MAINTENANCE
CJC™ Oil Filter was installed, the inline filter consumption was almost eliminated and three out of four of oil changes were avoided. Avoiding shutdown costs of $ 10,600 per hour for each standstill, resulted in a direct impact on the bottom line, with 87 % less downtime.
Kinross’ Chirano gold mine went from 24 to 4 service shutdowns per year on each of their Volvo mining trucks. For their entire fleet this equals 320 less service intervals per year, with nine major overhauls eliminated per year, or $ 681,000 in annual savings on their fleet of 40 trucks.
CCJ argues that these mining groups are using technology which has successfully kept wind turbines in operation without breakdowns and only one annual service interval for decades.“ Ten years ago, this was unknown in the mining industry; today it is standard equipment on new Sandvik and Metso crushers. The solution is indepth CJC™ Offline Oil Filtration. Despite how dirty and tough the operating conditions are, mining companies are able to save 50-75 % of their oil consumption; eliminate three out of four oil service shutdowns of equipment; and reduce running costs by around 50-60 % by implementing CJC™ Offline oil filtration because it ensures much cleaner and lower stress operating conditions for gearboxes, bearings, hydraulic systems – for any oil system; and in the mining industry these are everywhere.”
A new era of wear protection
As heavy materials pass from station to station in a minerals processing plant, processing equipment is stretched to the limits of its capabilities. The wear rate of components, typically in chutes and hoppers, is very high. The costs of replacing worn equipment typically makes up a substantial proportion of total maintenance costs, so anything that can be done to reduce wear and increase equipment lifetime will have a significant impact on
Left: One of the primary crushers at BHP Billiton Escondida. Right: CJC™ Fine Filter HDU 427 / 108 installed, which saw 87 % less downtime and annual savings of up to $ 479,600
operating costs. Protecting the metallic plates of specific equipment is one important area that can contribute significantly to reducing maintenance costs and equipment downtime.
Helgi Gudbjartsson, Global Launch Manager, FLSmidth argues that current practice for wear protection usually involves wear liners or panels, which are bolted or welded onto the equipment. Different wear liners are applied in different situations, depending on factors such as type of ore, drop height, material lump-size distribution, and angle of impact. Traditionally, the minerals industry has used either metallic wear liners or ceramic wear liners. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.
“ High in density, metallic wear liners are heavy – up to 40 % heavier than ceramic. The hardest metals are particularly expensive and difficult to work with. They have significant limitations in different temperature extremes, too. While hardness is reduced at higher temperatures, impact strength is reduced at lower temperatures. On the other hand, ceramic wear liners are difficult to attach to existing chute work, requiring special adhesives or suspension within an elastomeric matrix. They
The FLSmidth FerroCer ® Impact panel is attached using a single countersunk bolt can also detach easily from the substrate if surface preparation is poor or if the adhesives and elastomers are incorrectly prepared. They are extremely difficult to cut and cannot be bent or formed.”
Such challenges have had a significant impact on maintenance procedures and costs. A general issue facing the industry is the loss in production time because of wear liners needing to be changed often and the time it takes to install new liners.
“ A typical example could be for material of a common ore, such as gold, copper or nickel, with a hard impact velocity of more than seven m / s. In such a situation, the wear liner may have an average lifetime of one or two months at most. The replacement procedure can take a whole shift, putting the process flow on pause for several hours resulting in significant production losses. Safety is a real concern, too. The units of wear liners can weigh between 20 and 40 kg apiece and sometimes require a special lifting mechanism in addition to the scaffolding, allowing maintenance personnel to safely access the installation points.”
FLSmidth has developed a wear liner solution specifically to address the challenges of protecting crushing equipment, particularly related to wear liner longevity and installation time as well as the safety of personnel involved. Gudbjartsson says:“ A unique composite structure of steel and ceramic components, the patent pending FLSmidth FerroCer ® Impact provides advantages of both ceramic and metallic materials. Combining the superior abrasion resistance of a ceramic with the strength, toughness and malleability of a metal, it handles hard and abrasive materials in highimpact applications. Traditional metallic liners wear too quickly and ceramic liners crack or disintegrate. With a wear life of more than double that of a high-end metallic liner, FerroCer has been tested to increase wear resistance by a
20 International Mining | JANUARY 2017