McLanahan says it has completed its first refurbishment for 2019 with the shipment of a DDC-Sizer to a coal customer in New South Wales, Australia.
The DDC-Sizer has been an integral part of the customers’ site for over 14 years, and has been refurbished regular by McLanahan since its original manufacture in 2005, McLanahan said. The DDC-Sizer is currently one of two machines running parallel and receiving underground feed at 1,600 t/h through bifurcated chute work.
Minor refurbishments and upgrades typically occur every three or so years, according to McLanahan. These include a process of strip and assess by McLanahan Service, which allows McLanahan to provide a fixed-cost on scope of works to bring the machine back to its true OEM specification.
All spare parts required were available stock on hand from McLanahan’s 3,500m² workshop and fitted by McLanahan service technicians out of its Cameron Park facility. At any given time, McLanahan has stock for standard design items such as bearings and seals, it said.
“In order for McLanahan to complete the refurbishment, the client opted to select free issued McLanahan parts from their own stock holding to use in the restoration. These parts will be replenished at the end of the project, ready for the next rebuild,” the company said.
The DDC-Sizer was retrofitted with a wheel box and tow point upgrades. This customisation developed by the technical services team allows the machine to move with ease and efficiency when maintenance is required, according to the company.
Before the DDC-Sizer was shipped back to the customer, it underwent mandatory Factory Acceptance Testing on February 8, where the customer was invited to attend at the McLanahan workshop for the duration.
“The test went for a standard three-hour period, in which the bearings were assessed for their correct temperature specification. Upon completion, there were no anomalies recorded in the data and the DDC-Sizer was now able to be prepared for shipment,” McLanahan said.
The strategy of having a rotable replacement DDC-Sizer has proven to be a very efficient means of maintaining optimum production for this customer, McLanahan said. “They run both machines very hard and have increased the mean time between shuts. Having the ability to remove the machine from service and replace it with a refurbished spare allows the customer to maximise production whilst the existing machine is being maintained in the workshop rather than on site.”
Direct Drive Crushing Sizers, specifically McLanahan DDC-Sizers, provide primary, secondary and tertiary reduction of friable, low silica materials such as coal, salt, gypsum, phosphate, limestone, bauxite, petroleum coke, lignite, trona, carbon anodes, oil sands, clay, shale and more, the company said.
DDC-Sizers have a direct drive arrangement and low-profile design that allows wheel mounting for a movable configuration. The preferred method of installation is to mount the unit on rails with a non-rigid connection between the feed and discharge chutes. Since the drives are attached to the mainframe of the sizer, the entire unit can be rolled out from the feed stream to facilitate maintenance, McLanahan said.
