PUMPS AND PIPELINES
company. With many years of using these
engines in trucks and other on-highway vehicles,
they really have optimised the design of the
technology allowing us to package them in a
manner that make them more compact, lighter
and more transport-friendly than any other large
pumpsets on the European markets,” Ruffles
said.
The smaller range of pumpsets from 6.7 litre
(178 kw) down to 2.8 litre (30 kW) include the
market-leading 3.8 litre engines capable of over
140 kW from Cummins UK, who already offer
Stage 5 engines in the European markets, ahead
of the January 1, 2020 deadline.
DXB will also launch a new DXB designed
telemetry system with its Stage 5 pumpsets that
enables users to not only know where the
pumpset is, but how the pump and engine is
operating. This goes right down to knowing
the inlet and discharge pressures in the pump,
the speed, power consumption and fuel
economy.
The telemetry hardware is already designed
and being supplied by a UK-based manufacturer
and will use a major international satellite
provider of airtime to allow the fleet of hire
pumps to operate anywhere on the planet
without the need to change SIM cards.
The company is also designing some of its
pumpsets telemetry systems with WiFi capability
to allow direct communication and operation in
conjunction with other equipment such as drill
rigs and central control locations, enabling
monitoring of all equipment in one location.
Ruffles concluded: “We now offer the most
comprehensive and environmentally-friendly
range of pumps manufactured anywhere in the
world reducing our customers cost of ownership
and, more importantly, their downtime which has
become increasingly important in the last few
years.”
Stop-start applications
There are not many pumps able to cope with the
conditions at Terrafame’s Sotkamo nickel-zinc
operation, in Finland, where temperatures can go
from one extreme in the winter to the other in the
summer and metal is produced through an
exothermic process.
Eight Flowrox LPP-T65 pumps have been in
operation at the Terrafame site since the start of
production almost eight years ago, but, over this
period, the pumps were shut down for almost
three years when the former owner entered
etso’s industry-leading crushing and grinding technology status
is well known throughout the mining world, but its valves
expertise is, perhaps, not as familiar.
Complementing both the minerals processing and pump technology
the group produces, Metso Flow Control has been engineering valve
solutions for over 90 years.
Neles ® has become a household name across multiple industries,
renowned for premium engineered metal-seated valve solutions. The
company also acquired the Jamesbury ® business some decades ago to
add a premium-performance soft-seated valve solution to the portfolio.
Ville Kähkönen, Director, Industry Management, Metso Flow Control,
told IM on site at the company’s Hakkila facility, close to Helsinki-Vantaa
airport, Finland, that there is a clear distinction between the two product
families.
“Jamesbury valves are used in temperatures below 260°C,” he said,
adding that the Neles metal-seated valves are for higher temperatures or
when the process media includes abrasive fluids and solids like sand.
Touring the facility and hearing from Kähkönen and Heikki Kärki,
Industry Manager, Mining & Minerals Processing, Metso Flow Control,
IM discovered many of these valves have found their way to global mining
operations.
The company manufactures not only the valves, but also the actuators
and smart controllers; a fact that sets it apart from many of its
competitors supplying just one or two of these elements.
On average, in a minerals processing plant, there can be around 10,000
valve installations across an operation each serving a specific purpose,
according to Kärki.
He told IM it is not only Metso knife-gate valves – used for isolation
purposes in the mill circuit – that are found in the separation and refinery
stages of mining operations; the company provides several types of valve
solutions that can be tailor made to the specific application.
This wide-ranging expertise is reinforced by a quick scan of the number
of valve installations Metso Flow Control has carried out over 2000-2018.
M
financial difficulty.
“A clear benefit in Flowrox LPP-T pumps is that
they can handle even longer offline periods and
still operate at full capacity 24/7 when put back
into operation,” Matti Saloranta, Area Sales
Manager at Flowrox, said. “They only require
flushing of hoses and loosening hose
compression of the rotor. The pumps have been
designed for continuous duty and can even
manage a dry run without damages and
overheating.”
Jarmo Juutinen, Terrafame Maintenance
Operator, said: “Flowrox LPP-T hose pumps are
pumping cake wash water for Outotec Larox RB-
SV rubber belt filters. After washing the cloth,
water is recycled back into the process through
suction boxes. From there, it is pumped back for
the next cake wash. Our intention is to save fresh
water.”
Juutinen said Flowrox provided on-site training
at Terrafame to teach operators how to maintain
valves and change hoses and bearings for
pumps, which helped the company increase the
longevity of its entire processing system.
Designed for heavy-duty industries, Flowrox
peristaltic hose pumps are capable of pumping
and dosing a wide range of slurries: abrasive,
During this period, the company’s supplied base has covered all but one
continent (Antarctica the exception), with applications across what it
terms “slurry, utility and severe services”.
Metso is rare in having the capability to custom-engineer valves for the
harsh, abrasive and acidic conditions that come with autoclave
processing. This is a field that has been growing in the nickel, copper and
gold space in recent years, Kähkönen said. Standard valves last a matter
of weeks in these applications – where pressures can exceed 30 bars,
temperatures can exceed 200°C and concentrations can be highly acidic.
A materials technology team with decades of experience, plus an on-
going relationship with an autoclave manufacturer, has enabled the
company to develop valve solutions offering a robust coating specifically
designed to outlast other solutions in the autoclave market.
The company was also keen to highlight its valve digitalisation
capabilities during the visit.
Metso already launched its first NP™ series pneumatic positioner 50
years ago. A digital valve controller – the Neles ND9000 – was introduced
by Metso all the way back in 1995 and, since the launch of this product,
the company has established smart controllers that collect data to be
analysed by Metso’s in-house team or the client themselves, the latest
being its Neles NDX ® controller.
These controllers have gained such a reputation that other manufacturers
regularly acquire them to complement their own valve solutions.
Annually, Metso Flow Control delivers around 400,000 valves to
different process industries. Additionally, Metso completes over 20,000
valve overhauls and 3,000 site visits. It also carries out over 250 major
planned valve shutdowns a year – ensuring valves keep working over the
long term.
And the company has recently enhanced its manufacturing process
with the ability to use 3D printing in certain valve components. This
process offers previously unavailable engineering options that can, for
example, improve some of the design features and decrease the weight of
components.
JUNE 2019 | International Mining 71