Fit-for-purpose wear solutions

Wear is the subject of one of the articles in International Mining’s September issue. Pressure on maintenance budgets coupled with the need to increase productivity while reducing unplanned downtime in mining presents a unique set of challenges. One of the most obvious ways to cut costs is to look at areas in the plant where excessive wear is occurring and to then apply best practice wear solutions technology to address these issues.

This is according to Roland da Silva, global product line manager, wear solutions at FLSmidth, who recently visited the company’s South African operation. He says that excessive wear can be caused by a myriad of reasons and it is essential to identify the cause before applying a solution. “Different wear technologies cater for different causes within a plant and it is essential to apply a fit-for-purpose solution to ensure the customer will benefit from the intended increase in wear life,” da Silva says.

He points to the obvious differences between wear caused by sliding abrasion and that caused by high impact. “Rubber is capable of handling high energy and impact, while ceramic is best for sliding abrasion, however there are instances where both impact and sliding abrasion occur,” he says.

The Ludoliner from FLSmidth is ideal for situations where there is high material flow with moderate impact forces. Waynne Martin, Product Manager Wear Solutions at FLSmidth, says the Ludoliner is an easy–to-fit system of bolt-on wear panels that combines the properties of alumina ceramics and rubber resulting in exceptional wear and impact resistance.

“Alumina ceramic is well proven in materials handling applications where abrasion is present, and the ceramic/rubber combination means the panels absorb impact and offer the noise reducing properties of the rubber,” Martin says.

Typical applications of Ludoliner panels include screening chutes, conveyor chutes, material deflectors, ball mill discharge chutes and transfer chutes. The panel is manufactured with a mild steel base plate suitable for welding into position, and is available with factory-fitted mounting studs for ease of installation.

Martin says that the Ludoliner Impact Wear Panels can be customised for individual customer applications and this includes the size and shape and well as the mounting stud configuration.

Another solution available from FLSmidth is its well proven Wear-Resist™ Epoxy Ceramic. This cost effective epoxy coating is ideal where a quick hard wearing solution is required.

The product is fabricated from a proprietary mixture of epoxy and wear resistant beads, and combines the hard wearing properties of a ceramic with the flexible installation properties of epoxy.

Martin says it is a proven solution in areas where sliding wear problems are common. Wear Resist Quick Set has a working time or pot life of approximately 15 minutes from being thoroughly mixed and will be hard cured in 4 hours, based on an ambient temperature of 23°C, while Wear-Resist Standard Set has a working time of approximately 30 minutes and is hard cured in eight hours.

“This makes it ideal for quick equipment maintenance turnaround with a minimum of downtime,” Martin concludes.