow surfaces) •C hute angle (critical angles in a chute to maintain flow) •B ulk density (changes in density as a function of consolidation)

Figure 2: Belt feeder interfaces.

•A brasive wear (progressive loss of a solid surface caused by sliding contact).

Cohesive strength, wall friction, and compressibility are commonly measured at bench scale using a direct shear tester. These flow properties are affected by many material and operational characteristics and parameters. Having current flow properties information is critical to success when you are looking to increase throughput. Reliable flow is contingent upon the equipment design being matched to all of the bulk materials it will handle over the full range of conditions to which they will be exposed. Figure 4 shows the typical effect of moisture on material flow characteristics. Where the moisture content is low a low cohesive strength is observed, however, the material may be more frictional. If the material is fine, then there is potential for unreliable flow caused by either a flow rate limitation, a result of low permeability of the material, or flooding, caused by aeration of the material. As the moisture content of the material increases, so does the strength of the material leading to greater arching and ratholing potential, requiring larger hopper outlet sizes or steeper transfer chutes. As the moisture continues to increase, it approaches its greatest strength. At this point it may not be possible to discharge material out of a bin via gravity alone resulting in a no flow condition. As the moisture content increases further, it gets to the

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020 І 59

ENGINEERING

How Flow Properties Change with Moisture Content

geometry that results in a fully active outlet without ledges or protrusions.

Predicting bottlenecks using correct methodology and analysis Correctly quantifying and understanding material flow properties of the storage handling and transportation equipment, bottlenecks can then be predicted by analysis.

Cohesive Strength High

Continuum methods

Medium

Low

Low

Medium

High

Saturated

Moisture Content

Figure 4: Typical material’s cohesive strength with respect to moisture content (illustrative purposes only).

point of saturation after which it begins to lose strength as the water begins to act as a lubricant.

Understanding flow patterns To understand where and how bottlenecks may occur in the transportation value chain, it is necessary to clearly define the required flow pattern and ensure the equipment’s design is appropriate.

There are two main discharge patterns for material flowing from storage vessels, known as funnel flow and mass flow (see Figure 5). Funnel flow occurs when the hopper is not sufficiently steep and smooth to force material to slide along its walls or when the outlet is partially blocked.

In funnel flow, material flows towards the outlet in a channel that is surrounded by stagnant material. When the storage vessel is emptied faster than it is filled, the level of solids within the flow channel drops, causing layers of the solid to slough off the top of the stagnant material and fall into the channel. With cohesive materials the resulting impact pressures may increase the possibility of arching, but if it is sufficiently cohesive, the sloughing of material will not occur, and the channel will empty completely forming a stable

60 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

rathole. In general, funnel-flow bins are usually suitable only for coarse, freeflowing, non-degrading, and abrasive solids in applications where segregation is unimportant. Funnel flow is generally the default flow pattern when little or no consideration is given to the design of the storage vessel and/or interface.

Mass flow occurs when the bulk solid slides along the walls of the storage vessel and all material is in motion during discharge. Mass flow occurs when hopper walls are sufficiently steep and smooth to allow the material to slide on them. In mass flow bins material density at the discharge is both low (because in flow it is dilated), independent of the head of solids in the bin, and is consistent.

Ratholes cannot form because stagnant regions are eliminated.

In mass flow the first-in-first-out flow sequence minimises segregation of the discharged material, ensures uniform residence time, and allows time for de-aeration of fine powders. Mass flow bins are usually recommended for applications in which the downstream process cannot handle a segregated feed and for handling cohesive materials, fine powders, and any material that may degrade with time. A properly designed mass flow hopper must have appropriate

With today’s high-speed computers, it is possible to quickly calculate velocity and displacement profiles in many standard silo geometries using continuum mechanics models. This provides greater insight into material flow behaviours.

Numerical studies are also used to analyse stress and flow behaviour of particulate solids in many bulk solids applications. Well-established numerical methods, such as the finite element method, have been used to investigate macroscopic behaviour of bulk granular solids. However, difficulties of representation have frequently been found because the models are based on continuum and homogeneity assumptions, and because it is difficult to establish robust constitutive equations for granular bulk solids.

Discrete Element Method In recent years, Discrete Element Method (DEM) modelling has been developed in its theories and computational speed to become an advanced simulation technique. As a result, it is increasingly used to study the physics of industrial particulate problems with the goal being to develop a general theory that links the discrete and continuum methods. From this, particle scale information, generated from DEM simulation, can be quantified in terms of governing equations, constitutive relations and boundary conditions that can be implemented in continuum-based process modelling.

Using flow properties to calibrate the particles and wall properties, DEM models are quickly becoming mainstream technology for belt-to-belt transfer chute design and are ideal for situations where large scale, parametric experimental studies are difficult to

perform or cost prohibitive. In our transfer chute bottleneck example above, by performing DEM simulations in the virtual world our client was able to converge on a solution prior to increasing the throughput rate, avoiding the costly creation of a bottleneck in their process.

As tonnage rates undoubtedly increase, following the pandemic, so too will the associated costs due to bottlenecks. To correctly identify and solve bottlenecks in advance, a comprehensive set of flow properties is necessary to determine cohesion, wall friction, bulk density, and abrasive wear properties. Analysis, using appropriate methodologies, empirical methods, and advanced technology such as DEM should be contemplated with consideration given of the value chain equipment itself.

Either way simply dialling up the gauge to ‘11’ without considered analysis to inform the decision can have

Figure 5: Funnel and mass flow pattern.

a significant effect on your operation and revenue stream.

As we collectively wait for the “accelerate out of the crisis” flag to come up, you should check your bulk material flow properties are up to date,

1800 689 433

or if you don’t have them, commission some testing. Flow characterisation is a specialised task that takes time it can be undertaken now ensuring you can move off the grid smoothly and efficiently to 11 and beyond.

GRAIN HANDLING AND STORAGE SOLUTIONS www.alliedgrainsystems.com.au

MEMBER PROFILE

I got into bulk handling...

MEMBER PROFILE:

Sean Kinder In each issue, ABHR profiles a member of the Australian Society for Bulk Solids Handling (ASBSH).

We speak to Sean Kinder, ASBSH Technical Convenor for Victoria.

My family has been involved in Bulk Materials handling since 1985. It’s an industry that I’ve been exposed to since a very young age. My passion grew towards this industry, as I was fortunate enough to tour and learn about a variety of different sectors including powergeneration, quarrying and minerals processing – all before I had graduated from high school.

My career highlight is...

Field Applications Engineer at Kinder Australia. My role is to troubleshoot conveyor issues on sites and provide innovative solutions accordingly. Given the diversity of asset handled within the industry, substantial data needs to be collected and monitored to ensure that the recommendation provided is educated and relevant.

In the last six months, two highlights have occurred. Receiving the ASBSH AW Roberts Award was an enormous and humbling surprise – but for me the highlight was even more special as I was next invited by the ASBSH to join their committee and become the Technical Convenor for Victoria. This is a new role for me within the bulk materials handling industry – a challenge and I hope to grow the Victorian community for the ASBSH.

I love my current work because...

I am inspired by ...

I’m part of an industry focused on continuous improvement and innovation.

I became a mechanical engineer because I wanted to solve problems. There are many problems in the bulk materials industry and from that, opportunities are created. My role enables me to seek out the problems within the bulk materials handling industry and be a part of the solution. Most importantly – I get to work with my family.

My parents – they started the business from scratch and grew it while also raising me and my sister. It’s not a nine to five office job either. Almost all our clientele are located in remote areas and they did it for many years without the same technologies that we take for granted now.

My current position is…

In my role it’s important to...

Ask questions. At the end of the day – as the supplier and contractor – we don’t fully understand the operation of our customer’s site and they don’t know the capabilities of the product they are installing.

The project I am most proud of is...

One of my very first transfer point upgrades that I and a colleague completed for a Melbourne metropolitan quarry. Back when I was working with the Construction Materials Processing

62 І Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2020

Association, one of my mentors at the time was an Asset Manager for Boral, Ross Outen, who I was regularly approaching for advice to help me with my reference manuals. Upon starting my career formally with Kinder Australia, Ross asked if I could help him with his transfer point.

The most valuable lesson I have learned is …

Good open communication is vital.

With good communication, project details are understood, scopes are welldefined, deadlines are met, issues are resolved, and the project is successful.

Assumptions should never be made.

When I am not working you will probably find me...

I’m newly married – so you’ll find me with my wife. We’re of the generation avidly fanatical about its smashed avo breakfasts and dumpling dinners. If not exploring Melbourne for interesting restaurants, we’re out cycling.

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