WORLD PROSPECTS
ABB SmartVentilation at Kankberg
In June 2015, ABB delivered an innovative demand controlled ventilation system for Boliden’ s Kankberg gold mine in northeast Sweden. The SmartVentilation ventilation on demand solution provides fresh air for the 500 m deep underground mine, which extracts gold, tellurium and other minerals for commercial electronics and industrial uses.
In addition to providing fresh air, SmartVentilation helps ventilation equipment operate more efficiently. Since it was commissioned earlier in 2016 at Kankberg, Ventilation on Demand saved 54 % of ventilation energy, and 21 % of air heating energy, when compared to operating without this technology. The project extended the mine’ s existing 800xA control system by adding SmartVentilation to provide all work areas with plentiful fresh air to ensure worker safety and comfort. It uses a library of functions customised for this Boliden site, including heating of the fresh air brought into the mine.
“ This solution truly delivers on ABB’ s promise of smart technologies able to provide a healthy, safe and energy efficient working environment for Boliden’ s operations,” said Roger Bailey, Managing
Director of ABB’ s Process Industries business.“ It underscores our commitment to using these technologies to provide our customers in all industries with integrated solutions that significantly improve their operations while ensuring worker safety.”
ABB states:“ In the mining environment, where conditions can change quickly, reliable ventilation is critical to worker and equipment safety. The control system must be adaptable and expandable for current circumstances and future operations. By using ABB’ s SmartVentilation solution, Boliden can easily add, remove or relocate fans to where they are needed in the mine.”
The Mobilaris Mining Intelligence location system in the mine detects the presence of a mining vehicle or machinery in the ventilation area, then communicates with the 800xA control system which in turn calculates the right amount of air needed and controls the fans to provide it.
ABB’ s SmartVentilation solution provides a controlled ventilation system that delivers fresh air where and when it is needed. At the same time, it minimises the use of energy through the utilisation of on-demand functionality, which yields 30-50 % savings compared to normal installed power. The system also improves the safety conditions through built in functionality in case of fire such as preventing spread of smoke and enabling faster exhaust of hazardous fire gases. www. abb. com / minerals
Weir Delta Industrial valves offer zero leaks
For many years, mineral processing plant operators have battled with leakage problems, searching for valves which will isolate the flow and prevent leaks to the atmosphere, but are often left feeling frustrated and out of pocket. External leaks from valves during valve cycling are common problems for plant operators around the world. These leaks can have disastrous consequences, contaminating the environment and endangering workers with hazardous materials, resulting in major downtime for the company. Delta Industrial knife gate valves from Weir Minerals can guarantee plant operators in difficult process applications to have zero leakage, John Abbott, Weir Minerals Global Product Manager for Valves states:“ This isolation is very important because it ensures safe and consistent plant operation, minimises downtime and provides lowest total ownership cost.”
“ Our customers can install Delta Industrial valves into problem areas secure in the knowledge that they will achieve long term performance with exceptional isolation results, protecting their people, their plant and their environment,” Abbott continues. Protecting the environment and ensuring hazardous materials do not harm workers is of prime importance for every site around the world. Weir Minerals Delta Industrial guided shear gate valves are designed to repeatedly close and provide bidirectional zero leakage isolation no matter what the process fluid may contain.“ Our knife gate valves guarantee no process will come past the closed valve, even abrasive slurry or when operating under high temperatures.”
Delta Industrial Valves Inc was founded in 1987 and the company began designing and manufacturing high quality knife gate valves in 1989. At the time, they recognised the urgent requirements within the market for a superior knife gate valve.“ Weir Minerals acquired Delta Industrial Valves Inc in July 2015, increasing our market presence in hard rock mining, oil sands, pulp and paper and power industries by expanding our portfolio of valve products. Weir Minerals is a global leader in the mining and oil sands markets and the acquisition of Delta Industrial Valves, Inc strengthens our comprehensive offering to customers with a range of high performance knife gate valves for heavy duty slurry application and high pressure environments.”
“ Their construction provides a zero leakage guarantee to external environments due to their unique transverse seal design, and coupled with Delta Industrial’ s long history in the design and production of valves, it consistently proves to be one of the highest performing valves in these heavy duty applications.” The Delta Industrial shear gate design combined with its unique seating arrangement ensures exceptional pipeline isolation and zero leakage to the atmosphere, resulting in performance Weir customers can rely on every time the valve operates.“ Although there are at least five distinct types of knife gate valves marketed in the industry, we only produce absolute knife gate
valves in our Delta Industrial range, capable of cutting, shearing, and closing against solids while still producing a tight shut-off.”
The unique knife gate valve design is capable of offering the highest performance in the most severe applications where solids are in solution, suspension or both.“ This makes it the world’ s premium isolation valve for scaling applications where traditional valves are inoperable due to cementation or precipitation of solids.” Delta Industrial knife gate valves even operate in clear solutions, an area where traditional knife gate valves are not appropriate.
Abbott also says that they can design and build a tailored valve solution for customers if they have a special requirement,“ providing them with a unique solution to their specific application. Our knife gate valves have demonstrated their ability to deliver low costs of ownership over the life of the valve, resulting
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4 International Mining | AUGUST 2016