Engineering & Mining Journal

JAN 2012

Engineering and Mining Journal - Whether the market is copper, gold, nickel, iron ore, lead/zinc, PGM, diamonds or other commodities, E&MJ takes the lead in projecting trends, following development and reporting on the most efficient operating pr

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VDMA risk of explosion. However, Prysmian says that its trailing and coal- cutter cables ensure that power supplies are maintained, even under these conditions. The company produces slim, lightweight cables, especially for large mining machines, which means that longer cable runs can be stored on standard reels. This in turn allows users to find new tech- nical solutions and achieve lower costs, it adds. All Prysmian cables can be tailored to include specific features, with optical fibers, pilots and monitoring cores being just three of many additions that can be incorporated in the cable design. For instance, since 2000 the company has been producing a hybrid cop- per/fiber-optic cable that is certificated for underground use and can transmit high-resolution video. Prysmian says that advantages of this type of cable include the high data-transmission rate, its unchanging transmission quality, the lack of influence from magnetic fields, and the fact that the cable is both water- and explosion-proof. Betek's Solution for High-wear Situations Based at Aichhalden in the Black Forest, Betek GmbH & Co. KG has been supplying tungsten carbide cutting tools to the mining industry for more than 30 years. Its international sales have been booming, the company says, with its main overseas markets now in the U.S., Russia, South Africa and Australia. Its wear parts are supplied either through OEMs or directly to mines through its dealer network. As well as supplying picks for underground mining, Betek has products specifically designed for applications such as road construction, tun- nelling, excavation, surface mining, crushing operations of all kinds, recycling, soil cultivation and biomass production, with a comprehen- sive range of tungsten carbide parts in numerous shapes and grades. Welding Betek TungStuds as wear protection for a cutting drum. The company introduced its TungStuds concept as an additional anti-wear solution at the 2010 bauma exhibition. Small wear-protection bolts containing a core of high-quality tungsten carbide, TungStuds are available in graduated sizes that are suitable for all types and sizes of machines, the company says. They can be easily welded onto parts of a machine that are particularly susceptible to wear, and can be repeat- edly replaced without the machine parts themselves wearing down. In a recent application, Betek supplied TungStuds to Atacama Minerals' Aguas Blancas open-pit mine in northern Chile, which since 2001 has been producing iodine from caliche deposits in the Atacama Desert. Mining conditions are tough, with the cemented caliche con- sisting of various proportions of gypsum, sand, lime and stone in addition to iodine, rock salt, sulphate and nitrate minerals. The cli- mate is harsh, too, with temperatures that vary between 30°C during the day to -15°C at night. The operation's main mining machine, a terrain leveler, is operat- ed round the clock, cutting into the surface of the caliche in repeated passes across the deposit. However, the abrasiveness of the material was leading to major wear on the sides of the cutting drum, with the machine repeatedly being out of service for unscheduled maintenance. The local Betek agent supplied 3,300 TungStuds, which were welded in place overnight; the company reports the miner immediate- ly went back into operation and has been running non-stop ever since, with the TungStuds protecting the sides of its cutting drum. Last October, Betek began a new partnership with Wirtgen Zwickau through which the two companies will cooperate on sales and after-sales support for the TungStuds range. Wirtgen Zwickau will not only be handling TungStuds sales, but will also be offering an on- site TungStuds welding service. Plarad: Ensuring Accurate Tensioning With its headquarters at Much, not far from Cologne, Maschinenfabrik Wagner GmbH & Co. KG claims to have the largest range of torque and tensioning systems available worldwide. Trading under the Plarad brand name, referring to its original focus on plan- etary gear systems, the company has been in existence since 1962 and now has customers in over 50 industry sectors, including mining. The company's introduction of torque multipliers and hydraulic bolting equipment in the early 1970s was followed in 1980 by electric VDMA 50 VDMA MINING SUPPLEMENT • 2012

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