HEAVY ENGINEERING
Sébastien Dossogne, CEO of Magotteaux, said:
“Magotteaux has been collaborating closely with
Scaw High Chromium grinding media for more
than 30 years. Strengthening this multiple-years
of team work, and extending it to the forged
grinding media activities, aligns with our
strategic priorities.”
He added: “We seek leadership in all markets
we serve, which explains the intensification of
our presence in the forged grinding media
business across geographies. In addition, we
consider Africa as a strong growth region, with
lots of untapped potential. We also see South
Africa to be the optimal platform to start from –
as such we are very excited by the opportunities
that the partnership with IDC and other local
investors, offers us going forward”.
Crushing the competition
IM covered one of CMS Cepcor’s crusher
conversions in this feature last year, and the UK-
based has performed many more since it turned
a Sandvik CH660 crusher into a CS660 crusher
for a large gold mining company.
The company’s roots are in the supply of
crusher parts globally, with CMS Cepcor
indicating it is continuing to register good
demand for these services – in addition to its
crusher conversion work – of late with the
addition of a new 6,000 m2 Global Parts Centre.
The facility, which comes with additional
outdoor storage, is adjacent to the company’s
Technical Centre manufacturing facility and only
a short distance from its headquarters.
CMS Cepcor explained: “Following sustained
growth in all areas of CMS Cepcor, our current
premises at Vulcan Way and Samson Road, in
Coalville, were fast reaching capacity; a situation
which had been under review for some time.
“Based on our policy of continual re-
investment and the specialist equipment already
installed at both sites, we had been looking to
acquire a third site as close as possible to our
two existing sites. The new site allows further
expansion of our manufacturing facilities at our
Technical Centre along with our crusher service
facility and large crusher component/assembly
storage at our Vulcan way site.”
Robotic engineering
Austin Engineering has recently commissioned a
custom-designed dual-arm robotic welding
system at its facility in Perth, Western Australia,
as it looks to lift efficiency, productivity and
output.
For more than 35 years, Austin has designed
and engineered unique production and
maintenance equipment including dump truck
bodies, excavator buckets, water tanks and tyre
handlers, and the robot addition will help the
company build on its track record of enhancing
52 International Mining | JUNE 2019
the operational efficiency and availability of site
production equipment for its customers, it said.
The new robotic welding system has a mobile
gantry carrying two six-axis articulated arm
robots, each interfaced with a digital pulse
welding module, which heads up the system.
Mounted on rails, the double gantry provides 14
m of longitudinal travel and 10 m of lateral travel
to service the two new side-by-side production
cells. Vertical travel is 2 m.
The system includes both online and offline
programming capabilities. “Whereas the
previous robot could only be programmed once
the component was loaded into the cell, all
necessary programming can now be completed
prior to the job being loaded into a production
cell,” the company said.
“The online/offline programming feature,
combined with the system’s laser tracking
feature, increases arc time as the robot can weld
without having to stop for any adjustments to the
program or the job. An ‘out of position’ weld
feature also maintains uninterrupted job
progress.”
Geoff Collins, Operations Manager at Austin
Engineering Perth, said: “When fully operational,
the new system will lift efficiency, productivity
and overall capability throughout the facility.”
The new robot welds marginally faster, but
Collins said this is only one of the production
improvements the system will deliver. He
emphasised overall improvement will be a
combination of a number of productivity inputs
and that the new robot will be able to work on all
products in the Austin Engineering range (the
previous robot was restricted to truck floors).
Truck bodies
“Haul more with less” is the tag line for the new
Metso Truck Body. Launched at the Bauma fair, in
April, the hybrid solution has caught the
attention of several miners in the Nordic region,
and it is set to also make waves in other regions.
Lars Skoog, Vice President, Mining Wear Lining
& Screening, Metso, said: “Hauling is one of the
The lightweight, rubber-lined tray designed for
off-highway trucks is like nothing else currently
on the market, according to Lars Skoog, Vice
President, Mining Wear Lining & Screening,
Metso
most cost-intensive components of a typical
mining or quarrying operation. In addition to fuel
and labour, there’s plenty of maintenance
involved too.”
“To ensure cost efficiency, a haul truck should
carry as much payload as possible on every
round. At Metso, we set out to tackle this
challenge and designed a truck body that
requires minimal maintenance while maximising
payload. The result is a lower operating cost per
hauled tonne.”
The lightweight, rubber-lined tray designed for
off-highway trucks is like nothing else currently
on the market, according to Skoog.
“This is a one-piece hybrid of the rubber lining
and the high-strength steel body underneath. It
is not to be mixed with a lightweight body
retrofitted with rubber, nor a suspended dump
body,” he told IM in the latest Insights Interview
video.
The lining consists of separate modules
designed dependent on how a mining or
quarrying operation loads their trucks and what
impact forces these trucks are subjected to. It
can also be supplied in different polymer
materials to meet those demands, according to
Skoog.
Metso has been supplying its tried-and-tested
rubber lining for haul trucks for several decades
with positive results both in reducing the need
for maintenance and improving the working
environment for truck drivers. It has used this
experience to develop the new solution, which is
currently suited to haul trucks from 60 tonnes
and upwards, Carl Samuelson, Global Business
Support Manager, Haul Truck Solutions, Metso,
said.
The first Metso Truck Body that went into
operation was in the Nordic region back in 2017
but, since then, the company has introduced the