Bulk Handling Review May - Jun 2017

www.bulkhandlingreview.com Volume 22 No 3 | May/June 2017

 BHP’s 11km conveyor

for Bowen Basin  $10bn Inland Rail a

boon for bulkies  Conveyor monitoring

with fibre optics

Chute! It’s been 110 years of belt conveyor innovation Read more on p32

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CONTENTS

www.bulkhandling.com.au

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EDITOR Charles Macdonald Tel: 02 9994 8086 Email: charles.macdonald@mohimedia.com ADVERTISING SALES Patrick Roberts Level 18, 347 Kent St, Sydney, NSW 2000 Tel: +61 2 9994 8086 Email: patrick.roberts@mohimedia.com PEER REVIEW Ronda McCallum Tel: +61 2 9994 8086 Email: ronda.mccallum@mohimedia.com PRODUCTION MANAGER/GRAPHIC DESIGNER Magazines byDesign - Linda Gunek Tel: +61 2 8883 5890 Email: production@bydesigngraphics.com.au FOR SPONSORSHIP & EXHIBITION OPPORTUNITIES Patrick Roberts Tel: +61 2 9994 8086 Email: patrick.roberts@mohimedia.com PLEASE SEND ADVERTISING MATERIAL TO Ronda McCallum Email: ronda.mccallum@mohimedia.com Tel: +61 2 9994 8086 PUBLISHING DIRECTOR Michael Mohi Email: michael.mohi@mohimedia.com

AUSTRALIAN BULK HANDLING REVIEW (ABHR) is published 7 times a year by Mohi Media Pty Ltd ACN: 611591210 ABN: 436111591210 PO Box 455 Rozelle, NSW 2039

contents

MAY/JUNE 2017

6 7 8 10 11 12 17 18

BHP’s 11km conveyor for Bowen Basin mines UK award winners; Schade wins circular storage contracts $10bn Inland Rail a boon for bulkies RCR claims enquiries for over 700 Kiruna wagons EDEM software tool integrates with CAE New Metso mill at Grange’s Savage River mine CBG enters conveyor monitoring market in Australia Conveyor condition monitoring with fibre optic acoustics,

by Paul Wilson 20 Superior secondary belt cleaner 21 Doppelmayr wins Guatemalan contract for RopeCon; ASBSH personal awards open for nominations 22 Genma cranes to India; FLSmidth to deliver $1.2bn Canadian phosphate rock project

FOOD/POWDER HANDLING/PNEUMATICS 46 Zeppelin Systems commissions Vietnamese noodle plant 47 SMC on reducing peaks in compressed air demand 48 Kockums tunes up flyash plant 50 Seaco targets special container market in Australia 54 Martin Engineering pneumatic tensioner 55 BinMaster sensors stop cross contamination 56 Flexicon conditioner de-lumps chemical powders 58 Munson rotary batch mixer blends wood powders 60 Flexicon tilt-down flexible screw conveyor 61 Concetti palletising system for Inspire Pet Nutrition 62 Wearex polymer from Cut to Size Plastics 62 Boge launches new compressors

DUST CONTROL 24 Ezi-Duct delivers western Sydney pharmaceutical project 25 Nozzles ain’t nozzles: installations from Tecpro & EnviroMist, Spray Nozzle Engineering, Spraying Systems, Spraytech Systems, Thomson

63 Tenova furnace order; FLSmidth classifier technology; SafetyMITS portable barrier 64 Metso launches MX Multi-Action cone crusher 65 Nord gears with extruder flanges; Colterlec in Siemens distribution deal 66 Bulgarian contract for Actemium; Flexco urethane skirting

27 28 29 30 31 31 34 35 36 41 42 44

Semco distributing MB crusher South32/GE get digital; Samson feeder; ABB buys Bernecker Schaeffler’s new plummer block housings Allu TS drum assembly Komatsu completes purchase of Joy Global 4B updates bucket elevator/conveyor monitoring system Schmersal belt alignment switches Beumer bucket elevator order Haver & Boecker drymix plant for Sunstate Cement Talga and Chemetall research graphene coatings Rhino Linings flame-retardant polyurea coating Queensland Sugar combats concrete corrosion

CONVEYOR SAFETY 67 Bulk Handling Technologies’ self-closing work platform 68 North Goonyella getting it right on conveyor safety 69 Lessons from WA conveyor accident; Kinder protective guards 70 Gates Australia’s Belt Installation and Rotation Device (BIRD) 71 Martin resolves material accumulation in limestone silo 74 Australian Pump Industries high pressure washer targets bulkies

ISSN 1444-6308 Circulaton: 5,263

(audit period ending September 2015) Member Circulation Audit Bureau (Australia)

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ABOUT THE COVER

Flexco celebrates 110 years of innovation www.bulkhandlingreview.com Volume 22 No 3 | May/June 2017



BHP’s 11km conveyor for Bowen Basin



$10bn Inland Rail a boon for bulkies



Conveyor monitoring with fibre optics

Since its formation in Chicago 110 years ago, Flexco has come up with innovations aimed at belt conveyor productivity.

The company’s mechanical belt fasteners were designed in the early 1900s and, today, the widely used SR Rivet Hinged Fastening System still borrows their design principals while delivering productivity and safety benefits.

In terms of belt cleaning, Flexco’s H-Type Enhanced Service Advantage primary cleaner cartridge system is ideal for limiting downtime and maintaining the cleaner, even in the dirtiest conditions.

Chute! It’s been 110 years of belt conveyor innovation Read more on p32

Flexco acquired Tasman Warajay in 2003 and today, its engineered chutes are limiting airborne particles, increasing throughput, and reducing operations and maintenance costs of conveyor systems.

For the full story see page 32.

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

3

EDITORIAL

Conveyor a no-brainer for BHP Lambasted by bolshie hedge fund Elliot Associates for squandering capital on money pits like its US shale operations, BHP recently announced a modest investment which sounds like a winner.

The company will spend $270m on an 11 kilometre conveyor that will carry coal from its Peak Downs mine

By Charles Macdonald to its processing plant at the Caval Editor – ABHR Ridge mine.

The investment will deliver BHP four million tonnes per annum of high quality coking coal which would otherwise be wasted. The company’s BMA asset president Mr Rag Udd has said previously “this is an exceptionally low cost option for us because the coal seams we are talking about washing here (at Caval Ridge) would not get washed through Peak Downs preparation plant and they would typically be wasted.”

Good news too for the belt conveying industry with orders for a big belt, thousands of rollers, pulleys, belt cleaners, drives and many other ancillaries up for grabs. See page 6.

$10bn Inland Rail a bonanza for bulkies There are many winners from the Government’s decision to tip an additional $8.4bn into building the 1,700km inland rail route from Melbourne to Brisbane. Sure, construction and engineering firms will be rubbing their hands together with

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

glee at the prospect of grabbing contracts to upgrade existing track and build new sections, particularly riskier portions like the 6.4km tunnel through the Toowoomba Range.

But bulkies will be the big winners, with producers, growers and handlers of cotton, wheat, fertiliser, coal, cement and gypsum potentially set for cheaper access to a wider range of markets.

The losers? The trucking industry and its major players, such as Linfox. See page 8.

RCR expects to capitalise on ‘helix’ dumper wagon Swedish company Kiruna Wagon has generated brisk sales in its homeland for its Helix dumper wagon, with European iron ore heavyweight LKAB buying 1,100 of it and related models.

The Helix wagon has a semi-circular hull and can be turned almost completely upside down for unloading, which can take place while the wagon is in motion. The technology might deliver efficiencies and cost savings for iron ore and coal producers.

RCR Tomlinson is distributing the product and it sounded an upbeat note on its prospects at a recent investor day, saying it had enquiries for over 700 wagons. We will watch this space with interest. See page 10.

NEWS

11km conveyor for Bowen Basin

Caval Ridge stockpile and infrastructure.

BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance will invest $270.5 million to build an 11-kilometre overland conveyor system to transport coal from Peak Downs Mine to processing facilities at Caval Ridge Mine in Central Queensland.

P

eak Downs and Caval Ridge are two of the seven Bowen Basin coking coal mines which are 50:50-owned by BHP and Mitsubishi.

The project, which is costed at US$204 million, is termed the “Caval Ridge Southern Circuit”. It will lift BHP Billiton’s production by 4mtpa by 2019 when operating at full capacity. The new conveyor will be commissioned in late 2018 and will replace current truck haulage between Peak Downs and Caval Ridge of between 1mtpa and 2mtpa. The conveyor will be cheaper than truck haulage of coal between the operations.

BMA asset president Mr Rag Udd said in 2016 of the expansion, on an analyst conference call: “This is an exceptionally low cost option for us because the coal seams that we are talking about washing here, would not get washed through Peak Downs preparation plant and they would typically be wasted….”

Mike Henry, BHP president of operations, said the “missing link” would accelerate growth and productivity.

“This investment furthers our productivity agenda, reduces costs, releases latent equipment capacity, and strengthens our coal business’ global competitiveness,” Henry said.

“We are committed to Queensland’s Bowen Basin and this project creates new employment opportunities during construction and locks in ongoing operational roles.”

400 new jobs are expected during construction, with 200 ongoing operational roles forecast.

“The investment flowing from the project will help support the local community and state economy after what has been a difficult time in the region,” Henry added.

BMA plans to begin work on the project midway through this year. It will take around 18 months to complete. Along with the massive conveyor system, the project will include a new stockpile pad and run-of-mine station at Peak Downs.

The existing CHPP and stockyard will be upgraded at the Caval Ridge end of the project. BMA said it would also invest in a new mining fleet, including excavators and trucks.

The US$3.4bn Caval Ridge was opened in October 2014, as a 5.5mtpa operation.

At the opening of the mine, BHP’s then head of coal, Dean Dalla Valle (who has subsequently left the company) said the operation showcased “a world class new mine in Queensland.”

At the opening ceremony, attended by former Prime Minister Tony Abbot, Mr Dalla Valle said “Today’s opening of the Caval Ridge Mine is a significant milestone for BHP Billiton. The

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

operation will produce metallurgical coal for the steel industry and has been constructed with the latest technology to be one of the most productive, sustainable and highly performing metallurgical coal mines in the world.

“Energy efficiency is a key focus for the mine and was built into its design and management system. This includes the use of highly efficient equipment and the optimisation of truck, shovel and dragline movements.

“Since commencing operation, the Caval Ridge team has already achieved an Australian record for the amount of overburden moved by a shovel in one week.”

BHP has focussed on squeezing higher throughput from its haul truck fleets and the company has spoken of achieving truck utilisation of 6,500 hours by FY2020. In this regard, Daunia’s ultra-class fleet has achieved 6,000 hours, one of the best performances across BHP Billiton’s ultra class fleet.

The new mine attracted media comment for its adoption of a fly-in fly-out workforce. Mr Dalla Valle put a positive spin on this. He said he was proud of the diverse workforce at Caval Ridge Mine, which helps shape a positive and productive culture at site.

“Caval Ridge Mine’s workforce, who commute from Cairns and Brisbane, include 21 per cent females, three per cent Indigenous and 43 per cent new-to-industry employees. We have invested considerably in recruiting and training new entrants to the coal industry who will work alongside some of our experienced operators,” he said.

“Having a FIFO operation enabled us to reach a wider potential employee pool across the State, not only bringing greater diversity but also enabling us to share the economic benefits of the mine more broadly. Over 30,000 people applied for around 950 roles at Caval Ridge and its sister mine Daunia.”

The massive US-headquartered engineering and construction firm, Bechtel designed and built the greenfield Caval Ridge Mine.

Coal from Caval Ridge is shipped out of the Hay Point terminal. Hay Point is roughly 150 miles (about 240 kilometers) northeast of Caval Ridge, just south of Mackay.

The coal is mined from two large open-cut pits, Horse Pit and Heyford Pit. Looking forward, BHP has other coal expansion projects under study. These include the BMA Goonyella Complex Optimisation and BMC Wards Well underground development.

NEWS

Three UK bulk handling award winners T he UK’s Solids Handling & Processing Association (SHAPA) presented three awards at its celebratory dinner held in late April in Manchester. Vortex Global was recognised as Company of the Year. Russell Finex won the Innovation Award, and Perry of Oakley Ltd took out the Export Award.

Vortex says it has experienced six consecutive years of growth in export markets including 44 per cent in 2016. It exports to 50 countries and says its loading spouts are the fastest growing portion of its portfolio which also includes slide gates, diverters, and iris valves.

Schade wins contracts for circular storage in Asia Schade Lagertechnik, part of the Aumund Group, is delivering circular storage and portal reclaimers to companies in Asia including Shanghai Electric Power Construction, GNPower Mariveles and Formosa Plastic Vietnam.

S

chade has just won an order from Shanghai Electric Power Construction for a circular storage machine with a diameter of 130 metres, with work on the EPC contract starting this year.

“Measured in the combination of external diameter and stacking and reclaiming capacity, the circular storage machine to be installed for Shanghai Electric Power Construction will be one of the biggest that we have ever built in the 130 plus years of our company history,” said Schade sales manager Andreas Markiewicz when describing the scale of the project. “These days circular storage capacities of around 360,000 tonnes are possible, and the equipment can be supplied in a completely explosion-proof design.”

In the Philippines, Schade has an order for circular storage from GNPower Mariveles Coal Plant on the Island of Luzon for an expansion project close to existing Schade machines.

Commissioning of the circular storage is planned for 2018.

In 2016, Schade won several orders for large circular and longitudinal storage machines in China and the Philippines. Currently two circular storage machines with diameters of 120 metres each are being installed in Southern China for new power plants. In the Philippines, the order was for an expanding power plant project.

Later in 2017 Schade will supply a portal reclaimer and a tripper car to Formosa Plastic for the Nhon Trach II project in Vietnam. This order includes installation and commissioning of the machines.

The portal reclaimer has a rail span of 54 metres and is designed to reclaim 600 t/h of coal, the same capacity as a slewing circular storage machine that Schade supplied back in 2003 for the Nhon Trach I project. The diameter of that machine was 97 metres.

The Taiwanese Formosa Plastics Group is one of the largest chemicals concerns in the world, with an annual turnover of US$78 billion and more than 106,000 employees.

For longitudinal storage Schade offers its semi portal and full portal reclaimers. Large volumes of material, for example in the range of a million tons of coal, can be stored on a relatively small surface area in indoor storage halls. The machines can be supplied in explosion-proof design.

Schade portal reclaimer and circular storage.

Contact: www.aumund.com

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

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NEWS

$10bn Inland Rail a boon for bulkies The government announced in its May budget that it would tip another $8.4 billion into the 1,700km Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail, the Commonwealth’s biggest rail project in 100 years.

T

he massive project will build a dedicated high productivity rail freight corridor which will shift cargos and commodities from road to rail. The Commonwealth has already spent $900 million on planning and land acquisitions.

The Commonwealth contribution will be by way of an $8.4bn equity investment in the Australian Rail Track Corporation and a public private partnership for the most complex elements of the project, such as a 6.4km tunnel through the Toowoomba Range in Queensland.

The project will generate 16,000 direct and indirect jobs at the peak of

construction, and thousands more thereafter with businesses expected to invest in warehouses and logistics parks at many locations along the route.

The project will include 500kms of new tracks and 1,200kms of upgrades and improvements to existing track.

Wooden and steel sleepers will be replaced with concrete, allowing 1.8km, 72-car trains, with sets double that length possible in future.

The 126km section from Toowoomba to Kagaru, including large scale tunnelling, will be delivered through a Public Private Partnership. Under this delivery

WINNERS

LOSERS

Aurizon P Pacific P

The trucking P

National

Linfox P

industry

P Toll Holdings P Coal industry P Cotton P Wheat P Cattle farmers P Fertilisers P Cement P Gypsum

arrangement, the private sector will design, build, finance and maintain this section of the railway over a long-term concession period.

According to ARTC, these funding arrangements will provide effective risk management and harness innovative design solutions for this nationally significant project, which is the biggest Commonwealth rail construction project since the transcontinental rail link across the Nullabor was finished 100 years ago.

Truckers’ nemesis?

Map showing Melbourne-to-Brisbane Inland Rail projects 2017.

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

Life isn’t getting any easier for Australia’s trucking industry. Currently roads and highways on the east coast are thick with rigs buzzing between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

The current coastal rail route between Melbourne and Brisbane has been too slow and expensive to attract major custom. But once Inland rail is complete and journey times for the route fall by 10 hours to under 24 hours, trucking will have a major fight on its hands. Add in a trucking workforce averaging 47 years old in Australia, a blokey and non-inclusive culture unattractive to youth and women, and mounting fatigue and health and safety concerns, and the industry has major problems.

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DUMPING AND UNLOADING

Images show the Kiruna Wagon Helix Dumper at rest and in operation. RCR believes the novel technology has major advantages over current systems.

RCR claims enquiries for over 700 Kiruna wagons In a recent presentation to the investment community, engineering firm RCR Tomlinson sounded a bullish note on the prospects for a novel Swedish dumping technology that it distributes.

R

CR signed an exclusive 10-year distribution agreement with Kiruna Wagon of Sweden in 2016 which will see it manufacture and sell the latter’s Helix Dumper Wagon and Unloading Station.

In May, RCR said it had secured enquiries for over 700 of the wagons which allow continuous rolling discharge of bulk commodities.

Thanks to its semi-circular hull and unique exterior, the Helix Dumper can be turned almost completely upside down for unloading, which can take place while the wagon is still in motion.

A unique unloading structure sees a wheel, attached to the top of the wagon, run along a helix-shaped track which spans above and across the railway. This causes the wagon to hinge 143 degrees – almost four-fifths of the way upside down – such that it dumps its load to the side of the railway.

The 10.3m long wagon has a volume of 45 cubic metres, and a Helix Dumper system can unload wagons at a rate of up to 25,000 tonnes per hour, according to Kiruna.

RCR managing director & CEO, Dr Paul Dalgleish said “RCR has a long history in the design and supply of innovative mineral processing technologies and rail wagons and equipment.

“I anticipate that this technology (Kiruna) will revolutionise rail transport and unloading for bulk commodities and that it will be of interest to a number of Australian mining companies seeking efficiencies and even lower production costs.

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

“This technology has unloading rates up to 3-4 times faster than existing methods, no additional power supply, which can be up to 4MW for existing systems, and significantly reduced stresses and strains on the wagon which will materially extend the wagon life and reduce maintenance cost, all at a fraction of the cost for existing unloading methods. This technology has the potential to disrupt the current industry practice.

“The Helix Dumper solution perfectly complements RCR’s market-leading apron feeder and mining equipment business.”

In 2016 Kiruna Wagon’s managing director, Fredrik Kangas said: “Kiruna Wagon believes that RCR’s strong presence and experience in material handing technologies will allow the Kiruna Wagon designs to be implemented effectively in the mature Australian market and throughout the region.”

Kiruna Wagon has very close links to Swedish iron ore champion LKAB which produces around 30mtpa of product.

The company employs over 1100 of Kiruna’s wagons, of various types, in its open cut and underground operations.

Besides the helix-style dumper, Kiruna also produces more traditional side and bottom dumpers.

Steel for the helix system is provided by Nordic steel producer SSAB. It says its advanced high-strength structural and wear-resistant steel made it possible to design lightweight wagons combined with a stationary helix terminal for on-the-fly rotary unloading.

DISCRETE ELEMENT MODELLING

DEM software integrates with leading CAE tools Software house EDEM says that its new tool should bring Discrete Element Modelling (DEM) to a wider pool of non-expert engineers.

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DEM is a useful tool for designers of conveyors, chutes and other bulk handling equipment.

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E

DEM says it is changing the face of Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) with a new software that will make bulk material simulation accessible to all engineers using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Multi-body Dynamics (MBD) software, in the design of heavy equipment.

The new products called ‘EDEM for’, integrate with leading CAE software tools from ANSYS, MSC Software and Siemens and do not require DEM expertise to use. “‘EDEM for’ will provide design engineers with an easy to use, bulk material simulation system which links with their MBD and FEA software, extending the capability of the host software and providing engineers with unique insights into how materials interact with their equipment,” explained Richard LaRoche, chief executive of EDEM. Traditionally, bulk material simulation has been the realm of a small pool of DEM experts due to its complexity. This has acted as a major barrier to uptake for many design engineers with only a small number of Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) currently using DEM capability.

‘EDEM for’ is designed to make DEM accessible to a wider number of engineers, who can benefit from new insights into material-machine interactions, without the need to learn a new technology.

“Through ‘EDEM for’, design engineers working in the construction, off-highway, mining and heavy industry sectors, will no longer have to rely on hand calculations and assumptions to predict the effect of materials on their equipment,” said LaRoche.

‘EDEM for’ provides engineers with a library of thousands of material models, representing a wide range of real materials such as rocks, soils and ores. The database delivers accurate and realistic information on the forces and material loads acting on equipment.

All the analysis is then carried out by the host software, in an environment familiar to the engineer. Having easy access to a bulk material simulation capability will help improve design accuracy, reduce expensive physical prototyping and ensure confidence that the design requirements will be met.

Richard LaRoche said: “We have been working closely with our technology partners and our customers to develop co-simulation solutions between EDEM and their FEA and MBD tools. The drive to multi-physics platforms is a trend that is only going to continue, but the challenge remains ensuring that the software which integrates with the host platform is actually usable for engineers without the need for extensive training. With ‘EDEM for’ we are taking co-simulation to the next level by enabling engineers with no DEM knowledge to benefit from the key insights that this technology brings.

Our ultimate goal is to fully democratise DEM so it is available to all engineers, not just the experts.”

The first ‘EDEM for’ to be released in the next month, includes EDEM for ANSYS, EDEM for Adams and EDEM for LMS Virtual.Lab Motion, with plans to include solutions for other MBD and FEA software packages in the future.

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CRUSHING & GRINDING

Inside Grange Resources Savage River magnetite concentrator in northwestern Tasmania. Upgraded mill to the right of Metso’s Steve Searle & John Aran. All photos courtesy Metso.

New mill grinds down costs and boosts efficiency at Savage River Metso has installed a new mill at Grange Resources’ Savage River Mine in Tasmania. The new unit ups capacity by 19%, is more efficient – using the same power as the old 1966 unit – and was installed within the existing mill footprint. Metso and Grange team members told ABHR about the job.

G

range Resources owns and operates Australia’s largest integrated iron ore mining and pellet production facility and is the country’s oldest magnetite producer. The company’s Savage River magnetite iron ore mine and concentrator are located 100km southwest of Burnie in north western Tasmania.

An overview of the ‘mine to metal’ process at Savage river starts with the crushed, stockpiled magnetite ore being transported via a tunnel system and fed into the concentrator.

Here the ore is initially ground in two Hardinge 9.75 x 3.66 metre autogenous(AG) mills, followed by two Nordberg 8.84 x 3.96 metre ball mills. Magnetic separators then isolate the magnetite from the gangue (valueless adhering rock), with the fine-particle gangue being pumped to tailings dams. The rich iron concentrate slurry is pumped via an 83km pipeline to the pellet plant at Port Latta.

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

The company ranks the reliability of product supply, quality, and volume, combined with aggressive pricing, as vital interdependent ingredients to successfully operate in the highly competitive iron ore market. Wayne Peck, Grange Resources’ engineering superintendent, explains, “From an operation perspective each of these factors have to be consistently met, with little margin for error. Starting from the pit, right through to the end of the ship loader, our customers’ requirements are our focus – ‘from mine to metal’ as we say. Reliability of supply depends on the performance of our personnel and the processing equipment they use; whilst remaining price competitive depends on keeping our costs in check. Energy is our biggest cost, and an area where even small changes can have a big impact.”

CRUSHING & GRINDING

A need to upgrade The two Hardinge AG mills were originally installed in the late 1960’s, and by 2005 maintenance personnel noticed cracks starting to appear in their shells and cones.

The mills required ongoing repairs which resulted in plant down time and there was always the risk of a catastrophic failure.

With the mine’s operation expected to extend till at least 2034, Grange’s management team decided that in order to ensure concentrator reliability and to improve output efficiency, these mills would need to be upgraded.

In 2011, the company awarded Metso an $8M contract to engineer, supply, install, and commission the first of two planned new mills.

The project scope involved increasing production volume with a new rotating element that would accommodate a charge weight of 344 tonnes, but with the requirement to use the existing footprint and some of the components from the original 1966 mill.

This specific requirement introduced a great deal of complexity to the design. According to Metso, a high level of detailed analysis to assess the impact of increased stress due to the new larger rotating element was required. A key to the success of the project was the review of the bearing housing structure and ensuring adequate lubrication.

The two Hardinge AG mills, with the refurbished mill in the background.

info@bbcp.com.au (02) 9618 9400 www.bbcp.com.au

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

13

CRUSHING & GRINDING

Metso’s John Aran discusses mill performance with Frank Lovell, Grange Resources’ engineering manager.

Tim Dunbabin, Grange Resources’ senior project engineer.

Contract award Metso says its overall experience in mill design and manufacture has been accumulated from the companies that it acquired over the years. Hardinge was one of these acquisitions, so Metso had the original design drawings as well as extensive experience of these mills.

The plant’s Nordberg ball mills are also a Metso product. The company’s knowledge held it in good stead to take on the project.

Tim Dunbabin, Grange Resources’ senior project engineer, comments on the decision to award the contract to Metso: “Our engineering team had done a great job of extending the mill’s 20-year design life to over 45 years. So whilst there is no doubt that the mill was at the end of its life, we mainly needed better reliability and efficiency.

“Metso had been involved in many of the repairs to the old mills, and so, we had first-hand experience of their abilities. This, together with the Hardinge mill design being Metso’s intellectual property, really helped to mitigate our risk.”

Wayne Peck cites Metso’s ability to offer a complete package as a key deciding factor. “Whilst we were familiar with Metso’s capabilities, for me the main decision lay in the overall package.

Although other suppliers had the elements of good expertise or comprehensive equipment supply, when we looked at Metso we had the whole project covered. If we had an issue, we would only need to direct questions to one point of contact.”

Unique design constraints The original mill was based on a single shell design, and although it had lasted more than 45 years, the new design had to be stronger to ensure trouble-free operation beyond the mine’s expected lifespan of 2034. So, in the first instance, Metso’s new design replaced the single cone-shell with a two-piece structure that was 3.6 metres wide (distance from feed to discharge) and featured long-life Polymet rubber liners.

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

To provide sufficient space for these liners, the new mill had to be 10 metres in diameter, 30cm larger than before. The larger shell, together with thicker stronger steel construction, meant that the new mill was 20% heavier than the old one.

In order to avoid the need for additional civil works and to keep costs down, the new mill had to be installed in the same position as the old one. To ensure that the existing structure could accommodate the extra weight and size of the new mill, Metso had to perform extensive FEA’s (finite element analysis) and carefully consider alternate designs.

According to Metso, key to the successful design of the new mill was the ability of the mill’s bearings to cope with the increased weight. A simple overview of the bearing components helps to explain how important this aspect was. Starting from the centre and working outwards, first is the trunnion, the shaft that extends out on both side of the mill and which passes through

CRUSHING & GRINDING

COVER YOUR ACCESS In any plant there are many areas that require a means of inspecting and monitoring operating equipment.

However hazards associated with operating equipment including pinch points, moving machinery, airborne dust and pressure buildup need to be reduced.

Dan Tonks Grange Resources’ projects design engineer.

its axis. The trunnion rests on a bronze bush that provides the bearing with its crucial lubrication. The bronze bush is supported inside the bearing housing by the rocker. As its name suggests, the rocker allows the mill very small lateral movements from side to side along its spin axis. Important to note is that the trunnion rolls in a 0.2-0.4mm film of oil that is pumped at high pressure through ports in the bronze bush.

Because no civil work could be considered, stiffening the bearing could only be achieved by thickening the rocker and the brass bush. The increase in load and reduction in bearing clearance meant that the force per unit of area (pressure) increases. Then of course there was the additional weight that also had to be taken into account John Aran, Metso’s grinding product manager, explains: “Making it strong enough was the easy part; next we had to design a lubrication system that would keep the trunnion suspended above the bronze bush with a 0.4mm thick oil film. There are no off-the-shelf designs for this, so designing an effective and reliable lubrication solution that included a custom-built cooling and filtering system, involved input from Metso’s experts across the globe.

“Just imagine pumping oil at 10,000 kPa at a rate of 15 litres per second to achieve a 0.4mm thick film that needs to lift and support a rotating element 10 metres in diameter and weighing over 500 tonnes on each bearing. There are so many interdependent variables. Providing a solution to this unique arrangement gave us all a great sense of achievement.”

The base plates that the mill’s bearings sit on also presented an engineering challenge; they had a flatness tolerance of 0.13mm over the entire surface, with a 0.025mm tolerance over an area of 300 x 300mm. The parallelism tolerance between the top and the underside surface was just 0.13mm.

Such precise tolerances are even difficult to achieve in a controlled environment like a machining workshop. Brian Bunch,

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Metso’s QA engineer, explains, “Because all the work would be carried out in the field rather than in a workshop, I was keen to see how closely the team would achieve these tolerances in an operational site environment where the base plates had to be positioned using site surveying equipment. Once the sub-sole plates were aligned correctly, the base plates were lowered into position and there was no need for any shimming or additional “tweaking” to attain the required flatness.”

Engineering challenges Dan Tonks, Grange Resources’ projects design engineer, was deeply involved in the design aspects of the plant’s infrastructure upgrade which had to facilitate and perfectly match the new mill’s design.

Talking about the design challenges he faced, Dan says, “It might sound straight forward, but the infrastructure upgrade consisted of components sourced from different manufacturers located all over the world. Together with Metso, we invested in a lot of interactive and iterative planning to make sure everything matched up. An error in the most minor detail, for example bolt-hole sizes, could be a disaster for the project. So there was a sense of pride, and relief too, when everything came together and matched up so perfectly,” he says.

Work space during the dismantling of the old mill and the construction of the new mill was a major challenge. Frank Lovell, Grange Resources’ engineering manager, comments: “Originally the mill was built first and then the building was built around it.

So working on removing the old mill and installing the new mill within the existing building presented major restrictions. We had lifting weight and size limits, as well as difficult work access.

The fact that the whole project was completed without a single safety incident is a credit to the way Metso’s design addressed these construction complexities.”

Efficiency and safety Talking about the success of the project, Steve Searle, Metso’s regional manager for mining services says, “Metso didn’t just supply the components and technical expertise for the installation, we were an integral part of Grange’s engineering team.

This approach makes such a big difference on a project like 16

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

Wayne Peck.

this. We worked through all the issues together to ensure that the installation ran smoothly and on time. The installation process was developed with the Grange team, and we performed each operation as a unified team. The outcome is a new mill, which together with the new drive system, will provide the plant with 19% more capacity.”

Wayne Peck also highlights how the close inter-company team work maximised efficiency and cost reductions. He says, “Working so closely together on the project meant that Metso could assist us to look at the design of the project as a whole, not just to consider the quickest or lowest cost solution, but to look at improving quality and throughput, reducing running costs, and overall long term maintenance.”

Dan Tonks, the project’s design engineer reviews the outcomes of the project: “Efficiency is a big benefit that has been gained from this project. The mill is now grinding more, using the same power. Equally as important for Grange are the safety benefits that the new mill has provided. In particular, both our staff and contractors have praised the new mill’s better overall access and larger size work area. The guarding on the rotating elements is greatly improved and easier-tohandle. In my view, the project receives big ticks for safety, efficiency, and cost reduction.”

CONVEYORS

New entrant to conveyor monitoring market in Australia Conveyor Belt Gateway (CBG), a German conveyor belting and technology company manufacturing in China, is taking its conveyor monitoring product – CBGuard – global, recently appointing an Australian distributor.

Left: CBGuard system in place on a conveyor.

Report showing steel cord damage.

Belt splice analysis.

C

BG seeks to combine German technical prowess with lowcost Chinese manufacture. The company, which offers conveyor belts, monitoring equipment, and vulcanizing machines, emphasises strict quality control of its Chinese output.

According to CBG, it has over 300 of its CBGuard branded monitoring systems in operation in China. In 2016, the company began promoting an upgraded version of the system globally.

Closer to home, CBG has appointed Conveyor Belt Monitoring of Mona Vale in Sydney as its exclusive distributor.

“Conveyor Belt Monitoring is going to install the first CBGuard system in Australia soon,” said Bernd Küsel, president of CBG, based in Hamburg.

There is intense market competition in conveyor monitoring, with a wide variety of technologies and systems available from companies like ContiTech, Fenner Dunlop, Beltscan Systems and Phoenix. CBGuard works with x-rays, which immediately differentiates it from most of its competitors, bar Phoenix.

“No other technology can provide such a wealth of information,” said Mr Küsel of the CBGuard technology. “Most other systems on the market only cover certain parts of a conveyor belt, and with poorer quality. The CBGuard system is compact and affordable.”

CBGuard consists of an X-ray generator with tube, a receiver and a control unit. X-rays penetrate a conveyor belt and impinge on the detection board, forming a grey-scale photograph based on different absorptions of the conveyor belt areas. This happens millions of times per second with a running belt.

CBGuard weighs 800 kgs and has a size of 1.9 x 0.7 x 1.1 metres when installed on a 1,200 mm wide belt. It can accommodate belt widths of up to 3,200 mm, belt thicknesses of up to 60 mm and velocities up to 9 m/s.

The system is installed on the bottom part – return run – of the conveyor. The belt needs to run flat through the device. A concrete foundation and a safety fence, at a distance of around two metres, have to be provided.

“The system generates an intelligent, holistic analysis of any kind of threat to the belt,” explained Mr Küsel. “Impending damage, still not visible from the outside – for instance broken or corroded steel cords – trigger an alarm, which advises the belt operator to carry out repairs as soon as possible.

“Irregularities like holes, de-laminations, foreign objects, belt slippage, protruding cords, edge damage, abnormal cover wear, even insufficient belt cleaning, are detected and processed.

“CBGuard measures the belt thickness and yields timely information about the upcoming need for a replacement belt. The system’s software not only generates a live video with marked deficiencies of the belt, but also tells you exactly what kind of damage it is, how severe it is and where it is. No other technology can provide such exact results.

“The radiation source is insulated. Beyond the fence, the radiation is less than 1 microSievert per hour, close to background levels,” concluded Mr Küsel.

Contact: www.cbg.website

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

17

CONVEYOR MAINTENANCE

Conveyor condition monitoring with fibre optic acoustics

Conveyor in difficult terrain: photo of Savage River courtesy of Joy Global.

By Paul Wilson, senior electrical engineer, Mining3

F

or several decades, the conveyor has been the workhorse of the mining industry and other bulk materials handling industries.

This is increasingly so as trucking operations are replaced by overland conveyors. Just like its namesake, the heavy horse, conveyors require a great amount of care and attention.

On many mine sites, conveyors experience faults roughly in the following order of frequency: chute blockages, carry roller failure, return roller failure, belting splice failure, belt rip, and drive machinery breakage. Of these, roller failures are the quickest to repair, and with a simple lifting device, a roller can be replaced in a few minutes. Unlike the other types of faults, a complete collapse of a roller may not necessarily stop the belt and so is less likely to cause unscheduled downtime. Chute blockages, and splice failure will stop the belt, and a belt rip also implies an unscheduled stoppage, often for many hours.

In spite of the above, the greatest maintenance burden for the conveyor fitters is detecting and replacing worn rollers. Even a small width belt contains 2,700 rollers per kilometre, and there are two bearings in each roller. A mine with 60 km of conveyors will replace up to 40 rollers per day. Some mines will use up to eight fitters for conveyor maintenance, and walking the belts to detect worn idler bearings can employ two or three full time people.

Walking the belts for visual and auditory inspection is timeconsuming, tiring and is a very subjective process. Many sections of conveyors are not accessible by road where they cross natural obstacles and rise on gantries to fill surge bins. In rough country, particularly mountainous terrain where conveyors cross ravines, a crew of two is required plus a vehicle, one person to walk and the other to drive. Sometimes, walking the belt becomes virtually impossible especially in bad weather.

There have been several attempts to solve the problem of detecting worn idlers over long distances. Two current approaches are the fitting of sensors to idler frames and the fitting of “smart idlers” which contain built-in sensors. In both cases, the sensors connect to the site digital communications system using radio or wifi with repeaters. These approaches are generally expensive and retrofitting 2,700 smart idlers to every km of belt is not a trivial exercise.

A new technology developed by Mining3 uses a fibre optic cable strapped to the conveyor frame as the sensor. A single detector unit is connected to the end of the fibre in order to capture data from the entire length of the belt simultaneously. It is normally housed close to the conveyor in a convenient location such as the drive motor electrical switch-room. The detector unit is known as an “interrogator” and was designed for applications in the oil and gas industry such as seismic and micro-seismic work and for oil well inspections. Later applications broadened into pipeline monitoring then into detecting oil theft from pipelines and general intrusion detection on perimeter fences.

The detection of conveyor idler failures means that the technology had to be adapted to suit frequency-domain analysis rather than time-domain analysis. Earlier applications examine events and vibration, whereas conveyor monitoring examines

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

acoustic frequencies and it has taken two years of research to develop methods of generating reliable reporting approaches.

The fibre optic acoustics technology works by recording the Rayleigh backscatter from inside the glass fibre. A powerful and very short laser pulse is transmitted along the fibre operating in single mode, so it travels directly down the centre of the glass.

Microscopic imperfections in the glass scatter the light in the same way that the earth’s atmosphere becomes blue from blue backscatter.

As the fibre moves, the backscatter varies and this is captured by a sensitive light sensor, amplifier, and digital to analogue converter (DAC). The pulse-repetition-frequency of the laser and the DA converter sampling frequency are adjusted for conveyor distance, discrimination between idler frames and clarity of signal. When it is correctly set up, the interrogator is so sensitive it can detect the sound of single raindrops hitting the fibre.

One problem has been that the sensitive nature of the fibre allows it to pick up any stray sounds and a conveyor is very noisy.

The noise originates from steelwork resonances to loose bolts and

Conceptual diagram of the distributed acoustic sensing system and experimental strapping of the fibre to the frame.

CONVEYOR MAINTENANCE

Unprocessed frequency noise emanating from the fibre strapped to a conveyor frame.

Section of heat map with four metrics showing an advanced-wear hotspot.

even machinery parked nearby. Removing the noise and extracting useful signals became challenging and advanced statistical signal processing was required.

Eventually, as the research proceeded, the signal processing began to deliver diagnostically useful results. It is now possible to detect a broken ball or a cracked cage in a ball race. What is more useful is the ability to observe idler bearings as they progressively wear and to track the development. The research is now at a stage where it is possible to predict potential bearing seizure in the short term and advise maintenance crews to change a roller at the next shut-down.

Another problem to be solved was the generation of condition reports. The belt-walking approach makes use of a simple reporting spreadsheet on which are recorded all the idlers due for replacement.

Advice tags are usually fastened to the conveyor framework.

In contrast, the distributed fibre acoustic technology gathers data from every metre of the conveyor simultaneously. Samples are collected for several minutes after which they are processed in software. In less than an hour every 750 mm section of the conveyor has its own frequency plot image. A trained person can very easily identify idler frames that carry failing rollers but a 20 km conveyor generates 27,000 images. Examining every image

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A frequency plot typical of advanced bearing wear.

takes about one tenth of the time that a belt walk does but it is still a tedious and tiring exercise, and 27,000 images is still unrealistic.

We now use an artificial intelligence solution to generate a “heat map” of the whole conveyor which shows hotspots in yellow and red where bearing wear has been detected by the software.

Idler frames in good condition appear green. The project team is still examining the hotspots by hand, just to validate the automated software. Nevertheless, it is currently possible to accurately detect worn bearings over 1 kilometre of conveyor in about 10 minutes of inspection of the heatmap and the frequency plots at the hotspots.

Each row is for one fibre channel and there are roughly two channels per idler frame. The red hotspot shown would be for one idler frame including the acoustic carry-over to neighbouring channels.

There can be little doubt that distributed fibre optic acoustic monitoring is the way of the future for monitoring bearing wear in idlers. It saves time and vehicle use, can be done in the comfort of an office and is easy to use from remote operations centres such as those recently introduced to Perth. In addition, the method keeps a history of records which can be used for developing performance figures from which it is possible to optimise maintenance strategies. Once implemented, a site cultural change is mandated. The entire process of conveyor maintenance becomes

less subjective and more formalised. Records of previous data samples are readily available and continuous recordings can be taken and processed if required. Maintenance requests can be generated automatically and the data checked by an engineer in a remote location.

This technology is not yet capable of detecting other types of failure such as chute blockages, belt splice failure and belt rip problems, and for these, existing technology will continue to be used in the near future. Investigations have begun into extending the technology for drive mechanics, including gearboxes, motor and pulley bearings, and drive shafts. Faults with mechanics are far less commonplace but they do cause significant unscheduled downtime and are costly.

Mining3 has been running the distributed acoustics project for three years and the technology is now in a phase of extended field testing to validate reliability. Mining3 is interested in talking to any potential partners who might be prepared to host a field trial. The benefits would be a complete conveyor condition report on a regular basis, weekly or more frequently. The reports contain more detail of bearing wear than can be obtained from a belt walk.

About Paul Wilson Paul Wilson is the senior electrical engineer at Mining3 with a specialist background in instrumentation, process control and control systems automation. Paul has worked in the mining industry since 2003 in gold, iron ore and coal. His range of activities include controller loop tuning, control strategy redesign, mineral processing plant optimisation and as engineering manager for plant upgrade projects and upgrade commissioning. He has specific experience in crushing, SAG mill control and conveyor belt control.

About Mining3 Mining3 is a partnership between CRCMining and the CSIRO Mineral Resources group, formed in July 2016. Mining3 comprises all CRCMining’s activities and CSIRO’s hard rock mining research capability. The partnership brings together significant mining research capabilities to effectively deliver research and innovative technologies for the members and the global mining industry.

Contact: pwilson@mining3.com or mobile +61 437 886 416

BELT CLEANERS

Superior’s new secondary belt cleaner US bulk handling supplier Superior Industries of Minnesota has added a secondary model to its range of Exterra Belt Cleaners.

D

esigned for straightforward, quick conveyor installations, the Exterra Secondary Belt Cleaner’s blade is segmented into 3” urethane chunks with tungsten carbide tops. According to Superior, the belt cleaner’s blade is engineered for long life and efficient material shedding.

Superior’s design allows the blade segments to individually conform to the belt for effective cleaning. Additionally, the cleaner’s blade angle is adjustable to accommodate mechanical and vulcanized splices.

The Exterra Secondary Belt Cleaner is designed for belt widths of 457 mm - 1828 mm and belt speeds up to 5.1 m/sec.

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

Exterra Secondary Belt Cleaner.

CONVEYING

RopeCon starts conveying limestone over Guatemalan forest

The newly installed 1.6km Guatemalan RopeCon.

Austrian company Doppelmayr has successfully started-up one of its RopeCon conveyors – a hybrid system employing elements of belt conveyors with ropeways – with the system serving a concrete producer in Guatemala.

T

he new system links a quarry, producing limestone, with the cement plant of Guatemalan Cementos Progreso, S. A.. The installation is located around 35kms from the country’s capital.

The RopeCon uses four tower structures to cross wooded terrain, has a length of around 1.6km and covers a vertical rise of almost 200m.

According to Doppelmayr, the system’s structure minimises the amount of space required on the ground. At full capacity, it will transport 2,100 tons of limestone every hour.

RopeCons are in use around the world, with steep jungled terrain lending itself to the technology.

Contact: dtt@doppelmayr.com

AWARDS

ASBSH personal awards open for nominations The two prestigious awards presented annually by the Australian Society For Bulk Solids Handling (ASBSH), for outstanding contributions to the field of bulk solids handling, are open for nominations.

T

he two awards are the Australian Society for Bulk Solids Handling Award, and the A. W. Roberts Award.

The former recognises an outstanding contribution to the field of bulk solids handling. The latter is for a younger engineer, of 35 and down, who makes a significant contribution in the areas of research, design and/or practice.

The ASBSH, the peak professional body for the bulk handling industry, confers the two awards every year. The A.W. Roberts Award is named after industry eminence Emeritus Professor Alan Roberts.

The winner of the Society award in 2016 was Peter Bulloch of BHP Billiton. In 2015, it was Neil Kinder of Kinder Australia. In 2014, Brian Moore of Hatch.

The winner of the A.W. Roberts Award in 2016 was Tom Hicks of Bechtel. In 2015 it was Tim Donohue of TUNRA Bulk Solids, and in 2014 Andrew Grima of Bulk Materials Engineering Australia.

Nominations, including a short CV, should be sent direct to Professor Mark Jones, chair of the ASBSH. Contact: Mark.Jones@newcastle.edu.au

Peter Bulloch of BHP Billiton (left) accepting his Australian Society for Bulk Solids Handling Award in November 2016 from then ASBSH chair Peter Wypych.

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

21

NEWS

Genma to supply cranes to India Chinese material handling equipment supplier Genma has won a new order for three GHC100 mobile harbour cranes to Paradip port in India.

T

he contract was awarded by JM Baxi & Co, one of India’s major shipping service companies.

With a depth of 17.1m and length of 450m, 125,000 DWT vessels can be handled at a new wharf at Paradip. The main cargos are steel, aluminium block, chemical fertilizer, grain and sugar.

Genma, part of Rainbow Heavy Industries of Shanghai, said that

Genma GHC100 mobile harbour crane supplied previously to Myanmar.

competition for the order was intense.

After checking of its reference sites, Genma said it was selected due to its crane’s high efficiency and customisability.

Genma’s selected cranes have capacity of 100t and working radius of 10-48m.

Previous units supplied by the company have ranged from 63 to 200t. Travelling mechanisms have been both rubber-tyred and rail-mounted.

Engineers chosen for $1.2bn greenfield phosphate rock project Canadian company Arianne Phosphate has selected key engineers for its Lac à Paul project in Quebec’s Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Canada.

F

LSmidth will provide all production equipment and engineering for the future plant. A joint venture between SNC-Lavalin and Cegertec will act as project manager.

The Lac à Paul project is located 650kms north-east of Montreal, and covers an area of more than 270 km2. The phosphate processing plant will be designed for a capacity of 55,000 tonnes per day, to produce three million tonnes per annum of phosphate rock concentrate, grading 38.6% P2O5, with concentrate P2O5 recovery of 90%.

Brian Ostroff, the CEO of Arianne Phosphate said “The process of bringing Lac a Paul into development will benefit greatly from FLSmidth’s technological leadership, solid experience in the phosphate industry, and their ability to help facilitate financing.

Greenfield projects like this requires significant financial backing from several financial partners. With the support of Denmark’s Export Credit Agency (EKF) FLSmidth has been able to open the door to the finance community by ensuring the most sustainable technologies with a focus on crucial water and energy resources.

“This is not just Arianne alone anymore and, when taken in conjunction with other recent announcements that have involved major global players, one can see the interest by many in getting this project done. Rio Tinto, Hydro Quebec, Constructions Proco, ABB, SNC Lavalin, Cegertec and now FLSmidth have all signed agreements and momentum is clearly in place.”

Group executive vice president for FLSmidth’s minerals division, Manfred Schaffer is equally excited about being on the project, adding “As a full flowsheet provider on a project of this scale, we can really make a difference by designing a process flow with optimal productivity and the lowest total cost of ownership.”

The first phosphorus showings at Lac à Paul were discovered, by accident, in 1997, but it was only recently, in 2008, after ore prices and global demand for fertilizer had increased, that Arianne made the efforts necessary to develop the project.

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

In 2013, Arianne Phosphate released the completion of the feasibility study for the project. The FS outlines an open pit mine, a concentrator producing a high quality apatite concentrate, as well as a transport system delivering the product, year round, to a deep-water port on the Saguenay River.

In 2015 Arianne Phosphate completed the permitting process by receiving approval from the Cabinet of the Government of Quebec for the project.

87% of the product derived from the processing of Arianne’s phosphate is used in the production of fertilizers, with the balance going into animal feed and other markets.

In terms of transport, the project will use 61 trucks with covered trailers. Each truck will have capacity of 120 tons. Cycle length will be 12 hours, i.e. 2 cycles/day per truck. Predicted average speed will be between 45 and 50 km/h on a road of width 10 metres. Truck width will be 3.7 metres. There will be around 230 transport days per year.

Early designs suggest the Lac à Paul project will use on-ramp dumping.

DUST CONTROL

Dust collection at new Sydney pharma plant Dust collection specialist Ezi-Duct has installed a comprehensive dust collection system at a new pharmaceutical plant in Sydney. Wayne Dockrill, managing director of Ezi-Duct, briefed ABHR on the system.

Dust collector.

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he new state-of-the-art pharmaceutical manufacturing plant is in Sydney’s western suburbs. Ezi-Duct’s dust collection system has 60 pick-up/collection points throughout the site. The MDC Polex dust collector has 2 x EXE 110kW and 1 x 7.5kW centrifugal high efficiency fans.

All the fans are controlled automatically via three variable speed drives (VSDs) fitted into a control panel. The VSDs are controlled by pressure transducers fitted in the system’s ducting. The system signals the VSD to automatically lower the power consumption of the fan when machines connected to the dust collection system are shut off.

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

“Our TF series of centrifugal high efficiency fans’ efficient design provides around 40% more performance than the old style centrifugal fans,” explained Wayne Dockrill. “This equates to our 110kw centrifugal high efficiency fan out-performing an old style 150kW fan.

“This ensures the MDC dust collector units are the heart of an extremely energy efficient and powerful dust collection system. The dust collectors’ many filter bags are continuously and automatically cleaned while the unit is operating using a pulse of compressed air. This ensures dust collectors are running at maximum efficiency at all times.”

The MDC dust collectors are fitted with rotary valves (air lock valves) that feed waste directly into the customer’s waste bin.

“This feature enables customers to empty or change units’ waste bin or bins without turning a unit off and shutting the dust collection system down,” said Dockrill. “This enables the factory to continue running, saving the customer labour and cutting down costs.”

The plant incorporates 11 food grade articulated stainless steel arms. These are of 150 mm diameter and in lengths from 1.5 to 4.0 metres.

“The arms are very manoeuvrable and this enables the collection hood to be positioned in many locations,” exAnother dust collection pick-up point. plained Dockrill. “This makes this product extremely versatile and the air volume can be simply controlled by a damper fitted into the stainless steel pick up /collection hood.

They are perfect for keeping dust and fumes away from workers’ faces in many different applications.”

Ezi-Duct’s brief included installing two steam extraction systems in the plant. These have 15 stainless steel grills/collection points in five wash down areas of the new facility.

Ezi-Duct manufactures and designs dust collectors and related equipment in Australia from factories in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. The company says it can custom-design dust extraction systems to suit customers’ needs.

DUST CONTROL

Nozzles ain’t nozzles To the uninitiated, close enough is good enough when it comes to selecting nozzles for dust control applications in mines and industrial plants. The reality is far different with hard science and analysis behind the best systems.

I

n 2016, Anglo American had a big problem with dust at its brand spanking new Grosvenor mine, a state-of-theart 7mtpa longwall 190 kms south-west of Mackay in Queensland.

Despite the use of water sprays and a scrubber, dust around the beam stage loader (BSL) discharge point was excessive, reducing visibility. With incidences of Black Lung emerging recently in Australia, Anglo immediately got on the front foot.

It tasked Brisbane-based EnviroMist, a specialist dust suppression firm, with devising a solution. Enviromist had plenty of experience in using its high-energy micro-mist systems in such applications.

These systems use specially developed nozzles at pressures in excess of 100 bar to produce a fine mist with controlled droplet size, velocity, water consumption and spray angle. The key in such systems is to eliminate dust but without excess water causing flooding. The latter problem has arisen in many underground mines that have bumped up water spraying in response to concerns over Black Lung.

To perfectly tune its system EnviroMist worked with the University of Wollongong. Researchers’ testing and analysis included work on mist profiles and velocity, water consumption, crossflow dynamics and noise levels. Data was used to develop static and simulation models, showing how the system would perform prior to installation. In

Nozzles ain’t nozzles: (left) standard pressure atomiser captured @10,000 fps; and (right) high energy micro mist at 10,000 fps.

particular, a numerical model ensured that droplet size and momentum was adequate to avoid mine ventilation and dust cloud momentum adversely affecting the performance of sprays.

The final solution consisted of 12

sprays: four at the intake of the crusher, four inside the BSL discharge hood, and four mounted on the boot end. It worked. Anecdotal evidence from main gate operators was of a dramatic decrease in dust.

A NSW example N

ear Morisset in NSW, Centennial Coal’s Mandalong mine had a problem, with significant dust being generated at the point where coal dropped from a crusher to a bin. Existing dust suppression systems couldn’t cope with the problem.

Centennial tasked spray nozzle specialist Tecpro with finding a solution. In turn, Tecpro turned to Dr Ting Ren of the University of Wollongong for analysis and science. Dr Ren modelled the problem in 3D using computational fluid dynamics, and, armed with a scientific understanding of the problem, Tecpro provided the appropriate spray nozzles and droppers.

The resulting system directs a fine curtain of water droplets inwards from the rim towards the crusher in the centre, successfully suppressing dust.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of ventilation and dust flows for the problem dust area at Centennial’s Mandalong mine.

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

25

DUST CONTROL

Lots of competition in Australian nozzle supply

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here are many nozzle suppliers in Australia, with vendors also offering various services around advice, engineering, installation and maintenance.

The big daddy of the business is Spraying Systems, founded in 1940 in the Chicago area. The company is still headquartered near there, at Wheaton, Illinois. It manufactures at Wheaton and at nine other sites internationally.

It has sales offices in more than 90 countries with an extensive network in Australia. Spraying Systems boasts a massive product line of over 90,000 spray nozzles, targeted at a huge array of industries and encompassing coating, cooling, drying, lubricating, dispensing, sanitising, marking and dozens of other operations. In the mining space, the company has solutions targeting dust control around stockpiles, conveyors, chutes, rail cars and ROM bins.

Spraytech Systems has been in the nozzle manufacturing industry for over two decades. It also distributes the Euspray range. Spraytech says its industrial nozzles are available in a

variety of materials such as stainless steel, brass, plastic, hardened steel, ceramic and sapphire. Operating pressures range from four to 40,000psi.

ESS says its Quickfit nozzle is a misting or fogging type of nozzle that produces a very fine droplet and consumes only a small volume of water.

It is designed for application on conveyor transfer enclosures.

mining and industrial applications. The company has a fully equipped spray nozzle test laboratory for pattern analysis and spray droplet size testing in Melbourne.

In a crowded field of nozzle suppliers, Spray Nozzle Engineering claims that it

US grandad of nozzles distributed in Australia Melbourne-based distributor Spray Nozzle Engineering is talking up its range of Bete nozzles.

Named after company founder and inventor of the spiral nozzle John Bete, the US-based Bete claims many firsts for its nozzles. It says they are used on land, in space, and in the deep seas. It claims first use of Teflon and titanium in nozzles and manufacture of its 20,000 range at its own in-house casting foundry.

In turn, Spray Nozzle Engineering says that it can design the flow rate, sprinkler placement and operating pressure for

John Bete can claim first mover status in the world of nozzles. He invented the spiral nozzle, also known variously as the helix, corkscrew or pigtail. Pictured is one of his spiral nozzles.

NEW DEVELOPMENT IN SUSTAINABLE AIRBORNE DUST SUPPRESSION COAL MINES AND HARD ROCK MINES APPLICATIONS: • ROM Bins • Transfer Points/ Chutes • Crushers • Conveyors • Ship Loaders/Unloaders • Construction Machinery • Mining Machinery

W: www.enviro-mist.com.au E: info@enviro-mist.com.au

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T: (07) 3366 8558 M: 0408 677 889

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

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DUST CONTROL

stands alone “amongst our competitors as the only local specialist manufacturer of unique patented spray nozzles and related products which are exported to the world.”

Measuring dust Before embarking on dust control, sites

need to know just how much dust they are generating. Thomson Environmental Systems has developed its own range of dust monitoring instruments.

The Dust Master Pro 7000 Series is a real-time, five channel particle-counter for simultaneously monitoring Total PM,

PM10, PM4, PM2.5 and PM1.

The 5LPM flow rate ensures even heavier particles remain entrained to be collected onto the 37mm filter paper giving the most accurate results and complying with AS/NZ 3580.9.9.2006.

CRUSHER BUCKETS

Semco distributing MB crusher and screening buckets in the east The Italian manufacturer MB S.p.A. has appointed Semco Equipment Sales as distributor for Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and New Zealand.

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nder the distribution arrangement, Semco will sell, service and support the MB Crusher range of specialised buckets in the region. Distribution in the western and central states will continue through DM Breaker in Perth.

Graham Murphy of Semco said “We are very pleased with the MB Crushers appointment which will enable us to assist our customers achieve the full productivity potential of their current equipment fleet as well as adding flexibility to future equipment purchases.

“MB Crushers is an acknowledged world leader in bucket crusher technology.

The company has an outstanding approach to quality and manages all manufacturing processes from research and development to production and sales. MB controls the complete supply chain to ensure its products conform to the highest quality standards.”

Crusher and screening buckets allow operators and contractors to reprocess materials in situ, helping reduce the load on the environment by making useful by-products of otherwise low value raw feed, which may add significantly to their profitability. In urban areas the carting and dumping costs alone often mean a fast ROI, and in rural areas it can mean producing very useful and valuable materials in places where buying materials is often prohibitively expensive.

A high performance crusher or screening bucket has the advantage of being able to recycle materials onsite without having to find a suitable dump. There is also the opportunity of on-selling aggregates produced by this process to customers within

the industry. Crushed MB crusher bricks for example can bucket in action. be turned into decorative aggregates in the required particle sizes.

MB’s range of products includes crusher buckets, screening buckets and grapples. Crusher buckets are supplied in sizes to suit four tonne to 70 tonne OP operating weight host machines and its range of screening buckets cover machines in the 2.6 tonnes to 35 tonnes operating weight range.

According to Semco, MB has been a leader for over 15 years in the fields of crushing, demolition and recycling, by designing, producing and selling the very first jaw bucket crusher. Since 2001, MB globally has offered the largest line of patented crusher buckets.

With extensive innovation and development, MB now offers crusher buckets for excavators, skid loaders and loader backhoes.

MB was founded and is headquartered in Italy and the company owned the first worldwide patented crushing bucket. It operates globally through seven international subsidiaries with logistics centres located on different continents, as well as an extensive network of authorized dealers and service support throughout the world.

Semco is a 100 percent Australian owned and operated enterprise based in St Mary’s, New South Wales with branch outlets in Melbourne, Brisbane, Newcastle, Queanbeyan and Goulburn. The company distributes a wide range of earthmoving-related equipment and machines.

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

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NEWS

South32 and GE in digital transformation strategic partnership In April, mid-sized miner South32 and US industrial giant GE announced the signing of a three-year strategic partnership to assist in the development of South32’s technology roadmap and “digital transformation”.

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he deal will see GE assist South32 with the ‘Internet of Things’ and predictive maintenance of its mining assets and infrastructure. South32, with a diverse mining portfolio spanning 10 operations and five countries, says it sees a real opportunity for technology and innovation to drive safety and productivity improvements.

Through the partnership South32 will utilise GE’s Predix platform, which is designed specifically for industry and connects industrial equipment, data analysis and instant insights. The system will enable South32 to make fast, informed decisions, and provides the opportunity to optimise entire operations, rather than individualised assets and equipment.

“Bringing the world of operational technology and information technology together to monitor equipment and systems remotely and predict future behaviour is a game changer,” Graham Kerr, chief executive officer, South32 said. “It has the potential to identify and solve a problem before it affects operations.”

“By partnering with GE, we have an opportunity to transform

the way we work,” added Ricus Grimbeek, chief technology officer, South32. “If we get this right, the result won’t just be an incremental improvement but a new level of efficiency and performance.”

For GE, bringing digital transformation to the mining industry is an exciting prospect.

“The future of mining is digital. With data and analytics, we can achieve greater levels of productivity, operational efficiencies, and improve safety,” GE chief executive officer and chairman, Jeff Immelt said. “We look forward to working with South32 to help them optimise their operations and accelerate the digital transformation of the mining industry at large.”

GE Australia, chief executive officer Geoff Culbert said this partnership opens up the potential for a whole new market.

“Successfully transforming the mining sector for the digital age poses an enormous opportunity for Australia. This is innovation at industrial scale in an area where Australia can lead the world and I applaud South32 on their vision. We look forward to partnering with them and discovering what’s possible.”

Samson mobile feeders to handle urea prill in Algeria S amson, part of the Aumund group, has received an order for two additional feeders from Sorfert to operate at the Aznew Industrial Complex. The feeders, coming on top of several previous orders for mobile equipment and shiploaders over the last seven years, are designed to receive bulk prilled urea from 30 tonne tipping trucks. The new feeders will discharge into Samson’s shiploaders.

The feeders are a rubber belted apron design mounted onto a pneumatic wheeled axle under gear. They will convey the prilled urea on a three metre-wide oil and fat resistant belt and

discharge via an integral centralising head chute to the shiploader.

The twin feeder configuration chosen

by Sorfert is designed to reduce downtime.

While one feeder is receiving the prilled urea the subsequent truck can position itself to discharge to the other feeder. The buffer facility of each feeder ensures that material is still conveying to the shiploader while this repositioning occurs.

Due to the corrosive nature of the material stainless steel fixings are fitted throughout and electrical sensors and exposed sensitive components are treated with clear plastic resin. For free flowing

Samson mobile material feeder.

particles, the brush strips provide a primary seal to maintain directionality of the material flow. The secondary seal strip further prevents material ingress into the chain. The feeders also include a sacrificial truck impact bar to protect the equipment from any impact when positioning loaders.

ABB boosts automation efforts with purchase of PLC specialist I

ndustrial giant ABB is acquiring Bernecker + Rainer IndustrieElektronik GmbH (B&R) in an effort to boost its strength in machine and factory automation.

B&R is a major player in Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC), 28

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

Industrial PCs (IPC) and servo motion-based machine and factory automation. The Austrian-headquartered company has grown fast over the last 20 years and now boasts annual sales of over $600m in the $20bn machine and factory automation market segment.

BEARINGS

Manufacturer says bearing life up by 50% with new plummer block housings At the launch of its new plummer block housings in Perth in March, Schaeffler Australia said they were developed in response to industry demands for extended bearing life with reduced maintenance and total cost of ownership.

According to Schaeffler, the new generation FAG Plummer Block Housing SNS radically increases bearing life while making lubrication, mounting, and condition monitoring much easier than conventional types.

latest global technology advances from the Schaeffler Group, which employs more than 80,000 people worldwide. Schaeffler’s research and development centres alone employ more than 6,000 people dedicated to bearing technology that aims to maximise machinery life and minimise energy demands.

“Such low-maintenance technologies are ideal for all industries that can’t afford breakdowns or production stoppages,” said Mr Gordon at the Perth launch, held after the arrival of stocks of the first of the new technology bearings in Australia and New Zealand.

“Maintaining production is obviously vital in our energy and resources sectors – where even short interruptions and maintenance outages can be measured in millions of dollars – but whole-of-life performance is equally important to the broad spectrum of industry,” Mr Gordon told representatives of major industries attending the launch on March 1.

The unique, patented design of the FAG SNS plummer block housing distributes the load on the bearings more effectively (uniformly) than previous and alternative housings. Using its

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ccording to Schaeffler, the new generation of FAG SNS Plummer Block Housings are large-size bearing housings, engineered to increase the service life of fitted spherical roller bearings by up to 50 percent compared to conventional plummer block housings.

Their advances – including increased strength and shock resistance due to the use of (EN-GJS-400) spheroidal graphite cast iron as standard – make the SNS suitable for the broad diversity of applications where spherical roller bearings are widely used, including machinery operating in aggressive environments, says Schaeffler Australia industrial heavy industries manager, Jeff Gordon.

Key applications include industries such as mining and minerals processing, quarrying, cement, manufacturing, oil and gas processing, bulk materials handling (including port loading facilities), manufacturing and steel, primary product and food and beverage processing, pulp, paper, packaging and forestry, and major infrastructure and water and waste water plants.

The new plummer blocks – for shafts from 115mm to 530mm and from 4 7/16 inch to 19 1/2 inch diameter – are one of the

Grain Silos & Conveyor Systems

ALLIED GRAIN SYSTEMS FOR GRAIN STORAGE AND CONVEYING ALLIED GRAIN SYSTEMS HAVE BEEN DESIGNING & CONSTRUCTING WORLD CLASS PROJECTS FOR YEARS • Project Design & Construction • MFS Commercial Silo Range • Comprehensive Range of Conveyors including Bucket Elevators, Screws, Drag Chains & Belt Conveyors • Structural Steel Fabrication including Walkways, Towers & In-Ground Hoppers The new SNS housing design distributes loads more evenly in the rolling bearing, extending the operating life of the bearing (left), while mounting, lubrication and condition monitoring are made much easier by numerous details of the new housing design.

Young NSW Ph: 02 6382 7474 Fax: 02 6382 5149 Email: john@alliedgrainsystems.com.au www.alliedgrainsystems.com.au

Australian Bulk Handling Review 2016 Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

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BEARINGS

software, Bearinx, Schaeffler says it is able to analyse different housing designs with various combinations of bearings, enabling the optimisation of the complete system (housing and bearings).

The FAG SNS housing design is a split plummer block, which allows maintenance to be carried out more efficiently and quickly by providing easier access to the bearing, which saves time and money.

Additionally, Schaeffler can provide a special split labyrinth seal which facilitates the use of the FAG split spherical roller bearing inside the housing. Schaeffler says the FAG split spherical roller bearings radically simplify cutting, mounting and maintenance while reducing costs by eliminating complicated bearing replacement procedures in machinery and plant.

Four different seal variants including high speed labyrinth seals, split labyrinth, clip-in and bolt-on Taconite seals ensure effective sealing of the SNS housing to protect the bearing from harmful contaminants.

Schaeffler says the design also integrates good anti-corrosion characteristics and reduced cleaning requirements, due to inclined run-off areas as well as a projecting upper housing section.

“The focus during development of the new SNS housing was on compliance with customer and application-specific requirements,” says Mr Grosvenor. “Criteria such as the bolt-on Taconite seal, single branded solution of bearing, housing and sleeve, increasing plant reliability, robustness and improved condition monitoring played a major role.”

To enable improved condition monitoring of the bearings, connections are now provided on both sides of the housing as standard for Schaeffler’s FAG SmartCheck condition monitoring device. However, if these two connections are not accessible, a centre mark in the upper section of the housing indicates the optimum mounting position for condition monitoring.

Schaeffler can also supply the housing with connections for its new Concept 8 automatic lubrication system.

NEW PRODUCT

Drum assembly provides versatile processing US company Allu Group – a provider of screening, crushing and attachment equipment – has launched a new patented drum assembly it calls the Allu TS.

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he TS drum assembly construction allows customers to achieve flexibility in performing multiple jobs with one unit, by repositioning the standard screening blades.

Manufactured for the existing Allu D-Series material processor bucket frames, the core of the TS technology is the configuration of the screening blades that spin between the screening combs.

The end product size is defined by the space between the combs, and different fragment sizes can be achieved simply by repositioning the combs. Because the screening combs carry most of the material weight, the drums and bearings experience less impact and load.

According to Allu, the design of the assembly ensures the machine works well in wet and dry materials without clogging.

The TS drums are available with two different blade types: standard blades for screening applications and axe blades when a crushing or shredding effect is required. Blade sizes available include 16/32 mm, 25/50 mm and 35 mm. The TS assembly is available in seven different models for 16- to 45 tonne excavators and 7- to 30 tonne wheel loaders.

Contact: www.allu.net

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

The Allu TS drum assembly in action and showing the screening blades that spin between screening combs. End product size is defined by the space between the combs.

NEWS

Komatsu completes purchase of Joy Global Joy Global will now be called Komatsu Mining Corp with the acquisition boosting the mining business of the giant Japanese-headquartered OEM.

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etaining its headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Komatsu Mining Corp will operate as a subsidiary of Komatsu. The company will continue to promote and invest in the P&H, Joy and Montabert product brands.

“The combination of our Komatsu-brand surface mining equipment with the P&H, Joy and Montabert brands of surface and underground products will allow us to offer a complete range of mining solutions for our customers,” said Tetsuji Ohashi, president and CEO of Komatsu. “We plan to build on the strength of our shared cultures, including our unwavering belief in safety first and our passion for providing innovative solutions, to become an unrivaled mining solutions and services provider.”

The close of the transaction adds to the Komatsu team more than 10,000 people, bringing the company’s global total to more than 57,000 employees.

Komatsu Mining Corp will be led by Jeffrey Dawes, formerly leader of Komatsu Latin America.

Following the close of the transaction – valued at approximately US$3.7 billion, including Joy Global’s outstanding indebtedness – Joy Global shares will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and will no longer be publicly traded.

Komatsu’s purchase of Joy Global brings together the former’s giant haul trucks with the latter’s specialist P&H loading tools.

CONVEYOR MONITORING

Update to bucket elevator/conveyor monitoring system Electronic component manufacturer 4B Australia has released the fourth generation of its Watchdog control unit for monitoring bucket elevators and conveyors.

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ccording to 4B, the Watchdog Super Elite (WDC4) is easy to install and simple to set-up. The system processes signals from up to 15 sensors for belt speed, belt misalignment, continuous bearing temperature, pulley misalignment and plug conditions on bucket elevators or conveyors.

When an alarm condition is detected the system will log the details, sound an alarm and provide shutdown control of the elevator/conveyor and feeding system.

A new 3.5” colour graphic LCD screen displays the entire system status.

The WDC4 model now supports belt speed monitoring for variable frequency drives (VFDs), and belt misalignment inputs for contact, pulse and temperature (brass rub block) sensors. The WDC4 also has jog and acceleration monitoring for detecting any equipment issues during the start-up sequence.

The controller settings are password protected, and can be set up either directly on the LCD screen, or by a free PC software application and transferred to the WDC4 via an SD card. The Watchdog Super Elite can be connected directly to a PLC using Modbus TCP/IP protocol, or integrated into HazardMon.com. HazardMon.com is a secure cloud based solution that provides live system status, graphs and historical data that is viewable on any web-enabled device (smartphone, tablet, desktop PC).

4B’s Watchdog Super Elite (WDC4).

COVER STORY

Flexco reflects on 110th anniversary As Flexco celebrates 110 years since formation, Mark Colbourn, managing director of Flexco Australia, reflects on the company’s top innovations for maximising belt conveyor productivity.

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roductivity, innovation and efficiency. These are the ingredients required for financial success in the postboom era, and it is these initiatives that the Australian mining industry is focused on when improving its operations.

These operating principles underpin Flexco. Company founders George E. Purple, Albert B. Beach, and Phillip S. Rinaldo opened their small workshop in downtown Chicago in the US 110 years ago. Their aim was to manufacture a metal fastener to join leather transmission belts that did not ruin the belt when it needed replacing and that lasted longer than other mechanical fasteners of the day.

As industries globally upped their output, the demand for tougher, stronger and reliable belt conveyor products became critical. Flexco has moved in tandem with the world’s industries, and Mark Colbourn reflects on some of the company’s innovations that have boosted productivity and efficiencies around belt conveyors.

Increase productivity with mechanical belt fasteners According to Colbourn, in the early 1900s Flexco engineers designed a mechanical belt fastener with a joint and a hinge that could be easily separated and re-joined allowing for the lengthening of the belt, for adding new sections, or for on the spot repairs.

“These original design principals are still relevant today. The Flexco SR Rivet Hinged Fastening System that is widely used in heavy-duty mining applications today is based on this original design from the early 1900s; designed to increase productivity in real-time situations, and to be stronger and safer.”

The maintenance manager at an underground coal mine located in southern NSW was looking for a more consistent splice quality that was quicker and safer for the maintenance crew to install. The mine’s conveyors run non-stop year-round, and maintenance is conducted weekly. For the installation of mechanical belt fasteners the mine previously used a hammer, taking two workers more than 3.5 days to fasten 20 belts, and resulting in an inconsistent splice.

“It became a high priority for the maintenance manager to find a faster, safer way to install a consistent and strong splice, and for mining applications, rivet hinged fasteners allow for the greatest versatility especially when combined with an air powered installation tool,” Colbourn explained.

“The SR rivets penetrate the belt without damaging or weakening the belt carcass because they slip between the load-bearing carcass fibres, and they are installed in a staggered pattern to provide maximum resistance to pull-out and to distribute splice tension evenly across the width of the belt.”

Seeing widespread use of Flexco SR Rivet Hinged Fasteners in underground mining gave the manager confidence to try it 32

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

Top: Alligator Lacing is applied on a 750mm conveyor belt at the “new” Chicago Post Office in the early 1900s.

Above: Flexco SR Rivet Hinged Fasteners installed on a coal conveyor system.

on site. The mine also used the air powered tool for installation and found the Pneumatic Single Rivet Driver to be fast, consistent and less physically demanding for the crew.

“Time spent fastening the 20 belts was reduced to only nine hours, a savings of about 85%. This saved the mine time and money, plus increased productivity by limiting time spent conducting maintenance,” Colbourn said.

“The hinged SR splices brought other benefits as well. The mine recognised the safety features of the tool, especially the ergonomic benefits of using the air powered driver versus swinging a hammer that dramatically reduced the risk of injuries to hands and eyes, and stress on the body. They also recognised the consistency and quality of each splice, something that couldn’t be achieved every single time with a hammer.”

COVER STORY

“The isolated system does not require air or power from the site and once installed it only requires visual checks between shutdowns, so whether the cleaner blades or tips are new or in use for several months, the PAT Air Tensioner ensures the proper tension will be applied to the cleaner throughout its life, without the need for manual changes to the system between shutdowns,” said Colbourn.

Innovation at the transfer point with Tasman Warajay technology

Top: Stainless Steel H-Type Enhanced Service Advantage Cartridge Heavy-Duty Primary Cleaner installed in the Pilbara.

Above: The Portable Air Tension System installed in the Pilbara. The compressed air provides constant blade-to-belt pressure, and only requires visual checks between shutdowns.

Increase efficiency with belt conveyor cleaning systems Later that century, mining operations began focusing not only on productivity but on operational efficiency with cleaner running systems, and at the same time, safety programs were implemented for workers. Seeing the need for belt conveyor products to increase productivity and efficiency along the entire beltline, the company drastically expanded its product line.

“We have continually led the field in providing productivity enhancing products for belt conveyor systems,” Colbourn said.

“As shutdowns continue to extend, it is important that our products not only provide superior performance but also last the distance. Products like our portable air tensioning system, which only requires visual inspection between shutdowns, are becoming more and more critical on site.”

The newest technology in belt conveyor cleaning systems is the company’s H-Type Enhanced Service Advantage Cartridge Heavy-Duty Primary Cleaner with Portable Air Tensioner System.

“Flexco Australia’s engineering team designed the H-Type Enhanced Service Advantage primary cleaner which was field tested in the harshest Australian industries from coal to iron ore,” Colbourn explained.

“The fast, easy and safe cartridge system is ideal for limiting downtime and maintaining the cleaner, even in the dirtiest conditions, and combining this with the Portable Air Tensioning system makes for exceptional cleaning and minimal maintenance.”

The PAT Air Tensioner uses compressed air to provide constant blade-to-belt pressure.

In more recent years, advancements in technology have transformed key aspects of mining. In the early 1990s, Tasman Warajay, an Australian company, was focused on conveyor systems that loaded coal onto ships in port, getting them quickly back out to sea.

Its line of transfer chutes achieved controlled flow at the transfer point and suppressed dust better than anything else on the market.

“Flexco acquired Tasman Warajay in 2003 and today, its engineered chutes are limiting airborne particles, increasing throughput, and reducing operations and maintenance costs of conveyor systems in coal mines, power plants and other heavy bulk material transfer applications,” Colbourn said.

Transfer chutes are a critical component of the conveyor system. It is essential that the systems work efficiently to contain material flow without losing any material, damaging the belt, or causing belt slippage, all of which can bring production to a stop, crippling productivity.

Mark Anderson, Flexco engineering manager, explained how advanced chute technologies, such as Flexco’s innovative ‘controlled flow’ design, can accomplish much more than just transferring material.

High-performing transfer solutions should deliver throughput levels that match the receiving belt capacities, dust levels that meet or exceed regulatory levels, and significant noise reduction. Equally importantly, a high-performing chute should rarely block, not degrade the material in any way, improve the life of the conveyor belt, and deliver long wear life for the entire transfer point solution.

“Each material transfer system should be custom designed to control the flow of material by keeping material in a continuous stream throughout the transfer,” Anderson said.

“The geometry of the system is designed to accurately control the velocity and direction of the material stream contained within it, so the material stream stays together with all fines and particulates entrained in the stream.”

With the company’s properly engineered transfer systems, material discharged from the system can be deposited softly and uniformly at a predetermined velocity and direction on the receiving belt, so material settles on the receiving conveyor rapidly.

“This eliminates the turbulence that typically leads to spillage and dust generation,” said Anderson.

Throughout 2016 Flexco installed the company’s Tasman Warajay Technology Transfer Chutes into an iron ore facility in Port Headland.

Adam Wright, Flexco WA sales manager, says this project was not only very important to the company but an exciting opportunity.

“This was an important project for Flexco as these chutes were the first Tasman Warajay Technology chutes into the iron ore market. The results have been extremely positive, with flow rates increasing by 2,000tph and no reported blockages,” Wright said.

Looking to the future Mark Colbourn notes market optimism and positivity increasing over 2016 and into the first half of 2017.

“Operations are focusing on improving productivity with current assets; as a company, we are continuing to concentrate Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

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COVER STORY

A Flexco Tasman Warajay Technology Transfer System installed at a power plant.

This configuration is a radial stacker, and has been running effectively for over seven years.

on making our customers more efficient and reducing their downtime,” Colbourn said.

“Over the past 110 years, Flexco has been at the forefront of designing and manufacturing innovative solutions for belt conveyor productivity, however, we view ourselves as more than a manufacturer of products, but rather as a provider of belt conveyor solutions and more and more frequently we see the need for custom solutions and innovation onsite.”

As Flexco continues into its second century, the company is poised to meet the challenges of the industry with fresh ideas and world-class innovation.

“While adapting to market conditions, Flexco’s experience will be the foundation for new conveyor system solutions, advanced material science, engineering strategies that optimise operations and predictive conveyor maintenance,” Colbourn said.

CONVEYORS

Belt alignment switches The Schmersal Group is extending its range of belt alignment switches to include new models that it says are longer-lasting, reduce failures and downtimes and thus improve plant availability.

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onveyor belts can move from their planned track, which can cause a great deal of damage. Belt alignment switches are therefore used to detect belt alignment and switch off the belt.

The product range from Schmersal consists of three series which are adapted to different belt speeds of conveyor systems.

At higher speeds, switch models can be used in which the belt alignment rollers have a greater diameter. This means a lower number of revolutions which should result in reduced wear.

Most options have an advance warning function to enable preventative maintenance.

The Economy Range is designed for small conveyor belt systems with textile belts and a maximum belt speed of 1 m/s.

The Standard Range is for medium-sized conveyor belt systems which are longer, with steel conveyor belts and belt speeds of up to 6 m/s. The new T454 series switches have two switching angles, each with two channels, which are also used for advanced warning and switching off if the belt becomes misaligned.

Based on staggered contacts, there is an advanced warning as of a 10° misalignment, for example, with the belt switched off if it reaches 25°. The T 454 series is available with an optional Dupline installation bus to enable trouble-shooting. The stainless steel belt alignment rollers in the Standard Range are available in diameters of 30 and 50 mm.

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

Schmersal’s new range of belt alignment switches come in different shapes and sizes.

The Performance Range can be used in very high-speed conveyor belt systems. The belt alignment rollers in the T 250 range are made of stainless steel. With a roller diameter of 50 mm, they are suitable for belt speeds of up to 6 m/s and the 90 mm diameter option can even handle 11 m/s.

NEWS

Beumer wins order for four bucket elevators from Poland As part of an upgrade of a Polish cement plant, Beumer Group will deliver four high-capacity belt bucket elevators.

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he order is from the steelworks company Mostostal Kraków for the LafargeHolcim Ltd cement plant in Kujawy, Poland.

The elevators are part of a project to improve the production and the quality of cement blends.

Mostostal Kraków S.A. will provide LafargeHolcim with cement silos as well as the corresponding conveying technology.

The high-capacity belt bucket elevators of Beumer, with centre distances of up to 50m, enable a conveying capacity of 350 t/h, aided by the belt design of the Beumer steel wire belts.

The project is being handled by Beumer’s Group, Centre of Competence (CoC) for the cement industry.

Right: Beumer Group says its bucket elevators deliver high reliability and long running times for low operating costs.

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CASE STUDY

A case study in cutting edge drymix plant concept and technology

Sunstate Cement plant in Port Brisbane.

By Christian von Ahn and Philip Warnecke from Ibau Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany and Sebastian Südhoff from Haver & Boecker, Oelde, Germany

1 Introduction

2 Key requirements

Sunstate Cement Ltd is one of Australia’s leading producers and suppliers of high quality cementitious products. With a capacity to supply more than 1.5 million tonnes of cement per year it is a contributor to some of the largest and most impressive infrastructure projects in Queensland, Western Australia and northern New South Wales.

The company is jointly owned by two of Australia’s largest cement manufacturers, Adelaide Brighton Cement Ltd and Boral Cement (a division of Boral Limited). It operates a cement production and distribution terminal (Fig. 1) at the Port of Brisbane. Cement and additives mainly arrive by ship and are unloaded at the terminal’s own berth.

In 2015, the company, which produces a large range of bulk and bagged cement products, including blended slag and fly ash cements, decided to complement its product range by introducing a number of ready-to-use drymix products. At the same time, Sunstate wanted to offer its clients the advantages of storing its products outside and to optimise logistics expenses.

Following a procurement process, Sunstate awarded the contract to supply the main components, design and commissioning of its new drymix production plant to Haver & Boecker, a global developer and supplier of processing and packing solutions.

After starting off with the technical discussion and consultation process in November 2015 and the contract award in January 2016, the fabrication, acceptance and testing were carried out in July, followed by the plant installation which began in October and ended with the successful commissioning in November 2016. In comparison to similar plants with an average time of two years from order to operation, the complete project was realised in just 14 months.

With the uptrend in Australia’s Do-it-Yourself markets Sunstate Cement decided on a new, state-of-the-art drymix production facility. The main proposed products were a high-performance concrete mix, a special mortar mix blend, a special post mix, a rapid set mix and a paver sand mix. These products, which are designed to be ready to use, have proportionately different blends of ingredients, including cement, lime, gravel, sand and additives. The company also decided to shift from the more traditional paper packaging to plastic bags (PE) to take advantage of the numerous benefits PE offers over paper: - Dust-free, waterproof and UV resistant - Allow for high-quality, eye-catching and colourful printing - No spillage during transport - Can be stored outside, all year long - Tear-resistant and flexible By shifting to PE, Sunstate could increase its storage capacity and that of its clients, reduce overall logistics expenses and offer an essential advantage at the point of sale with its high quality appearance. Sunstate decided on PE bags of 10, 20 and 30kg to be palletised and equipped with a stretch-hood system for maximum load integrity.

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

Plant technical requirements Sunstate’s technical requirements were complex. The new facility had to take into account storage silos, a bag filter and the existing building. Major equipment, including the mechanical mixer, packer and palletiser, were to be delivered from a single source as was all auxiliary equipment such as the silo extraction, material transports, feeding/dosing and weighing systems, all packer and palletiser auxiliaries, the stretch-hood system, and plant automation and control.

CASE STUDY

Fig. 1 Sunstate Cement drymix building with storage silos.

Fig. 2 Drymix plant layout.

Despite its limited footprint, the new plant also needed to be easily expandable to meet future market demands. The delivery timeframe was short and ongoing customer support was a must.

3 Drymix plant design and major components Fig. 1 shows the new drymix plant with the storage silos. The larger silos are for the storage of cement and blended cements, which is part of the cement production plant. In total, the drymix plant has five storage silos, one for cement, one for lime/ flyash, one for gravel and two for sands. The storage capacity of

Fig. 3 Flow-sheet of the mixing plant.

the individual silos range from 20 to 100m3. The plant has one bin for additives. Fig. 2 shows the layout of the plant. The mixing tower only has a height of about 25m. Sunstate’s building is very compact – integrating the mixing plant, packing plant, palletiser and stretch hood system. No dryer and separation equipment was necessary for the sand and gravel, because these products were all delivered separately.

Fig. 3 illustrates the flow sheet of the mixing plant. The key component is the Ibau batch-type mixer M 2500 (Fig. 4), which has a 45kW drive. The mixer has a gross volume of 2.5m3 and

Heavy Duty Iron Ore Isolation Gate and Safe Work Platform

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

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CASE STUDY

Fig. 6 Roto-Packer Adams 4.

Fig. 4 Ibau mechanical mixer.

Fig. 5 Dosing and feeding equipment.

allows, with 12 mixing cycles per hour, a guaranteed throughput of 15 t/h. With discontinuous mixing a very large quantity of recipes is possible [1]. Sunstate has the ability to produce special drymix or cement recipes according to individual customer requirements. The mixing cycle of a batch-type mixer consists of the filling time, mixing time and discharge time. During the mixing process the next batch is prepared.

The mixing plant has two weighing bins: the larger one with 2,000kg weighing range and 2.6m3 gross volume is for sand and gravel, the smaller one with 1,000kg weighing range and 1.6m3 gross volume is for cement, lime and additives. The feeding and dosing of the material to the weighing bins is done either by fluidslides, screw feeders or vibrating feeders (Fig. 5). State-of-theart micro-processor-controlled electronics are used for automated weighing, dosing and mixing. The quality of all production batches can be monitored and documented. From the mixer, the finished products are transported directly to the packing plant. No intermediate storage of finished products is necessary.

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

The heart of the packing and palletising plant is the RotoPacker Adams Edition (Fig. 6). The packer is equipped with two filling modules for a capacity of 600 bags per hour, but can easily be upgraded to four filling spouts with 1,200 bags/hour. The FFS technology (form, fill, seal) is a high-performance packing technology for powdery products [3]. The bags are formed in the packing machine from a continuous PE plastic tube.

The formed bag is then filled with one of the filling modules, compacted during filling and hermetically sealed via pulsewelding technology.

Each filling module is equipped with the Mec electronic weighing system with touch panel and leading weight accuracy – technology that has made Haver & Boecker a leading specialist in weighing systems. The bag discharge line is equipped with a bag flattening device, checkweigher and bag rejecting system to detect under- or overweight bags for customer safety. The complete system is designed for PE bags with 10kg, 20kg and 30kg weights and can be adapted to bag sizes of 220-320 cm

CASE STUDY

Fig. 7 Newtec bag palletizer.

width, 310-720 cm lengths and varying weights. Haver & Boecker supported the customer in the bag size calculation, so that all bags could be sold from plant start-up.

The bagging plant comprises a Newtec Batipal S1200 palletiser for a bag capacity of 1,200 bags and a Lachenmeier T1 stretch-hood system. The automatic bag palletiser (Fig. 7) is characterised by reliable operation and layer stacking which

ensures an excellent palletising quality. Based on the principle of simple sequential actions, the Batipal allows all required different patterns and bags of various weights and dimensions. The stretchhood system completes the bagging line. The stretch hood is made from a continuous transparent film which is stretched over the pallet for load integrity. The machine automatically adjusts to the pallet height and allows easy maintenance.

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

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CASE STUDY

Fig. 8 Bagging spout in filling position.

Fig. 9 Bag transfer to the conveying line.

Fig. 10 Touchpad for packer.

4 Latest PE packing technology The PE packing technology is a highlight of the new plant.

Sunstate recognised from Haver & Boecker’s other references in the building material industry the benefits of using PE bags not just for the company but also for its customers. Retailers and wholesalers can increase their stock level as additional undercover storage is not required, while construction companies can leave their bags outside in the open on work sites, even under harsh weather conditions. The bags are cleaner, waterproof and tear resistant and emit no dust during handling and transportation.

The FFS technology is fully automated and eliminates bag applicators for the packer. The PE tubular film, from which the bags are formed in the bagging machine, are simply supplied from a reel. The bags are formed from a flat film by welding the side seams and bottom seam and then cutting off the produced bag from the plastic film tube. This allows a very compact bag design, which is perfect for storage and also possible with a handle punch. Gripper units accurately transfer the bags to the filling spouts. During filling procedure external and internal bag vibrating units ensure the required de-aeration and compaction of the dry powder products.

The main advantage of this mechanical vibration system (Fig. 8) is its high availability and that in contrast to vacuum systems, this micro vibration does not suck off any fine particles, which could lead to inhomogeneous products. The filled bags are 100% closed - sealed with a low maintenance pulse-welding device.

The bags are transferred to this device in their upright position (Fig. 9). If required, head seam cleaning and cooling systems can 40

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

be integrated. The modular configuration of the Haver Adams makes it possible to use between one to ten filling modules. The complete machine is fully enclosed, to fulfil all safety standards like “Lototo” and others.

Remote support of the packer is available with a HPS system (Haver Service Pad). The system, consisting of a touchpad (Fig. 10), an integrated camera and software, enables operators, service technicians and other service staff to communicate directly with the packer via a high-speed internet connection.

This allows short response times when issues occur and ensures a higher machine availability.

5 Outlook Sunstate’s installed drymix plant shows that state-of-the-art drymix plants can be easily implemented and only need a small footprint. All that is required is market know-how and availability of raw materials for drymix products. Plants can be installed on a turnkey basis, even when sub-sections of the plant such as silos and buildings already exist.

Further, PE bag technology offers more market opportunities thanks to its many advantages in comparison to conventional bags. Examples prove that some cement producers can even completely shift to PE bags.

References [1] Paterson, M.: Advanced Turnkey Dry Mortar Plants. Presentation at AFCM Conference ( ASEAN Federation of Cement Manufactures), 21-24 April 2015, Hanoi, Vietnam.

COATINGS

Aussie minnow and German whale to research graphene coatings Talga Resoures, an Aussie junior miner, has signed a development agreement with Chemetall, part of BASF’s coatings division, to develop graphene-enhanced metal surface coatings.

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Chemetall was acquired by BASF’s coatings division in 2016. raphene is a wonder-material that, in years to come, The latter business, based in Germany, develops, produces and promises to revolutionise various markets. A single-atom markets coatings, turning over around A$4.5bn per year. thick layer of carbon, graphene is 100-times stronger than steel, Under the terms of their new deal, Talga and Chemetall will impermeable, an efficient conductor of heat and electricity, and cooperate to develop Talga value-added graphene products for almost completely transparent. use in Chemetall surface treatment products.

Tests have shown that it allows almost perfectly frictionless Chemetall technical director Peter Schubach said “The movement, meaning that it stands to add value to the market development resources we are committing is a clear reflection of for lubricants. our belief in the revolutionary properties of graphene-enhanced Added as a surface layer to steel, it promises to usher in products. We are excited to partner with Talga and co-develop a new era of highly effective anti-corrosion coatings. With new metal surface coatings products that leverage the superior corrosion costing around US$2.2 trillion annually this is an performance and eco-friendly properties of graphene in what we enormous market opportunity. see as a significant commercial opportunity for Chemetall.”

Tests show that graphene acts to reduce liquid and gas permeation by increased barrier and tortuous path effect. In Editor’s comment: Tests showing graphene’s frictionless moveaddition, graphene’s conductivity may provide an alternative path ment hint at its value in various bulk handling applications, for electrons in corrosive reactions to stay in the coating above the such as in skirting around conveyors, and as a coating in silos metal substrate, thereby retarding the overall corrosion process. and containers which might reduce hang-ups.

Graphene does not suffer from the health hazards of existing coatings such as hexavalent chrome, a suspected carcinogen.

The coating pre-treatment market is dominated by large international players such as Chemetall, Henkel, PPG, Nihon Parkerizing, and Nippon Paint. The market is worth around US$3 billion now, expected to rise to US$3.8bn by 2021.

Talga describes itself as a “technology minerals” company. It owns five graphite deposits in north Sweden, and a pilot test facility in Germany. The company is forging relationships with potential graphene users Talga functionalised graphene ASTM standard salt spray tests show Talga’s graphene-based coating’s formulation for metal protective coating. superior corrosion protection over current commercial coating reference. such as Tata, Haydale and Jena Batteries.

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

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COATINGS & LININGS

Australia’s first certified flame-retardant polyurea coating The coating has potential uses in bulk handling and mining for flooring, bunding, and on silos and other pieces of infrastructure and equipment.

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he economic impact of corrosion is often exacerbated in harsh climatic environments and in workplaces with heavy traffic wear from operation of large vehicles and equipment.

Excessive moisture, heat and abrasion can accelerate the deterioration of machinery, vehicles and assets. Applying a protective surface coating is one way of minimising or reducing the effect.

One coating material for harsh conditions, supplied by Rhino Linings Australia (RLA) is Rhino Extreme 1150 FR. While the material has been available for several years, it was only late in 2016 that the fire-resistant nature of the product received certification.

RLA’s technical manager, Robert Idzes, said “The formal certification of Rhino Extreme 11-50 FR has opened up a range of new opportunities for industrial and commercial applications of the product.”

Chinook helicopter coated with The spray-applied pure polyurea Rhino Extreme 11-50 FR. is suitable for any application, such as a fuel bund – secondary containment area – that requires a fire-resistant surface. Historically, bunds have been constructed of concrete or brick, but in recent years have been coated with a sprayapplied pure polyurea or welded plastic liner to prevent leaks.

Fire is a potential hazard if a leak does occur, especially where fuel, sodium hydroxide, sulphuric acid and other highly flammable materials are stored. According to its maker, the flameresistant properties of Rhino Extreme 11-50 FR significantly reduce the burn rate allowing safety officers and staff time to extinguish the flames before major damage is caused to the liner or catastrophic failure occurs.

“The Rhino Extreme 11-50 FR is the latest Flame Retardant product to meet US Federal Aviation Regulation 25 (FAR 25) Flammability testing for aircraft,” said Denis Baker, special projects engineer at RLA. “In addition, it also meets UL 94, which is another high standard for coatings.” The FAR 25.853 tests the self-extinguishing performance of materials under fire conditions.

In addition, due its blast mitigation properties – arising from the high tensile and elastic elongation properties of the polyurea – the product can also be used on vehicles and equipment requiring abrasion, corrosion and impact protection and when applied with a textured finish (R10 dry slip resistant rating) it is suitable for foot traffic areas requiring a non-slip surface.

Mixed in a 1:1 ratio, the material is a two-part, flame retardant, elastomeric, polyurea. The product’s flame resistance makes it a suitable coating for numerous applications that require a flammability rating, all the more important as fire regulations become more stringent. However, due to the range of substrates – metals, wood, concrete, fibreglass, geotextiles and most plastics – to which the polyurea can be applied and the numerous flammability ratings, RLA recommends that testing, certification and approval be considered prior to any application of a coating.

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

Fuel bund sealed with Rhino Extreme 11-50 FR to reduce burn rate and contain leaks.

How much flame retardence provided is dependent upon the substrate being coated and the polyurea’s thickness and density. Spray application means that a monolithic, seamless lining is created that conforms to any shape and size. In a refinery, concrete flooring was sufficient in the past but many now require easy to clean, seamless leak proof floors to minimise dust build up, making 11-50 FR a suitable material to use. Applied to an appropriate thickness, the polyurea coating can withstand tracked vehicle traffic, forklift operations and heavy loads.

However, Idzes added that because of the range of substrates, customers should test a small section to determine the suitability of these products for their own particular application. “When considering a coating you have to think about its physical characteristics as well as the physical environment where it will be used,” he stated.

CONCRETE CORROSION

Combatting concrete corrosion at Queensland Sugar The bill for corrosion globally runs into trillions of dollars each year. But proactive organisations like VicRoads and Queensland Sugar Limited (QSL) are staying ahead of the curve, with implications for the broader bulk handling community.

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onitoring the impact of corrosion on concrete infrastructure such as storage sheds, wharves and bridges is a critical aspect of ensuring structural integrity and durability performance. A key way of minimising corrosion is to design for durability and employ the most appropriate technologies and prevention techniques.

Concrete reinforcing steel corrosion is a worldwide problem. Asset owners and managers operating and maintaining concrete infrastructure face different corrosion challenges depending on the industry sector in which they operate. The concrete degradation in the football pitch-sized storage sheds operated by Queensland Sugar differs from that of the bridges maintained by VicRoads.

Raw sugar being poured into a QSL sugar bulk storage shed

Harsh environments – especially coastal, tropical or desert ones with high salt levels or extreme temperatures – can accelerate the rate of corrosion of steel in concrete. Usually, the most exposed elements deteriorate first but it may take five to 15 years for the effects of reinforcing steel corrosion to become visibly noticeable.

The two commonest causes of concrete corrosion are carbonation and chloride or ‘salt attack’. The alkaline (high pH) conditions in concrete forms a passive film on the surface of the steel reinforcing bars, thus preventing or minimising corrosion.

Reduction of the pH caused by “carbonation” or ingress of chloride (salt) causes the passive film to degrade, allowing the reinforcement to corrode in the presence of oxygen and moisture.

As reinforcing bars rust, the volume of the rust products can increase up to six times that of the original steel, thus increasing pressure on the surrounding material which slowly cracks the concrete. Over the course of many years, the cracks eventually appear on the surface and concrete starts to flake off or spall.

Fred Andrews-Phaedonos, principal engineer – concrete technology at VicRoads, said the government road authority has a range of assets throughout the State that face degradation from a range of sources. “The iconic Westgate Bridge carries massive loads in addition to being subject to high winds and salt spray,” he said.

Inspection of the many concrete culverts and low road bridges along the hundreds of kilometres of country highway has shown that their effective operational life is being reduced as the size of interstate road trucks increases. Many structures were designed for vehicles half the size and weight of modern trucks. “Current estimates suggest that a proportion of Australia’s bridges are structurally or functionally deficient and require major rehabilitation, strengthening, improvement or replacement to bring them to current design standards,” Andrews-Phaedonos said.

Queensland Sugar Limited (QSL) operates and maintains a range of assets, the major ones being its storage sheds and wharves from where raw sugar is loaded onto ships. According to David Edelman, project engineer at QSL, the company’s massive storage sheds – some of which are 45 metres wide and 400 metres long – also face a slow acting but pervasive threat.

“Sugar makes a mildly acidic solution that can slowly eat away at the concrete floors and walls of the sheds,” Edelman said.

“This damage leads to a pot-holed, uneven surface and breaking of the concrete at joints, which adds to the difficulty of washing the floors in addition to presenting hazards to workers. The sugar forms a sticky, unsafe coating that builds up over time and makes work inside the sheds difficult meaning the floors have to be washed periodically.”

To minimise the damage caused by the sugar-attack, the walls and floors of the company’s storage sheds are coated with a sealer. Deeper holes and cracks are filled with epoxy, and joints are kept maintained to prevent sugar attacking deeper into the slabs.

In addition to this chemical attack, the continual operation of large, front-end loaders moving hundreds of thousands of tonnes of raw sugar through the sheds and onto conveyor belts and ship loaders damages the concrete surfaces.

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CONCRETE CORROSION

Offshore loading conveyor at Lucinda Bulk Sugar Terminal.

Similarly to VicRoads’ coastal concrete structures, QSL’s port assets degrade in the aggressive maritime environment.

For QSL this is exacerbated by them being located in the Tropics as well. The wharves and associated infrastructure at Lucinda, Bundaberg and Cairns are under threat of chloride attack, in addition to damage from tropical storms and cyclones.

“Correct interpretation of observations and testing is essential to a correct diagnosis and prognosis of the problem, and thus enable appropriate corrective measures to be taken,” Andrews-Phaedonos said.

The traditional method of concrete repair is to remove the cracked, delaminated and spalling concrete to a depth of 2030mm behind the reinforcing bars to fully expose the rusted material and remove the contaminated concrete from the steel.

All the corrosion affected material is then removed and the steel treated or replaced, after which specialist repair concrete mortars are applied and the surface made good.

A modern development is for the repair mortars to be polymer modified to improve adhesion and resist further ingress of contaminants. Coatings are commonly used in combination with patch repairs to reduce further entry of carbonation or chlorides.

Edelman said that when the QSL jetty at Lucinda was built there was an issue with alkali silica reaction (ASR) causing cracking of the concrete. Chlorides have penetrated the concrete and caused premature corrosion of the reinforcing steel on parts of the structure. In some highly exposed parts of the structure this corrosion has caused extensive damage where elements have had to be repaired or replaced. However, in large sections of the jetty structure, the chlorides in the concrete have not yet reached a concentration where corrosion has initiated.

“The chloride concentrations have been monitored over many years and they are slowly increasing,” Edelman said. To counter this, QSL has started a program to apply an impregnating silane coating to the underside of the 5.7 kilometre length of 44

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

the jetty to prevent further ingress of chlorides. “By putting this relatively inexpensive protection in place now, we can extend the life of the structure,” stated Edelman. “If we wait another 10 or 15 years the chlorides levels will have increased, corrosion will have started and it will be too late.

“The square-metre cost of a simple protective coating like silane is as little as 1/100th the cost of a concrete patch repair, but it is only effective before corrosion starts”.

Monitoring chloride levels, through core sample testing, allows a proactive approach. All asset managers should get to know the chloride and carbonation profile of their concrete better, particularly if that concrete is aging and located in coastal environments.

“Without a proactive approach, the first sign of a problem with a structure is typically when a piece of concrete falls off due to corrosion,” said Edelman. “At that point it may be too late for a coating to protect the remainder of the structure, and you may be up for some very large repair bills.”

A number of QSL’s assets have experienced significant corrosion and spalling of concrete over the years due to chloride ingress. Traditional patch repair, in many cases with replacement of corroded reinforcement, has been used, but with inconsistent results.

“We have some patch repairs that are pushing 30 years old and remain in great condition,” Edelman said, “but others are beginning to crack and fail after less than 10 years.” However, one of the limitations of patch repairs is that it is often necessary to remove large quantities of sound concrete to solve the problem, causing extensive disruption and costing approximately $3,000 per square metre.

One of the alternative methods of protection used on concrete, especially in marine environments, is Cathodic Protection. One type, Impressed Current Cathodic Protection (ICCP), is a technique whereby a small, permanent current is passed through the concrete to the reinforcement in order to virtually stop the corrosion of the steel.

CONCRETE CORROSION

Mooring dolphin at Cairns Bulk Sugar Terminal scaffolded for concrete repair works.

Cathodic protection is relatively simple in theory. Anodes are inserted into the concrete at set spacing, attached to the positive terminal of a DC power supply and connecting the negative terminal to the reinforcing steel. Large amounts of cabling and permanent power supplies are required, making the technology really only suitable for commercial infrastructure.

The initial CP current totally passivates the steel reinforcement, migrating chloride away from the bars and restoring an alkaline (high pH) environment in the concrete around the steel reinforcement.

Well designed and installed CP systems can achieve a 30 year or longer operational life.

One of the QSL conveyor tunnels has already had an ICCP system installed and the company is preparing to add the technology to a particular section of the Lucinda Jetty that is subject to near-constant wetting from waves.

“In this section, chlorides have reached a level where corrosion has begun and some spalling has occurred. Cathodic protection is a more cost-effective option compared to allowing the corrosion to continue and having to carry out constant repairs,” Edelman stated. “There will be long term cost savings, which helps a lot – with the total annual spend for concrete repair and protection of around $1 million across the six terminals.”

During the past 30 years, there has been a lot of research into replacing some of the Portland Cement used in concrete with alternative components such as ‘fly ash’, ‘blastfurnace slag’, ‘silica fume’, polymers, recycled car tyres and fibres. Some of this research has been published through the Australian Corrosion Association (ACA). ‘Fly ash’ is a by-product from burning coal at a power station and incorporating fibres into a mix is similar to the old practice of adding horse hair to wet plaster.

One particular area of research is in the field of geopolymer concrete, utilising alkali-activated binding agents.

According to Andrews-Phaedonos, the enhanced characteristics of fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) concrete include increased flexural and shear capacity of beams and slabs. FRP concrete is now regularly specified by VicRoads for repair and strengthening works. “The material is thinner, lighter, non-corrosive and easier and quicker to install,” he said. “It also has

increased axial load, bending, shear and confinement capacities.”

As a result of the research into concrete additives, construction companies and engineering consultancies have access to all the latest technologies that yield a suite of proactive and reactive processes and procedures to maximise the effectiveness of reinforced and pre-stressed concrete.

“If you have all the appropriate specialists involved at the design stage it is very possible to have a design life of 100 years or more,” said Warren Green, a director and corrosion engineer at engineering consultancy, Vinsi Partners.

By incorporating the by-products of other processes into the concrete mix, it has been possible to get “green star” ratings for different types of concrete. There is the challenge of ‘thinking outside the box’ as to what might be incorporated into concrete in order to enhance sustainability and durability.

In addition to new materials being incorporated into the concrete mix, other additives have created ‘self-compacting’ and ‘self-levelling’ concrete which can save both time and money. Off-site construction of pre-stressed concrete panels, under factory conditions, permits a far greater degree of quality control. “Advances in admixtures means that we can build almost anything out of concrete these days,” Green said.

“The Australian Standards for concrete work gives basic guidance for normal situations, but in aggressive environments such as tropical, coastal, acid-sulphate soils, etc., a structure will not necessarily achieve its design life if simply designed and constructed to comply with the Standards,” said Green.

To complement the Standards and support designing for maximum durability in specific situations, the Concrete Institute of Australia is developing a range of ‘recommended practice’ guidelines. “VicRoads was the first State Road Authority in Australia to publish standard specifications for concrete maintenance work and has made a significant contribution to the preparation of Standards such as AS 5100 Part 8,” added Andrews-Phaedonos.

As concrete infrastructure ages, corrosion prevention has to be as cost effective as practical. Owners and operators are being challenged to find better ways to maintain the integrity of their assets. Some of the factors that need to be considered include how long the asset has to remain in operation and whether a shorter life extension would be acceptable if maintenance has to be repeated more frequently.

The Australasian Corrosion Association Incorporated (ACA) is a membership association that works with industry and academia to research and disseminate information on corrosion and its prevention through the provision of training courses, seminars, conferences, publications and other activities.

As part of its charter, the ACA presents a continual program of technical seminars and training courses each year. On July 26-27, the ACA will be presenting the Brian Cherry International Concrete Symposium at the Marriott Hotel in Melbourne featuring 11 high-profile international speakers.

Contact: www.corrosion.com.au

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

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FOOD / POWDER HANDLING / PNEUMATIC CONVEYING

Zeppelin Systems commissions a noodle system in Vietnam The Brisbane office of plant engineering firm Zeppelin supplied a system comprising nine outdoor silos for wheat flour, one indoor silo for additive, three inline rotary sifters, six conveying blowers, two central scaling stations, two diverter interchanges and eight receiving hoppers.

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n terms of its operation, the system takes raw material from a road tanker and transfers the main ingredient, flour, into bulk storage silos before transfer via a pneumatic conveying system to day bins. A rotary sifter is installed at each bank of three silos. Product is received at internal day bins and then automatically weighed into a batch weigher prior to transfer to a receiving hopper located above each mixing line.

There is a separate hand additives station for other ingredients with conveying and accurate weighing of additives prior to dispensing into mixers. In addition, there is fully automatic control from intake through to mixers with a Siemens PLC and operator graphics depicting operation.

The complete system, including silos, was supplied by Zeppelin with mixers provided by other businesses. System throughput equates to 6.2 batches x 270kg x 8 lines = 13,392 kg/hr = 14 ton/hr. Silo capacity, SS304 st/st, is 80 tons capacity each. Weighing accuracy is 0.3%.

Mixer capacity for one Zeppelin line for two mixers, 6.2 batch x 270 kg = 1,674kg/ line. There is a total of eight lines. Plant operation is 24 hrs day x 7 days week.

The plant has 10 different recipes.

The method of control is fully automatic with manual back up. The brand of PLC is Siemens, Scada - Win CC Flex, Process Visualization, Recipe management, Data Logging, one PC 14� Monitor.

German-headquartered Zeppelin is a specialist in the storage, conveying, mixing, metering and weighing of bulk materials. It regularly engineers equipment and plants in sectors like food, polyolefins, plastics and rubber.

Outdoor silo with rupture disc.

Outdoor silo without rupture disc.

Top and above: Receiving hoppers.

Above: Central scaling.

Below: Inline rotary sifter.

Below: Control system for outdoor silos.

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

Below: Control system for central scaling.

FOOD / POWDER HANDLING / PNEUMATIC CONVEYING

Reducing costly peaks in compressed air energy demand In this article, Bill Blyth* of pneumatics specialist SMC explains how the company’s AirMaS technology can deliver savings in the cost of compressed air at plants with intermittent but short duration demand for higher volumes.

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mong the many challenges facing processing and manufacturing sites globally is the dominant use of compressed air. There is no dispute that as a form of energy it is unlikely that compressed air can be efficiently replaced in processing and production activities; this is especially relevant for the conveying of ingredients and packaging components.

The process of making these compressed air applications efficient identifies significant challenges, especially the availability of sufficient volumes of suitably treated compressed air. Food and pharmaceutical manufacturers, in particular, have critical quality requirements.

Irrespective of the industry or application, there is a high cost associated with the production of compressed air. Reports suggest that 10% of total electrical power in Australia is used in the production of compressed air. In addition, there are costs around capital equipment, maintenance and operations.

A significant challenge is establishing minimum efficient compressed air requirements for particular sites or processes.

Doing so requires a very clear understanding of total site requirements, for all stages of operation. To understate the requirements would often severely impact site operations; to overstate increases capital equipment and operating costs unnecessarily for the total life of ownership.

The total air consumed at a factory typically comprises a steady state constant level of demand plus instances of short duration and intermittent higher volumes. It is these intermittent higher volumes that significantly affect the ability of the site to produce and maintain sufficient levels of compressed air efficiently and cost effectively.

In many processes, the conveying of product can result in the cyclic (non-continuous) use of compressed air. While the required volume of compressed air may be quite high, it is over a short duration. A good example is where it may be necessary to use air to move liquids through a manifold (tank farm to filling or use).

This is very relevant in beverage mixing, transfer and filling, and in line cleaning – pigging – applications.

Measure. Control. Detect.

We help process industries manage powders, solids or liquids in bins, silos, and tanks. We’ll work directly

AirMaS apparatus aims to reduce costly peaks in compressed air energy demand.

It is in these applications that the use of AirMaS technology is especially relevant and is easily integrated to provide efficiencies and quality with significant savings in the cost of compressed air. Such sites include dairy, beverage, household liquids, and pharmaceuticals.

The aim of AirMaS technology is to reduce costly peaks in compressed air energy demand. An added benefit is the ability to reduce operating pressures without necessarily affecting machine effectiveness and with improved efficiency.

AirMaS technology has been installed in many processes and has produced significant compressed air savings, often in excess of 50%. It has also reduced costs around capital equipment, energy, maintenance, and operations. *Bill Blyth is OEM & key accounts manager, NSW/ACT, global accounts group, SMC Australia | New Zealand Contact: Bill.Blyth@smcanz.com

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

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FOOD / POWDER HANDLING / PNEUMATIC CONVEYING

Flyash plant gets tune-up

850MW Millmerran black coal power station in south east Queensland.

Queensland company Independent Flyash Brokers has tapped the services of Kockums Bulk Systems to tuneup the performance of its facility which is adjacent to the 850MW Millmerran black coal power station in south east Queensland.

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ndependent Flyash Brokers (IFB), which describes itself as “an independent processor and marketer of coal combustion products”, has a major processing facility, with 3,000 tonnes of silo storage, at Millmerran, 100kms west of Toowoomba. IFB’s high quality, classified flyash – a fine grey powder – is used predominantly in concrete and cement manufacture in south eastern Queensland.

Recently Peter Dennis, operations manager of Independent Flyash Brokers (IFB), engaged Kockums Bulk Systems to perform a Baseline Condition Assessment (BCA) in a bid to achieve an improvement in plant performance and a higher rate of product throughput than the original design required.

Kockums Bulk Systems, a major provider of engineering services and equipment to the powder handling sector, offers a Baseline Condition Assessment (BCA) and Partner Agreement to its customers. Effectively, these services assist in bringing equipment back to ‘as commissioned’ performance, and keep it in top condition.

IFB’s flyash conveying system was supplied and installed by Kockums in 2008. The process is that ash from the power station is conveyed to the IFB raw ash bin. The ash is fed to a Metso C102 centrifugal classifier to separate the cement grade of ash, leaving a coarse ash which is conveyed to a reject silo for landfill.

The classified ash is then dense phase conveyed off the power station site to remote load-out silos up to 380 metres distant, for collection by road tankers. IFB also has the option to bypass the classifier, thereby allowing unclassified (run of station) flyash to be conveyed to the load out silos for specific customers.

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

The original pneumatic conveying systems were designed to exceed the output from the classifier, transferring the quality ash to the load out silos at 85 tonnes per hour. However, to incorporate future developments, a second operational sequence of continuous conveying was built into the equipment to raise the transfer rate in the same equipment. This had not yet been required, but with potential upgrade considerations, it was tested at the time of the BCA.

Independent Flyash Brokers’ processing facility, with 3,000 tonnes of silo storage, at Millmerran, 100kms west of Toowoomba.

FOOD / POWDER HANDLING / PNEUMATIC CONVEYING

Top: Dense phase conveying vessels.

Above: Trucks being loaded with flyash.

As part of the BCA, Kockums’ specialists together with IFB maintenance personnel replaced aeration cloths on the 4m3 capacity pneumatic conveying vessels (PCVs) and tuned the system to return to its ‘as commissioned’ state. They optimised cycle times by altering air flow rate and pressure of operation, by adjusting the appropriate control valves.

The original PLC program required no upgrade during this process.

“Significant savings were made on the air quantity being used, such that when running unclassified ash to the load out silos, one of the two ash conveying compressors was able to return to standby mode, even during the continuous conveying tests, which showed a potential achievable continuous throughput rate around 135 tonnes per hour,” explained Francois Steyn, chief executive of Kockums Bulk Systems.

“Peter Dennis was pleased at the outcome which confirmed that IFB’s approach to preventative maintenance of the equipment easily enabled the return to the original performance. The Partner Agreement follow-on from the BCA offers continued security by incorporating an annual check-up by our specialists to maintain top performance.”

Kockums says that its BCA and Partner Agreements apply to all facets of its business, viz powder handling, packaging and vacuum-assisted lifting.

Top: Classifier feed to conveying vessels. Fine ash system on left, coarse to right.

Above: Control boxes linked to conveying vessels.

Contact: Kockums Bulk Systems, tel 03-9457 8200

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

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FOOD / POWDER HANDLING / PNEUMATIC CONVEYING

Container giant targeting mining and powder handling in Australia

Seaco’s 20ft high cube bulkers and lifting equipment.

Seaco, the number two player in the world in container leasing, is looking to use more of its specialist containers in mining and powder handling applications in Australia.

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eaco is owned by acquisitive Chinese conglomerate HNA and with a massive 2.4m TEU fleet of containers is second only to Triton in the fast-consolidating sector.

The container sector, like the shipping industry itself, has been plagued with over-capacity and compressed profit margins.

In response, there has been a spate of mergers and acquisitions as companies look to greater scale to improve their prospects. In 2015, HNA bought Cronos Containers, absorbing it into Seaco.

With the integration of Cronos now complete, the enlarged Seaco is keenly competing for new business worldwide. Large parts of the container business, such as for standard dry freight containers carrying, for example, flat screen televisions or shoes from China to the USA, are highly commoditised with razor thin profit margins. However, prospects are better for specialised containers, refrigerated containers and tanks.

In Australia, Peter Folkard, regional vice president for Oceania & Americas for Seaco, is one of the executives leading the company’s energised regional push. From new sales offices in Sydney and Brisbane, and with representation in Perth, the company is building up its business in special containers.

Speaking to ABHR, Folkard said that Australia, in comparison to many other international container markets, “requires some very specialised, weird and wonderful equipment.” He sees opportunities in the mining market, in powder handling and in bulk liquid tanks.

Increased utilisation of the company’s “on-hire fleet” is a key goal.

In the powder space in Australia, Seaco has been able to leverage off the experience it has gained leasing its 550-strong fleet of powder tanks internationally. For example, it was able to

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

One of Seaco's specialist powder handling tanks

provide technical support to one of its clients, a New Zealandbased cement producer. This company needed procedures around pressure testing its pneumatic tanks. Seaco helped it devise a 16-point pre-trip inspection check list, with items around checking valves and seals.

In the cement sector, customers are plagued by excess residue sticking to the inside of pneumatic tanks. In response, Seaco has worked on a prototype tank which, in tests, only carries residue of 70kgs. Loading time is a speedy 12 minutes, with unloading in 30 minutes.

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Equipment range includes: • • • • • • •

Bulkers Half Heights Open Tops Flat Racks Palletwides T11 Standard Tanks (Bulk liquids) Powder Tanks

FOR FURTHER INFO, OR TO SUBMIT AN ENQUIRY ONLINE VISIT:

SEACOGLOBAL.COM.AU

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FOOD / POWDER HANDLING / PNEUMATIC CONVEYING

In the mining space, an increasing number of sites are turning to containerised exports. A leased container fleet can allow small and mid-sized operators to enter production at minimal cost, at times of high commodity prices. Headaches over dust are avoided for producers of metals concentrates. Larger miners can cost effectively bring on ancillary or secondary deposits. Rented container fleets paired with tipplers can allow exports from container ports, without massive investment in shiploaders and conveyors.

In Australia, Seaco has already formed a collaboration with Sydneybased Container Rotation Systems (CRS), which offers equipment like tipplers and container spreaders.

Seaco's specialist Folkard said “We are delighted to powder handling tanks be working in association with CRS due to the compatibility and capability of their automatic lid lifting and container rotation system compatible with our half height containers.”

Seaco and CRS offer complementary equipment – tipplers and containers – for bulk projects handling commodities like mineral concentrates, iron ore and grain.

For dense cargos of mineral concentrates or ores, Seaco offers half height containers. These have smooth steel floors, tapered side walls, anti-corrosion lined internal walls, a tipping hatch

on the front end and a side hinge door discharge with swinging header. Maximum gross weight is 33,000kgs, tare weight 3,150kg, and payload 29,850kgs.

For grain and other looser agricultural products, Seaco is promoting its 20ft high cube bulker. These have a cubic capacity of 37.4m3, roof loading hatches, two end doors and endwall discharge hatches.

Seaco collaborator putting runs on the board Seaco is keen to stress its association with Australian-based Container Rotation Systems (CRS). The latter company, a supplier of specialised tipplers and spreaders, has delivered significant containerised-bulk projects around the world. ABHR reviews a few.

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n Taiwan, CRS has supplied a complete tippling system to Chien Shing Harbour Service Co which is using it to handle copper concentrate. Chien Shing receives bulk deliveries of copper concentrates from South American copper miners, which it then unloads, blends and breaks down into smaller parcels for shipment to China.

Due to tightening environmental rules, Chien Shing needed a cleaner solution to minimise dust and spillage. This prompted it to order from CRS: a Rotainer RS heavy duty container rotator, a tool to quickly connect containers to mobile harbour cranes, a batch of heavy duty containers, and a lid removal tool.

In Africa, CRS supplied a full system – comprising two Rotainers, cranes, four Kalmar reach stackers, forklifts, trucks and containers – to Nevsun Resources, which is exporting copper concentrate from the Eritrean port of Massawa. Mining takes place at the Bisha mine, 170kms west of Massawa, with concentrate traveling the route in containers.

Left: CRS’ container handling system in action for Chien Shing Harbour Service Co of Taiwan, handling copper concentrate.

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

FOOD / POWDER HANDLING / PNEUMATIC CONVEYING

The system has allowed relatively low cost exports from Eritrea, a country in the Horn of Africa that has not proved a magnet for foreign investors.

Each container carries around 35 tonnes of copper concentrate. Experienced operators load with the port’s two cranes at around 35 containers per hour per crane, with less experienced local staff averaging 20.

In South America, CRS recently supplied a static container tippler and spreader system to Chilean copper giant Codelco.

The innovative static system, a first for CRS, went to an ore handling shed at Puerto Ventanis, where it handles up to a million tonnes per year of copper concentrate from an expansion of Codelco’s Teniente underground mine.

The new static system builds upon, and shares most components with, CRS’ heavy duty Rotainer, which first came into action in 2010 handling iron ore for IMX Resources at Port Adelaide.

The new container tippler rotates from the bottom, as opposed to the more traditional Rotainer which picks up from the top. The spreader will, in Codelco’s application, lift a container from an arriving train, put it into the tippler, take the lid off, rotate it 360°, put the lid back on, lift the container and lid and put it back on to the train.

The static system has a rotational speed of 15 seconds and is rated at 42,000kg. It can handle containers from 1.6 to 2.2 metres in height.

Below: Copper concentrate in a container on the 18-hour road trip from the Bisha mine to the Port of Massawa, and being unloaded at the port.

KEEP YOUR DUST DOWN! Dust emissions constitute a major operating, environmental and occupational health hazard that is unacceptable to the modern Bulk Materials Handling industry.

The ESS Dust Suppression systems generate spray of fine water droplets to encapsulate dust particles to prevent the material becoming airborne outside chute areas.

The ESS Dust Suppression system is suitable for use with most dust producing materials where the process will allow for small amounts of added moisture.

The ESS Dust Suppression system is: Simple, Safe and Easy to Maintain as all maintenance is performed from the outside of the chute.

Low Maintenance when the Quickfit Nozzle is combined with an appropriate filter, decreasing blockages and maintenance.

A Low Water Consumption Unit as it uses 2 Liters of Water a minute over a range of pressures. Making it suitable for drier environments.

Supplied in Kit Form, comprising 2, 4 or 6 Quickfit nozzles, a manifold, push fit hoses and fitting.

Visit our Website for further information or Free call 1800 74446 for your local representative.

Proudly Manufactured in Australia

FOOD / POWDER HANDLING / PNEUMATIC CONVEYING

Automated pneumatic tensioner for conveyor belt cleaners In another move toward “smarter” material handling, a global conveyor technology supplier has introduced an automated pneumatic tensioning system for belt cleaners.

With its battery storage, the system can produce ample power to re-tension the cleaner as needed. All photos courtesy of Martin Engineering.

The system uses the moving conveyor to generate electricity, powering a compressor to maintain optimum blade pressure.

M

artin Engineering says its new offering delivers precise monitoring and tensioning throughout all stages of blade life, reducing the labour typically required to maintain optimum blade pressure and extending the service life of both the belt and the cleaner.

Equipped with sensors to confirm that the belt is loaded and running, the system automatically backs the blade away during stoppages or when the conveyor is running empty, minimizing unnecessary wear to both the belt and cleaner. The result, says Martin, is consistently correct blade tension, with reduced power demand on start-up, all managed without operator intervention.

“Pneumatic tensioners have some advantages versus mechanical construction,” explained product development engineer Andrew Timmerman. “Mechanical designs work well as long as they are properly adjusted, but in many cases this requires periodic attention from maintenance crews as the cleaning blade wears down,” he said. “Also, some operators will loosen a mechanical tensioner to reduce drag at start-up, which reduces the cleaner’s performance if not correctly re-tensioned afterward.”

The Automated Blade System (ABS) can be supplied in two variations, for locations with or without an existing power source. On sites with available power, the company will offer a 120/240V AC version of the system to power the

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

system’s 24V compressor. In facilities able to supply power and also compressed air to the head pulley, Martin can design the system so that the panel simply handles the “smart” portion of engaging and disengaging the cleaner blade.

For locations lacking convenient power access, the self-contained version uses the moving conveyor to generate its own electricity, which powers a small 24V DC air compressor to maintain optimum blade pressure at all times. Built around the patented Martin Roll Generator, the new self-powered version includes a proprietary storage system developed specifically for this application. With lead acid batteries to hold the energy, the system can produce ample power to drive the compressor, which maintains pressure in the reservoir to re-tension the cleaner as needed.

The generator can produce as much as 40 watts of power when running at maximum speed, which is sufficient to run components such as weigh scales, proximity switches, moisture sensors, solenoids and relays, as well as timers, lights and safety devices. Wireless communication can be used to transmit directly to a central controller, giving operators a cost-effective way to access data that has not been readily available in the past.

When designing the new unit, engineers knew they needed more power than 40W to achieve the desired function.

“Although 40W is sufficient for low power devices like PLCs, sensors or LED lights, it

Sensors detect whether the belt is loaded, automatically relieving tension when the conveyor is empty to help minimize wear.

falls short of powering high current draw devices like compressors or actuators,” Timmerman continued. “So the batteries supply the extra energy to power the compressor, which only needs to run for a brief period to maintain pressure in the reservoir. The reservoir is then regulated to keep the cleaners at proper tension.

The batteries re-charge during normal running of the belt, and they’re quickly ready to cycle again as needed.”

Both of the system’s regulated outputs can be individually adjusted to the desired pressure to tension multiple cleaners, such as a single primary with as many as three secondaries. The required cleaning pressure in any given application would be determined by which specific cleaner is in use, and can be adjusted to suit a wide range of competitive designs and brands.

Martin operates under exclusive license with ESS Australia.

FOOD / POWDER HANDLING / PNEUMATIC CONVEYING

Sensors prevent cross contamination for manufacturer A US livestock feed manufacturer wanted to ensure that only specific feed additives were added to certain blends of commercial feeds.

Flow Detect 2000 with Hazloc.

A

dditives that are safe for one species are not necessarily beneficial or could potentially be dangerous to another species. If a mistake is made, it could be harmful to animals and could result in fines from regulators. Negative news coverage could also present a public relations nightmare and damage the brand and company’s reputation.

To prevent cross contamination, they needed a way to know when the wrong ingredient might be entering the production process. For a solution, the feed manufacturer turned to BinMaster’s Flow Detect 2000 flow/no-flow sensor.

This can detect even small trickles of flow that might enter a process and cause the wrong Installation at feed manufacturer’s ingredient to be used. It helps plant, showing sensors in place. ensure that product has stopped flowing completely before a new ingredient is introduced.

BinMaster’s publicity said that “now, the customer has this reliable sensor on virtually every distributor, pipeline, and conveyor in their facility. It uses the sensor as a preventive control for compliance with the US’s Food Safety Modernisation Act.” Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

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FOOD / POWDER HANDLING / PNEUMATIC CONVEYING

Chemical powders de-lumped with bulk bag conditioner DSM Coating Resins Spain S.L. is the world’s largest producer of polyester resins and one of the largest producers of specialty emulsions.

Forklift loads a bulk bag into the conditioner.

Once the safety doors are secured, the operator initiates the conditioning cycle.

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o produce saturated polyester resin powders used in protective coatings for bridges, ships and automobiles, DSM receives large volumes of dicarboxylic acid and diol ingredients in bulk bags.

Both materials agglomerate during shipment and storage, preventing them from flowing out of the bulk bag, which required operators to break lumps using hand tools.

To eliminate the cost, mess, delays, and safety concerns of manual methods, the company installed a Block-Buster Bulk Bag Conditioner that de-lumps the materials automatically.

Workers originally emptied the bag onto a grate in a caged area and proceeded to crush the lumps using hand tools. “These manual methods created significant time loss and disturbances in the loading process while posing risk of injury and discomfort to workers,” says Elio Sanchez, project manager at DSM Coating Resins Spain. And DSM still encountered blockages in the downstream process, further slowing production.

Manufactured by Flexicon (Europe), the Bulk Bag Conditioner is installed in a safe atmospheric area near the front end of the process, which feeds the factory’s blending reactors.

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

Scissor lift raises the bulk bag to a preselected height while hydraulic rams with contoured end plates press opposite sides of the bag to loosen solidified powders.

Housed in a free-standing support frame, the unit measures 2210 mm high by 3378 mm wide by 1981 mm deep. It is equipped with two hydraulic rams fitted with specially contoured end plates, and a powered scissor lift with variable-height turntable.

Once a forklift loads a bulk bag onto the conditioner’s platform, the operator closes the safety interlocked doors.

From the unit’s control panel, the operator programs the ram pressure, number of ram cycles, single or multiple turntable heights and degree of rotation, according to the dimensions of the bag and the conditioning required to loosen the material throughout the bag.

After pressing “start,” the conditioning cycle is automatic: the bulk bag is raised hydraulically to the preselected height, the

FOOD / POWDER HANDLING / PNEUMATIC CONVEYING

Hydraulic rams fitted with specially contoured end plates press opposite sides of the bag to loosen solidified powders.

The turntable and bag rotate 90º to condition all sides, while the scissor lift allows conditioning at all heights.

end plates press opposite sides of the bag to break down the agglomerates, and the bag and turntable rotate 90° to condition the adjacent sides. The unit can also be programmed to automatically repeat conditioning cycles at multiple bag heights.

The material now flows freely from bulk bag spouts into reactors, where one to three tonne batches are converted into saturated polyester resins.

Mr Sanchez says the Bulk Bag Conditioner has cut the time to de-lump materials by 75 percent and improved the quality of raw materials entering the factory’s reactors while improving safety.

Since dicarboxylic acid is a main ingredient in most batches produced, the conditioner is in use daily.

Contact: sales@flexicon.com.au

Before installing the Bulk Bag Conditioner, manual methods to de-lump chemical powders slowed the reactor loading process.

DSH SYSTEMS – WE CARE ABOUT YOUR AIR! Solve the world-wide industrial material handling problem – dust fallout while transferring dry, granular goods.

At the loading point, the DSH System concentrates the discharge of dry goods as a solid column through free air into any target repository including trucks, rail wagons, ships, barges, storage containers, bags or stockpiles.

The DSH Dust Suppression System uses no utilities and has no internal moving parts.

Winner (joint) of the Inaugural Innovative Technology Award at BulkEx 2006.

Winner of the Dust Control Technology “Application or Practice” at BulkEx 2007.

The DSH System gives you: • • • • • • •

Cleaner, safer working environments Dust explosion risk mitigation Reduced maintenance, cleaning and dust handling Faster, continuous, cleaner loading of trucks and rail wagons Enables operation in closer proximity to urban areas Reduced product shrinkage.

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

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OVERHEAD FOOD / POWDER HANDLING / PNEUMATIC CONVEYING

Rotary batch mixer blends wood powders for plywood adhesives To blend raw material for plywood adhesives at higher rates with greater uniformity, the Willamette Valley Company replaced a ribbon blender that agitates material, with a rotary batch mixer that tumbles it.

Operators at Willamette Valley Co say the 4 cu m (3962 l) rotary batch mixer delivers uniform blends in high volumes that customers demand.

T

he US forest products company, also known as Wilvaco, mixes fine mesh bark powder from the Western Red Alder tree, along with other wood material, to produce dry blends that it ships to customers who formulate plywood adhesives.

Examples of the products blended include Modal SPR-Dark and Modal SPR-Lite, both bulking agents for plywood glue mixes.

Need for quality and high throughput “We wanted pure blending in high volume,” says Don Coleman, plant manager. “Our glue customers are very particular when it comes to their ingredients, so consistent quality is important. The ribbon blender did not mix materials thoroughly enough. The material, which customers mix in vats in their own formulations, could clog filters and shut down lines if not properly blended.”

According to Munson, its model 700-TH-140-MS at Willamette Valley blends uniformly in about four minutes, with throughput of 2721 kg per batch. The company says that capacity of the previous ribbon blender was one third of that amount, and was being outpaced by demand.

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

Continuous rotation prevents segregation, reduces energy consumption Coleman says the mixer’s ability to continue rotating during loading and discharging prevents segregation of materials of varying densities, yielding a homogenous blend. Importantly, Willamette Valley is blending wood powder having particle sizes as small as 74 microns – finer than baking flour – without densification, Coleman says.

The constant rotation also means energy consumption remains stable and relatively low, especially when making multiple batches of one blend. The “soft start” of the motor and slow mixing speed further increase energy saving, Coleman adds.

He learned about the rotary batch mixer from the plant manager at Idaho Milling and Grain, a Wilvaco company in Malad, Idaho, that blends wheat flour for glue extenders. Mr Coleman wanted to replace the ribbon blender with a faster, higher throughput machine and his colleague, citing Idaho Milling’s good experience, recommended the rotary batch

FOOD / POWDER HANDLING / PNEUMATIC CONVEYING

Mixer inlet (foreground) receives material from feed hoppers above.

From the mixer discharge the blend is pneumatically transferred to the bag filling equipment.

mixer. Given the mixer’s high output, uniform blend quality and short cycle times, Willamette Valley made the investment.

Material handling system feeds mixer When tree bark – or “hog fuel” as the industry calls it – is delivered to the Willamette Valley plant, operators run it through a 3,600 RPM grinder for cleaning and size reduction. The moisture content of the bark is 45 to 60%, so the powder is transported to a dryer, which reduces moisture to 6 or 7%. The bark powder is loaded into a distribution bin and conveyed to one of three PLCcontrolled hoppers supplying the mixer.

Each hopper has capacity of 1,362 kg and is mounted on load cells. A rotary air lock at each hopper outlet discharges material into the mixer’s inlet chute. Coleman says an operator selects a recipe on the computer and pushes a “go” button, causing material to discharge from the feed hoppers.

A PLC receives weight loss information from load cells and automatically stops the rotary valves once an accurate batch weight has been discharged.

As the drum rotates, proprietary mixing flights lift, cut, fold and tumble the material, achieving blend uniformity in one to three minutes.

According to Munson, the internal flights also serve to elevate the material for discharge through a pneumatically actuated plug gate valve, leaving no residual other than dust.

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

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FOOD / POWDER HANDLING / PNEUMATIC CONVEYING

Mixing flights lift, cut, fold and tumble the material achieving blend uniformity in one to three minutes.

Plywood adhesive blend consists of fine mesh bark powder from the Western Red Alder tree, along with other wood material.

Coleman says, “Some fine dust may be left on the flights, but this can be vacuumed away when the machine shuts down for material changeover.”

A side access door provides access to all interior surfaces for cleaning and inspection.

From the mixer discharge, a pneumatic conveyor transports blends 4.3 m vertically to an overhead weigh hopper equipped with load cells and a rotary valve that allows filling of 23 kg paper sacks or 1362 kg bulk bags under PLC control.

Coleman says 21,792 kg of material can be blended in eight hours. “We could do more, but we continually test batch samples and double check our products to ensure consistent quality.”

Munson is represented in Australia by iBulk of Dandenong South in Victoria.

Contact: t el 03 8792 0200 tony@ibulk.com.au

Sanitary tilt-down flexible screw conveyor Flexicon has launched a Sanitary Flexible Screw Conveyor that can be tilted down and rolled to serve multiple functions.

U

sing a manual jack screw, the support boom and conveyor can be raised for discharging into vessels or other process equipment.

Fully lowered, it can be rolled through doorways as low as 2134 mm in height, and aisles as narrow as 1067 mm.

Sanitary features include: a castor-mounted frame, support boom and hopper grate constructed of 316 stainless steel, sanitary quickrelease clean out cap, quickdisconnect discharge box access cover, stainless control panel with stainless conduit, and liquid-tight compression fittings, allowing wash down during changeovers and/or conveying of corrosive materials.

HMI controls allow manual and automatic start/stop and speed adjustment.

Material flows through the hopper into an adapter that charges the conveyor. As the flexible screw rotates in the material, it self-centres within the tube, providing ample clearance between the screw and the tube wall to eliminate

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

Flexicon’s Mobile Sanitary Flexible Screw Conveyor can be tilted down to clear doorways 2134 mm in height, and rolled through aisles as narrow as 1067 mm.

or minimise grinding. The flexible screw is top-driven beyond the point at which material exits the conveyor, preventing contact with bearings or seals.

The conveyor transports bulk materials from submicron powders to large pellets, while the gentle rolling action of material prevents the separation of blends.

According to Flexicon, the rugged inner screw is the only moving part contacting material, resulting in reduced maintenance and increased reliability. A broad range of screws with specialised geometries is available to handle free- and non-free-flowing materials, including products that pack, cake or smear in other types of conveyors.

The conveyor frame can be finished to sanitary or industrial standards, or constructed of carbon steel with durable industrial coatings.

Contact: sales@flexicon.com.au

FOOD / POWDER HANDLING / PNEUMATIC CONVEYING

Palletising for discounters at Inspire Pet Nutrition The UK’s largest independent manufacturer of dry petfoods has recently invested in a specialised de-palletising and re-palletising system provided by Concetti of Italy.

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nspire Pet Nutrition (IPN) is a family owned business (formerly Wagg Foods), based in Thirsk, North Yorkshire. It has invested over £20m in Concetti gantry bagnew plant and equipment over the past in-box palletiser. five years and now has a market share in the UK dry dog food sector of 34.5%.

Concetti is a specialist in bag filling and palletising systems. The recent order from IPN is the first for Concetti from IPN and the installation is the first of its kind in the UK. The system is designed to meet the specific needs of the discount supermarkets where tight cost control, keen prices and a limited range of quality products are important. Building on Concetti’s experience in Germany, it meets two key requirements. Firstly, for half pallet loads, there needs to be absolutely minimal handling, both in the distribution channels and in-store.

And secondly, but more importantly, each half pallet load must contain a mix of two different products.

Like most dry petfood manufacturers, IPN is geared to the demands of many customers from small retailers to the national supermarkets, with high volumes and a wide range of products and pack sizes offering broad customer choice.

The Thirsk plant has a number of existing packaging lines with automatic palletisers, all operating conventionally and producing, at any one time, a single product and pack size

stacked mainly onto standard Euro pallets (EUR 1) or 1200 x 1000 (EUR 2) Chep type pallets. These would normally be broken down into different pack and product sizes in the customer’s own distribution centres before being shipped in consolidated loads to the actual supermarket or petfood retailer.

However, the discount supermarkets have been looking for a different and more efficient solution, one that was more closely aligned to their business model, reducing manual handling and providing only a limited range of products. They wanted to have half Euro pallets (EUR 6) also known as Düsseldorfers, each containing mixed loads of two different products in similar pack sizes, and capable of being displayed and managed in store. The Concetti system is designed to satisfy this demand in a flexible way and without the need for any changes to the existing production lines.

The new integrated system consists of an Okura A-1600 robot depalletiser, connecting belt conveyors, a Concetti PS-4A/10S-P gantry bag-in-box palletiser with pallet dispenser, connecting roller conveyors, an automatic pallet stretch wrapper and a slave pallet dispenser.

Products handled include large bags in a nominal range of 1017kg, smaller 3kg bags and shrink wrapped bundles of cat food in cartons (5-6 cartons per bundle) with and without trays.

Both paper and plastic bags can be handled.

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

... If so, you can now expand your capabilities by joining the Australian Society for Bulk Solids Handling.

The Society has a mission to enhance the discipline of bulk solids handling through research, education and sound engineering practice.

Further information on the Society’s activities, its Constitution and registration procedures are available from the: Australian Society for Bulk Solids Handling The University of Newcastle University Dr, Callaghan, NSW 2308 Phone: (02) 4033 9039 | Fax: (02) 4033 9044 Email: Danielle.Harris@newcastle.edu.au

Australian Society for Bulk Solids Handling

MEMBERSHIP IS OPEN TO ALL PRACTITIONERS IN BULK SOLIDS HANDLING AND RELATED TECHNOLOGIES.

www.engineersaustralia.org.au/Australian-Society-Bulk-Solids-Handling

FOOD / POWDER HANDLING / PNEUMATIC CONVEYING

Polymer finding new bulk handling applications Environmentally friendly regenerated forms of one of the world’s toughest thermoplastics are finding new applications by those seeking improved peak mass flow and discharge efficiencies.

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earex low-friction UHMWPE polymer from Cut to Size Plastics features a smooth, paraffinlike surface that prevents adherence and subsequent build-up of solids accumulating on the walls of storage, transportation and processing equipment, reducing maintenance.

The material is specifically formulated to promote material flow in situations as diverse as mines and port facilities through to hygiene-intensive food facilities.

“This food-grade material has multiple benefits for primary producers, manufacturers, packagers and distributors. It is a clean and green material, which is increasingly important to businesses presenting themselves as sustainable, and it saves money too,” explained Mr Pat Flood, the NSW manager of the national and international engineered plastics specialist, Cut To Size Plastics. “Besides being hardwearing, it is specifically formulated to increase the throughput and capacity of hoppers and silos by curtailing the ‘hang-up’ of materials and eliminating dead spots in material flow.”

The self-lubricating polymer can be used by original equipment manufacturers or by maintenance personnel on site as a flow

promoter, anti-abrasion liner and corrosion proof liner both in static and dynamic applications.

According to Mr Flood, Wearex reduces carryback in moving equipment, controls outflow to prevent surges, reduces hopper and silo wall angles, and optimises the load capacity in storage hoppers and transport vehicles, saving fuel.

Non-stick surfaces mean savings of capital expenditure can be achieved by decreasing the structural height of storage hoppers, conserving energy on elevation and conveying equipment.

Wearex has a high wear and chemical resistance, and can withstand aggressive media.

The lightweight polymer offers low volumetric wear loss, has good dimensional stability and machinability, and can operate in a temperature range of -250 0C to +50 0C (long term) and up to +80 0C (short term).

“Its incredibly low co-efficient of friction is one of the lowest of all engineering plastics and will produce components with a very high life span with very low drag, which means very little will stick to it. It’s also resistant to many dilute acids, solvents and cleaning agents,” concluded Mr Flood.

Wearex is one of the many grades of the broader family of UHMWPE engineering plastics.

Boge launches new compressors Energy efficiency in compressed air systems is an important topic for the pneumatic conveying community.

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n Germany recently, Boge launched the S-4 Optimus screw compressor which it describes as “quiet, efficient and smart”.

It also presented its K 15 N2 Booster piston compressor.

For the first time the latter system is able to compress nitrogen, for example from an upstream PSA generator to a higher final pressure flexible operation, 100% free of oil. The compressor compresses dry gases between 2 and 10 bar with pressure dew points as low as –40 °C. The free air delivery rate is 2,418 l/min with a drive power of 11 kW and final pressures between 16 and 32 bar.

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Boge’s new K 15 N2 Booster piston compressor.

NEWS

Furnace order for Tenova from Russian steel plant T enova has recently been contracted by NLMK, a major Russian steel producer, for a 320 t/h walking beam furnace for the hot flat shop HRS at the company’s plant in Lipetsk, Russia. According

A Tenova walking beam furnace.

to Tenova, it will use its ultra-low NOx Flexytech technology to deliver sound performance and good environmental results. Startup of the furnace is scheduled for September 2019.

Classifier technology recovers 20% iron otherwise sent to waste FLSmidth has secured orders for new Reflux Classifier technology for treatment of iron ore fines in Norway.

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ana Gruber operates an iron ore mine and concentrator close to the Arctic Circle in Norway. It decided to order two Reflux Classifier RCTM-3000-HY-SS units following successful pilot trials.

According to manufacturer FLSmidth, the new Reflux Classifier (RC) technology is rapidly gaining popularity in coal and iron ore processing applications around the world because of its high separation efficiency and ability to easily handle varying feed conditions compared to traditional gravity separation technology.

In the pilot trials at Rana Gruber, the new RC technology demonstrated consistent separation and high separation efficiency in the 0-150µm size fraction from material currently discarded to tailings.

While the iron grade of the feed to the Reflux is around 10% the concentrate produced by the classifier was more than 60% Fe, and a yield of more than 20% of the iron in the 0-150µm size fraction that is currently lost to waste.

FLSmidth sales director Andrew Dixon, explained the successes achieved with the RC technology with greater process flexibility in operation and high recovery compared with available alternatives: “The RC incorporates a ‘laminar high shear rate’ mechanism, which represents the latest in fine particle gravity based separation technology. The lamella section enhances the RC’s capacity, producing a more compact, higher efficient separation unit when compared to competing iron ore and mineral processing equipment such as spirals, up-current classifiers and teeter bed separators.”

Portable safety barrier system SafetyMITS has released a portable barrier system which it says offers safety, efficiency and reusability.

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he Rapid Roll Barrier Storage Cartridge and Rapid Post system is designed for a wide range of industries including mining and bulk handling. The system quickly creates a clearly defined protective zone that keeps workers and the general public protected.

Set up and take down of the barrier system can be done by just one worker in a matter of minutes.

Yet the result is a clearly defined zone that prevents entry by those who might want to duck under or climb over the barrier.

Tony Brooks, director of SafetyMITS, explained that safety

was the company’s number one objective. “Because Rapid Roll barriers cannot be walked through, our system is far safer for the general public than pylons and caution tape. They create an easily seen visual barrier that is 145cm high, and both sturdy and portable.”

The system weighs 12.7kg and is moulded with MDPE. Brooks concluded “It’s time to say goodbye to piles of wasted, damaged fencing and timeconsuming setup and take down, and say hello to a more efficient way to make your worksite safe.”

Rapid Roll Barrier Storage Cartridge and Rapid Post system.

Contact: email info@safetymits.com

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CRUSHING

Metso launches innovative cone crusher After a March 2017 unveiling at a Las Vegas construction industry trade show, Metso has just locally launched the MX4, first model of its new cone crusher series.

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ccording to Metso, MX is the first Multi-Action cone crusher on the market. The company says it combines the high reduction ratios of demanding mining applications with the endproduct shape and consistency critical in aggregate applications.

Metso’s engineering team says that the MX cone crusher was designed with one objective in mind – making the machine owner’s business more profitable than ever before.

Patented Multi-Action technology Peter Newfield, Metso Australia’s head of marketing & communications, says that the company’s patented Multi-Action technology is a “revolutionary” way to automatically optimise crusher operation.

Newfield says the MX is able to simultaneously adjust its setting with a rotating bowl above its cavity and a hydraulic piston inside the machine’s fixed shaft. Dynamic setting adjustments can be made when the crusher is operating under full load conditions without the need to stop production. Both rotating bowl and piston adjustments are fully automated, so no human intervention is required.

The MX also provides a maximised tramp release distance, delivering high levels of protection against uncrushable objects and overloading. Protection is optimised under all conditions, even with completely new wear parts.

More uptime and lower operating costs According to Newfield, the MX with its Multi-Action technology is the most cost-efficient crusher on the market.

“It enables operational cost savings of 10% or more compared with traditional cone crushers,” he said. “Savings in wear components coupled with an effective and continuous crushing action, provide an unbeatable starting point to bring down the cost per ton in any quarry or mining application.

“The new machine’s uptime is significantly better than traditional cone crushers. The MX’s Multi-Action design allows dynamic setting adjustment and wear composition with its hydraulic piston, minimising interruptions to production.

It also provides rapid, fully automated protection via its rotating bowl. The combination of rotating bowl and piston adjustment enables optimised wear part utilisation.”

Peter Newfield.

MX crusher cut away view showing patented Multi-Action technology

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CRUSHING

The MX features a robust design that is based on Metso’s experience over the years with its Nordberg MP, HP and GP Series cone crushers. The new crusher is designed for the most challenging operating conditions with very hard and abrasive feed material.

“One of the big advantages of the MX are its quick and easy wear component change-outs,” said Newfield. “All the wear parts are accessible from the top of the machine, allowing a complete change-out in just two to three hours.”

Metso’s new MX4 cone crusher (all images courtesy Metso).

Up to 70% wear part utilisation Metso says that the MX delivers record breaking wear parts utilisation rates. The crusher can use up to 70% of the mass of new wear parts.

“Optimal cavity design, stroke direction and an effectively distributed crushing action are combined to provide a highly optimised rock-on-rock crushing motion,” explained Newfield. “Together with the machine’s Multi-Action technology, this results in extended intervals between maintenance and higher production rates. Quality characteristics of all sized end-product fractions stay consistent throughout the lifetime of wear parts.”

Crushing quality can be monitored via Metso’s ‘VisioRock’ which measures real-time production through a photo particle size analyser that is connected to the crusher’s automation system.

Selective production

Technology proven in the ‘real world’

Newfield says that the smart optimisation of Metso Multi-Action technology is the key to reaching desired end-product shape and particle size distribution while eliminating waste. End products can be measured as often as 10 times per second and shown directly on the crusher’s automation display. Operators can control and automate parameters such as material cavity level, crusher speed, power setting and piston pressure.

As part of its MX development program, Metso has described a pre-launch field testing period. It says machines were secretly tested in four different countries. “By the time of the global launch in Las Vegas, the test machines had completed a combined operational time of more than 10,000 hours,” said Newfield.

Contact: Shaun Fanning, Metso Australia, email – shaun.fanning@metso.com

GEARS, MOTORS & DRIVES

Industrial gear units with extruder flanges Nord Drivesystems has supplemented its modular industrial gear range with extruder flanges optimized for heavy duty operation.

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everal different extrusion flanges are available for each of the industrial gear units from size 5 to size 11, with rated torques from 15 kNm to 80 kNm. Almost all usual dimensions can thus be adapted.

According to Nord, extra-large thrust bearings ensure that all process forces

are absorbed and provide enhanced durability for long lifespans.

“This new option for industrial gears enables primary and secondary plastics and rubber manufacturers and their suppliers to create safe and highly reliable drives in very customisable configurations,” Nord’s publicity explained.

Nord now supplies extruder drives complete with flanges in various sizes.

“The Nord industrial gear range offers a variety of input and output shafts and gaskets, flexible mounting directions, and thermal monitoring solutions.”

NEWS

Colterlec adds automation to Siemens distribution deal Siemens Australia has strengthened its distribution partnership with Colterlec, one of the region’s leading distributors of industrial electrical equipment, to include automation technologies.

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ccording to Siemens, the agreement will extend its footprint in suburban and regional locations and allow customers better access to automation technologies.

“Colterlec’s strong presence in Newcastle, Wollongong, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra and Perth will be leveraged, ensuring that customers will have access to stocked product and local expertise on Siemens automation technology,” said Chris Vains, the head of Siemens Automation Systems. Customers in these regions vary across a range of industrial applications, including breweries, water treatment plants, key infrastructure, manufacturing and mining.

The partnership is an extension beyond Colterlec’s current representation of the process instrumentation range – a relationship that Siemens has had with Colterlec since 2014.

Speaking on the agreement, Vains said that, “The strengthening of our relationship with Colterlec ensures that Siemens can service current and future customers better through a stronger national and regional presence. Colterlec’s sales team is a collaborative extension of our own and I look forward to successful partnerships between Siemens, Colterlec and our customers.”

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NEWS

Bulgarian contract for Actemium In January 2017, engineering and consulting company Actemium’s Bulgarian business won a contract to reconstruct three bucket chain excavators for Mini Maritsa Iztok.

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he project includes implementation and planning of the electrical plant and converter systems, configuration and parameterisation of the programmable logic controllers and visualization devices, as well as assembly and commissioning.

To control the ERs710 excavators, Actemium says it offers a highly productive automation solution. It is based on a PLC using distributed I / O via fiber optic and copper lines for the construction of the fieldbus communication network (ProfiBus, ProfiNet).

Lifting, turning and running gear are equipped with frequency converters. In order to facilitate the operation of the excavators, the driver’s cabins are fitted with ergonomic operating units, flat screens monitors and airconditioning systems.

Design, erection and commissioning of the electrical and automation elements of the project will be carried out over 24 months, to be completed

by December 2018.

Two of the ERs710 excavators being reconstructed by Actemium in Bulgaria.

CONVEYORS

Flexco introduces new urethane skirting Belt conveyor component supplier Flexco has added urethane skirting to its range. It says the new product will increase productivity and decrease maintenance costs for its customers.

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ccording to Flexco, urethane skirting offers a more wearresistant material than typical rubber. The company says it can provide as much as three to four times the wear life in similar applications. In addition, it adds, the lower coefficient of friction reduces strain on the system.

The urethane skirting was developed and manufactured in-house at a Flexco manufacturing facility in Grand Rapids, Michigan in the USA. The company’s publicity said that: “Flexco Urethane Skirting uses soft durometer (65A) urethane with exceptional tear resistance to ensure a good seal and long belt life.

“It features a 35° chamfer which eliminates the typical skirting break-in period. Available in lengths of 7.6m to ensure easy transportation, the new skirting works with the existing Flexco series of skirt clamps that offer simple serviceability: RMC1/PAL-Pak, Flex-Lok, and Flex-Seal.

“It is suitable for most applications: single direction or reversing belts, wet or dry conditions, old or new belts, vulcanised or mechanically spliced systems and is rated for temperatures from -30°C to 82°C.” Flexco said the product is available locally from its warehouses in Sydney and Perth.

Contact: www.flexco.com.au.

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

Flexco says its Urethane Skirting uses soft durometer (65A) urethane with “exceptional” tear resistance to ensure a good seal and long belt life.

CONVEYOR SAFETY

Self-closing work platform aids chute maintenance Bulk Handling Technologies has produced a customised self-closing work platform for an iron ore mine. The supplier says that the device ensures safety and saves time for maintenance personnel.

Complete assembly during testing with manual hand wheel in stored location.

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s part of a review of maintenance activities, a major iron ore miner identified that servicing head chute wear liners and belt cleaners on one of their elevated belt conveyors was both time consuming and a high-risk activity.

As part of an improvement project, Bulk Handling Technologies was engaged to design and manufacture a self-closing work platform which would allow maintenance personnel to efficiently service the head chute of the conveyor by enabling safe access to the internals of the head chute for replacement of wearing components.

... the rack-and-pinion drive that provides a low-profile method of actuation.

The previous process involved the installation and removal of scaffold during maintenance.

“Installed beneath the main platform, key criteria for this project were safety and reliability,” explained Paul Ingleson, manager of Bulk Handling Technologies. “Installed in a very aggressive, highly humid environment, the self-closing platform must sit idle for extended periods before operation at times of routine maintenance”.

The main feature of the self-closing work platform is the rack-and-pinion drive that provides a low-profile method of actuation with the ability to operate the gate from either both sides or one side only. Driving a double rack from a single pinion shaft allows the large platform halves to be driven evenly, maintaining alignment during opening and closing.

“Whilst hydraulic actuation is often required for high force, high head load isolation gate applications, in applications

The main drives are shaft mounted units with integrated torque limiting couplings. where high head loads are not present, a rack-and-pinion drive is a simple, electrically operated, solution avoiding the need for hydraulic power units and hosing,” said Ingleson.

Locking pins were incorporated to provide a method of positive locking when the gates were closed. “This allows personnel to attach their personal danger tags to a positive lock in addition to the isolation of the main electric drives for added security,” added Ingleson.

To ensure reliability, features such as open and closed limit switches, mechanical stops and bolted replaceable side wear liners were included in the design. The main drives are shaft mounted units with integrated torque limiting couplings. In the event of a power failure, the supplied hand wheel can be fitted to an extended motor shaft, allowing the gates to be manually operated in either direction.

Established in 2012 and offering an extensive range of materials handling equipment and systems, Bulk Handling Technologies says it specialises in customised and innovative solutions, and can also assist with site audits and troubleshooting and, where practical, provide refurbishment and upgrade options.

Contact: www.bulkhandlingtechnologies.com.au

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CONVEYOR SAFETY

North Goonyella getting it right on conveyor safety Conveyor safety is a perennial topic of interest for Australian Bulk Handling Review’s readers. In this edition editor Charles Macdonald speaks to the team at North Goonyella about some of the challenges they face, and their solutions.

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orth Goonyella, belonging to Peabody Energy, is one of Australia’s premier longwall operations, with sales in 2016 of around 1.5 million tonnes of high quality coking coal.

Shane Apps is health, safety and training manager at the mine. He also wears a broader industry hat as chairman of the Queensland Mining Industry Health and Safety Conference, this year being held from August 6 to 8 on the Gold Coast.

With colleagues Mark Rootes and Rick Sewell, Shane has to plan how to safely maintain the nearly 10 kilometres of conveyors, of various widths, at North Goonyella. These utilise well over 40,000 conveyor rollers, in weights from 10 to 70 kilograms, as well as heavier components such as pulleys.

Roller changing is a daily event, with pulleys and other larger components replaced less frequently.

The cramped underground environment, with strict safety protocols around gas, fires and ignition sources, means that, compared to the surface, the use of cranes and other mechanical lifting devices is severely restricted.

Instead, operators use chain blocks and North Goonyella surface infrastructure. winches and there is a lot of lifting, swinging and pulling, with, inevitably, some stored energy and a Another issue confronting North Goonyella, like nearly every risk of injuries if components let go or drop. other underground mine, is a surfeit of water on conveyors as a As a result, Apps and his colleagues make sure that operators are result of increased use of micro-mist sprays employed to combat well trained in underground lifting and mitigating risks around it. fine dust particles.

Larger jobs will typically involve, first, a detailed risk With pneumoconiosis top of mind for the mining community, assessment. Then, Apps and his colleagues work out locations mine managers aren’t taking any chances. Super-fine mist sprays and the size of the mounting points they need to put in place. clear the air of potentially harmful particles, but at the expense Consideration is given to potential hand and finger injures of excess water on conveyors. This problem normally manifests which can be a risk in multiple-person lifts. Operators are trained itself on inclines where conveyors go uphill. to think about ‘the line of fire’ and the need for continual and North Goonyella employs de-watering chutes at transfers. effective communication during lifts. The mine has also been While the broader industry experience of such chutes has been using specialist heavy-lift, crush resistant gloves. patchy, North Goonyella has used them to good effect. As Apps Manoeuvring heavy components in awkward positions makes said: “There haven’t been many successful de-watering chutes for ergonomic challenges. Apps and colleagues use “different around. I have been around the industry a long time and we have devices to reduce that ergonomic load on the body.” They also them working extremely successfully here.” “re-engineer things so there is less exposure.”

Lighter and more reliable conveyor rollers will obviously benefit underground coal mines.

North Goonyella is active in this area. It has looked at hollow shafts in rollers, which reduce weight by 7kgs per roller, but at The Queensland Mining Industry Health and Safety significant extra cost.

Conference will be held at Jupiters Gold Coast from Sunday Corrosion of rollers, necessitating more frequent change6th August through to the conference dinner and awards outs, is being targeted. The mine will soon trial a galvanised presentations on Tuesday 8th August. The event has evolved coating on trough rollers. Rubber-lagged rollers have been tried over nearly three decades into the mining industry’s but these have the disadvantage of extra weight. most significant health and safety event. Two awards are Poly rollers have been trialled at the mine with indifferent results. presented: one for innovation, and one for industry best A suitably FRAS-compliant model, used on the longwall system, practice health programs. Well know road safety advocate couldn’t withstand the forces generated and melted. Others, used Russell White is this year’s MC, with media identity Virginia on normal run-of-mine conveyors, wore significantly more than steel Trioli a facilitator. rollers, started vibrating and broke the brackets on H frames.

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CONVEYOR SAFETY

Lessons to draw from WA conveyor accident A WA regulator’s comments in the aftermath of a conveyor accident reinforce the need for good safety systems and procedures around conveyors, particularly in relation to guarding and isolation.

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he incident took place in June 2016.

A boilermaker, working alone, was in the process of shutting down a crushing plant. A conveyor, positioned at head height, was part of the crushing circuit and adjacent to a screen deck.

The boilermaker observed a rock rotating in the nip point of the conveyor’s tailend pulley. Material from the screen deck had accumulated on the ground beside the conveyor next to the nip point. He stood on this material and reached between the belts with both hands, using a spanner in an attempt to knock out the rock.

However, the moving conveyor had not been isolated. Both his arms were drawn into the conveyor’s nip point. Fortunately, he managed to free his arms when the tail-end pulley came to a stop and was able to seek emergency assistance. The boilermaker was hospitalised with a de-gloving injury, friction burns and multiple fractures to his hand, arms and back.

The boilermaker was seriously injured and was immediately disabled by the accident from performing his duties.

In terms of direct causes of the incident: the conveyor was not guarded to prevent access to moving parts; and the

conveyor was not isolated before the attempt was made to remove the rock.

There were other contributing factors. Materials from the nearby screen deck were not effectively controlled, resulting in a rock landing inside the belt.

The build-up of material on the ground enabled easy access to the nip point of the conveyor. No isolation procedure had been developed for the conveyor.

The WA Department of Mines and Petroleum’s resources safety area detailed actions required to reduce the risk of injury when working around conveyors.

Control measures include: providing adequate guarding to the dangerous parts of a conveyor; implementing and enforcing suitable isolation procedures for plant and machinery which must include de-energising plant and the lock, tag and try method; installing sufficient and effective emergency stop devices or emergency stop lanyards on conveyors; and providing suitable controls for plant and machinery to manage material spillage.

Safe systems of work include: undertaking risk assessments on all plant and machinery in the workplace to identify,

assess and control all hazards to which workers are likely to be exposed; confirming that workers conducting cleaning, maintenance and repair work are adequately instructed, trained, assessed and supervised; keeping ground areas and platforms adjacent to plant free of spilled material through good housekeeping practices; implementing practicable measures to minimise the time a person working alone remains unattended.

In terms of reporting: if an injury appears to be serious, the manager of the mine must notify the Department’s district inspector by the fastest practicable method of communication as soon as it is reasonably practicable to do so, and this must subsequently be confirmed in writing.

To emphasise the risks around conveyors, between the 1st of January 2011 and 8th September 2016 there were 107 reported injuries at mine sites involving conveyors. 79 were serious injuries requiring workers to be away from work for more than two weeks. Of these serious injuries: 16 per cent were the result of contact with the moving parts of the conveyor; 16 per cent were crush injuries; and 14 per cent resulted in fractures.

Call to safeguard against conveyor injuries and deaths A leading bulk materials handling equipment supplier is urging businesses to safeguard against work-related deaths by installing protective guards on conveyors.

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inder Australia’s chief executive, Neil Kinder, said recent figures revealing the extent of work-related deaths in Victoria last year were a timely reminder for employers to be vigilant.

According to WorkSafe Victoria, 2016 saw the highest number of work-related fatalities in the state since 2009, with 26 Victorians killed on the job, including two in the quarrying industry.

A study by Safe Work Australia also found that 36 per cent of the 639 work-related deaths involving machinery, plant and powered tools between 2006 and 2011 were “definitely or possibly design-related”, and the most common contributor was inadequate guarding.

“Operator safety, in terms of the workplace, is nonnegotiable,” Mr Kinder said.

“If somebody gets killed or caught up in a conveyor belt, the litigation that could result over that death could be devastating emotionally and financially if the company is found to be irresponsible in terms of the health and safety of its workplace.

“Conveyor belts operate at such high speed, they are uncompromising. If you get caught in one, injuries can be severe, if not fatal.”

Mr Kinder’s Braeside-based company has developed a practical conveyor guard solution which helps to minimise the potential for injuries and to ultimately save lives.

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CONVEYOR SAFETY

K-Protector Return Idler Guard.

The K-Protector Return Idler Guard which is designed to the Australian standard protects operator contact by eliminating nip points.

“Some companies, in the past, have just put a bit of wire mesh around it, but that’s not acceptable in terms of a proper standard. You can’t just dream up your own style of guard, because at the end of the day, it’s not compliant.

“The guard that we have designed meets the Australian Standard of guard design.”

The K-Protector Return Idler Guard comes with a quick release mechanism that allows it to pass through the end plates for maintenance, and is available to suit all roller diameters and belt widths.

The guard also acts as a basket to catch the roller, in the event of idler failure.

“Conveyor guards do not have to be complicated, nor interfere with productivity,” Mr Kinder said. “Once installed, the guard should be kept clean and inspected regularly.”

Contact: sales@kinder.com.au

Device aims to prevent pinch point injuries Belts, hose and hydraulics firm Gates Australia has launched a product it calls the Belt Installation and Rotation Device (BIRD). The device aims to minimise the risks to operators during routine belt maintenance.

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hile a belt drive is shut down, locked out and tagged out, the BIRD reduces the risk of finger and hand injuries due to hands getting caught in pinch points during belt installation and maintenance, by safely facilitating a rotational inspection of a drive,” explained Gene Halden, national sales manager – industrial at Gates Australia.

Prior to the launch of the device, in order to inspect or install a drive, personnel would pull on the belt or grab the edges of the pulley or sprocket to turn the drive. Regardless of the care taken, this procedure is inherently dangerous: a split second can see a hand or finger pulled into a pinch point, causing a serious injury.

But injury is only the tip of the iceberg in a power transmission installation incident. Should such an eventuality arise, companies can find themselves liable for direct medical expenses, legal expenses and increased insurance premiums, all 70

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

BIRD on sheave in use.

the while suffering the flow on effects of loss of production and downtime.

The BIRD aims to avoid this scenario. It features a pair of powerful permanent magnets that are attached to the belt sprocket. Once fully engaged, the aluminium handles allow operators to safely rotate the drive, facilitating maintenance and installation.

“The BIRD is a real innovation: until now, there existed no product that addressed the risks associated with belt maintenance,” said Halden.

“Now, it’s easy for plant operators to ensure that their belt drives are properly maintained while also keeping employees safe and preventing injury.”

Contact: www.GatesAustralia.com.au/BIRD

CLEARING ACCUMULATED MATERIAL

Resolving material accumulation in cement plant limestone silo A state-of-the-art cement plant has resolved material accumulation issues in its limestone silo by combining high-efficiency cleaning techniques with powerful, strategically-placed air cannons to prevent further build-up.

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he Drake Cement facility ten miles north of Paulden, Arizona was experiencing clogging issues on a weekly basis, forcing maintenance personnel to spend up to 12 hours to clear the blockage using tools and compressed air.

During damp weather, the problem worsened, and at times the large structure would fill in as little as two hours, forcing operators to use CO2 blasting tubes every 15 to 30 minutes. Technicians from Martin Engineering were able to clear the blockage on a short-notice visit, and then revised the site’s air cannon system to prevent the issue from recurring.

Drastic measures A key component of Drake’s dry-process manufacturing is efficient material flow.

Excessive rain in the months of January through March caused the limestone being extracted from the nearby quarry to have elevated moisture levels. Not only does the rain cause standing water, but the limestone is also wetter coming out of the ground.

Little of that water is lost in the crushing process, and dry material can absorb moisture as it is reduced in size. So in the winter months, by the time the material lands in the 536-ton (486 metric ton) limestone silo, it is nearly saturated. In prior years, the silo had not experienced a single flow disruption, nor had it required cleaning due to the aid of two Martin XHV air cannons. Adequate in previous years to keep material flowing at required volumes through all seasons, the air cannons were unable to prevent clogging at such high moisture levels.

“This plant is one of the most advanced operations of its kind, with operating and pollution controls found in only a few other facilities in the world,” explained Jose Venegas, maintenance manager at Drake Cement. “I had a Martin representative coming out to look at another part of the plant, but when the silo clogged, that took immediate priority. The problem had become disruptive, expensive and hazardous. We needed it solved once and for all.”

Limestone snowballs When Martin Engineering national business development manager Doug Brown arrived at the plant, he found a silo so compactly clogged that it had halted the entire production process.

“Inspecting the silo for a solution, we realized that the limestone could be packed like snowballs, dense enough to stick to the wall when thrown,” said Brown. “This demonstrated just how serious the problem was. We luckily had a silo cleaning

Top: The Martin Heavy Duty Whip is set up above the access at the top of the silo and controlled remotely.

Above: Martin XHV air cannons in their original perpendicular firing configuration.

crew that had just finished a job in Tucson, AZ, so they were quickly dispatched north to the plant.”

The experienced two-man crew immediately set up a Martin Heavy Duty Whip. Powered by compressed air, the device can be equipped with a variety of flails and cutting edges to knock down accumulated material without damaging the silo’s walls or support structure. Requiring no confined space entry, the device was set above the manhole opening at the top of the vessel and maneuvered by remote control.

“Working together with the electrical and maintenance departments, we were able to continue operations during the cleaning process,” Venegas said. “This really helped us avoid what could have been some costly downtime.”

Long term prevention Once the silo had been completely evacuated, Brown – a flow Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

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Australian Society for Bulk Solids Handling . . 61

EnviroMist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Metso . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Belle Banne Conveyor Products . . . . . . . . . . 13

ESS Engineering Services & Supplies . . . 15, 53

Mideco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

BinMaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Flexco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1(OFC)

Nord Drive Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Bintech Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Flexicon Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 (OBC)

SEACO Global . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Bulk Handling Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

GEA Nu-Con . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Thomson Environmental Systems . . . . . . . . . 24

Concetti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Kinder Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

TUNRA Bulk Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Dana Brevini . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Kockums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 55

Vortex Valves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

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CLEARING ACCUMULATED MATERIAL

aid specialist – realized that the ongoing problem could be remedied by utilizing Drake’s current stockpile of air cannons. Using an innovative placement strategy, Brown was certain that the cannons could safely prevent build-up and promote efficient high-volume material flow, no matter how moist or dense the limestone.

Rather than the two cannons at the bottom of the limestone silo firing across the cargo flow, five cannons were strategically placed around the vessel. Three 70-litre Martin Tornado Air Cannons were placed on the lower incline of the cone at a 30º downward angle against the 60º slope in the 6 and 12 o’clock positions (one side of the silo was inaccessible). In the 3 o’clock position, one air cannon was situated at the 2-foot-wide shaft, and another was added to the upper silo to aid in loosening material.

Already fitted with 53 XHV and Tornado Air Cannons throughout the plant, a programmable logic control (PLC) system centrally placed in the facility coordinates and monitors the timing and firing sequence of each unit at all locations, including the limestone silo. During the wet winter and monsoon months, the cannons are activated approximately every hour, but throughout the rest of the year the system has a firing sequence of only 4-5 times per day. This pattern can also be manually activated from the weigh feeder, at the solenoid panel or in the control room.

Results demonstrated by production gains According to Martin, since installation plant production has returned to normal levels. Material flow is ongoing, and the silo has not been shut down for cleaning. There has been no unscheduled downtime due to clogging, which has greatly increased production, especially through heavy weather periods. The use of CO2 tubes has been ceased altogether. When a build-up is detected,

Top: Contractors installing the pipe nozzles at a 30º angle to promote material flow.

Above: The lower silo cannons strategically placed around the 60º incline.

workers no longer are required to get close to the area to resolve it, increasing plant safety and reducing the number of man-hours required to maintain the silo.

Solutions for bridging, ratholing, hang-ups There are several other suppliers in Australia of products which will solve companies’ problems with hang-ups, ratholing and unwanted material in silos, bins and storage vessels.

O

li Vibrators’ Martshock Electropneumatic Hammers belong to those flow aids that act destructively as bridge breakers. The mechanical energy released at regular intervals, in the moment of collision, is transmitted through the container wall to the stored material. Installation is particularly suitable in existing silo cones or hoppers because neither emptying nor drilling of the wall is required. The Hammer is simply welded onto the wall from outside In ratholing in bins and silos, due to the physical and chemical properties of the product, the central material column drops instantaneously when the silo outlet valve is opened, while the surrounding material remains immobile. Oli’s Gunjet air cannons can solve this problem, as well as assisting with corners of rectangular-shaped bins or tiled silo outlet sections where hammering or vibration is unsuitable

Cardox International’s SiloWhip System is powered by hydraulics and controlled from the top of and outside the silo, which eliminates the need for people to enter the silo.

The whipping head is suspended inside the silo, but operated remotely from the silo top. The silo whip efficiently clears build-up using an air-driven or hydraulic rotary cutter, with a 360 degree rotation and an operating depth of up to 50 metres. A range of cutters are used depending on the type of material to be cleaned. Cleared material simply falls to the base of the silo for extraction.

Cardox’s products are distributed in Australia by Silver Raven of Marrickville in NSW.

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High pressure washer targets bulkies A big Kohler air cooled diesel engine powered 5,000 psi Hydroblaster has been released by Australian Pump Industries.

D

esigned specifically for the mining, bulk handling and construction industry, the high pressure washer offers operators good cleaning power with minimal use of water.

“The 5,000 psi Aussie Predator saves time, saves water and provides operators with significantly faster cleaning,” said Aussie Pump’s operations manager, Hamish Lorenz.

The heart of the system is a heavy duty “Big Berty” Bertolini triplex pump that develops 20 lpm flow at 5,000 psi. The Predator also offers a EWP (effective working pressure) with Aussie Turbomaster turbo lance of 8,500 psi.

The whole machine comes in a galvanised steel trolley with four pneumatic tyred wheels making it manoeuvrable on site. A hose reel and 60 metres of hose fits easily to the frame.

“The reel means that the hose is stored tidily which prolongs the hose life and minimises the trip hazards,” said Lorenz.

Like all Aussie heavy duty industrial engine drive pressure cleaners the big Hydroblaster is equipped with free ASP (Aussie Safety Protection). The ASP system consists of a safety valve that protects the operator and machine from spikes in the system. A thermal dump valve is incorporated to protect the machine from overheating due to bypass running.

“The big 23 HP Kohler diesel was chosen because of its reliability, power and torque characteristics. Ease of serviceability in the field is another bonus,” said Lorenz. “Kohler parts are also easily available from distributors from all around Australia and their warranty and aftermarket support is second to none” he said.

The Predator is rated as a B class machine under the new Australian safety standards. As such it is fitted with both an emergency stop and is supplied with a 500 bar hose shroud. An optional foot valve is also available.

“Because we make the Predator in volume, the price is a fraction of the equivalent of imported machines that are designed for far less demanding European conditions” said Lorenz. “The Predator is

The Aussie Predator is a compact Australian design that easily adapts to infield maintenance.

living proof that Australia’s machines are as good as any in the world and are priced competitively.”

Silo Cleaning bridging, ratholing, hang-ups Whether de-contaminating a grain silo, or clearing hundreds of tonnes of cement from a silo, there are suppliers offering wet and dry methods across Australia.

F

ree movement of stored materials is essential in maximizing silo efficiency. When a silo experiences bridging, where materials block at the silo base, immediate action is usually required to return the asset to operations. Some silos suffer from water entry resulting in a build-up of mould inside the silo.

Cross contamination of agricultural silos is a common driver to clean a silo professionally. Pre-commissioning silo cleans usually focus on removing grime and organic matter that may have entered the vessel during transport and storage. Occasionally the inside needs to be cleaned to remove various chemical agents that may have been used during the silo manufacturing process.

Alternatively, in industrial situations a silo may require a clean prior to storing another material and where cross contamination needs to be avoided.

A supplier like Jetclean offers silo cleaning services that are designed to maximize the efficiency of storage silos and tanks. The 74

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2017

company’s silo cleaning expertise covers grain and animal feed silos, industrial powder and granule silos, milk silos, coffee bean silos and food and beverage silos.

For clearing harder materials like cement from silos, Australian Silo Clean of Langwarrin in Victoria, has a solution. It uses a method that avoids the risks of confined space by enabling the operators to remain outside the silo by deploying high pressure air and cutting hoses and heads within the silo. The pressure of the air whips the hoses and cutting heads to impact upon and break up the stored product, dropping it to the bottom of the silo.

Australian Silo Clean’s is a dry system, driven by compressed air, usually requiring only one operator. It can handle build-ups extending from several kilograms of contaminating dust on the roof and walls of a silo, to total chokes of hundreds of tonnes, with products varying in consistency from soft or sticky to those resembling concrete.

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