Engineering & Mining Journal

MAR 2013

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

Issue link: https://emj.epubxp.com/i/115330

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 81 of 91

P R O C E S S I N G S O LU T I O N S Conveyor Cradle Cuts Downtime, Improves Serviceability operation, approximately 2.9 million mt of material have been conveyed across the load zone, and there have been zero component failures," he said. The new cradles use Martin Engineering's Trac-mount technology to slide in and out easily for maintenance. The modular components are light enough to be removed by hand, without using a crane or other equipment to handle them. "We wanted something that was slide-in, slide-out," said Martin Engineering Global Product Manager Chris Schmelzer. "These new cradles were designed using Finite Element Analysis, so we could confirm that they'd be strong enough, without having to overbuild them. We can make it as strong as it needs to be, without adding excess weight, so workers can remove and replace components without using heavy lifting equipment." An innovative load zone design uses an elastomer bar suspension system that absorbs and distributes the material load being transferred, reducing the stress on the idlers' rolling components and support structure. One patent-pending design innovation is the use of connecting brackets near the top of the idler frame to hold the three rollers together. These connector brackets are designed to allow multiple modular cradles to be tied together, so that the idlers throughout the entire load zone work together as a system. Martin Engineering's High Speed Roller Cradle is designed to protect other conveyor components from impact damage at crucial conveyor system loading points. Bulk materials handling equipment specialist Martin Engineering reports that it developed a new, high-speed impact cradle that recently solved problems involving roller and frame damage from heavy conveyor loading conditions at an Arizona mine-for-leach copper mine, where two open pits feed a crushing facility with a capacity of 103,000 metric tons per day (mt/d). The customer, said Martin, estimates that the new cradles from Martin Engineering paid for themselves in just the first week of service, due to the savings in maintenance and downtime. The mine-for-leach process uses bacteria to extract copper from ore and solvent extraction/electrowinning (SX/EW) to recover copper from the resulting leach liquor. The crushed copper ore is delivered to a single leach pad by a series of overland and portable conveyors. At a transfer point handling minus ¾-in. (minus 19-mm) agglomerated copper ore with a 20% moisture content, a 72-in. (1,828-mm) belt perpendicularly feeds a 60-in. (1,524-mm) belt from a straight 12-ft (3.65-m) drop. The customer was using standard OEM impact idlers in the load zone; however, with the heavy loading conditions, maintenance personnel were forced to change an average of four to five rollers and one to two complete frames per month due to component failures. "The standard idlers simply could not withstand the heavy load and lengthy drop, costing downtime for repairs as well as the expense of replacement components," said Martin Engineering Service Technician Doug Brown. To address the problem, the maintenance supervisor met with Martin Engineering and asked for suggestions. Brown recommended the company's newly introduced High Speed Impact Cradles and installed the units shortly after. "After seven weeks of 80 E&MJ; • MARCH 2013 Vibration Analysis Tools Let Users Explore New Avenues for Optimization Vibration in mining equipment is a physical force that can either be destructive or beneficial, depending on the application. No matter the intended purpose, however, significant vibration must be monitored and measured to analyze the effect it has on the associated machine, and to determine the best methods for reducing or optimizing its impact. Two recent product/service introductions offer ways to achieve this at both ends of the good/bad vibrational spectrum. Emerson Process Management has introduced the CSI 2125-IS Machinery Health Analyzer, an intrinsically safe vibration analyzer. The CSI 2125-IS, certified for use in intrinsically safe IECEx and ATEX Zone 0 and Zone 1 hazardous areas, expands Emerson's route-based machinery analyzer portfolio. According to the company, the CSI 2125-IS delivers similar route vibra- Emerson's CSI 2125-IS analyzer is certified for use in tion analysis capabil- specified hazardous environments. www.e-mj.com

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Engineering & Mining Journal - MAR 2013