Mato Products, a Multotec company, says it has expanded its bulk handling equipment reach into the design of innovative belt cleaning systems for a number of mineral and metals markets.
The company has long been a household name in clip fasteners for conveyor belts, especially in the underground coal sector. It company operates one of only three high production Mato machines in the world, and significantly the only one outside of Germany.
After over 30 years of operation, this Mato unit was overhauled in 2016 in an intense six-month refurbishment. It was upgraded from 180 t to 360 t capacity, speeding up production and ensuring both ongoing cost-effectiveness and reliability of supply for customers, according to the company.
Mato said: “The company’s exciting line of belt cleaning equipment has for some time now been gathering momentum. Its popularity has extended well beyond the coal sector into other materials handling and mineral processing applications, even in diamond mining.”
According to Benjamin Sibanda, Managing Director of Mato Products, over-feeds at transfer points often lead to material build-up on the inside of a belt.
“As mines and other industrial facilities raise their environmental standards, they want to avoid problems like duff heaps under conveyors, which can cause pollution,” Sibanda said.
The Mato MCP3-S primary cleaner, installed at the head pulley is designed to be an aggressive head pulley cleaner, yet friendly to the conveyor belt surface and suitable for use with mechanical fasteners, the company said.
“It offers a high level of cleaning due to its blade profile, and the spring tensioning system ensures the blade is in constant contact with the belt for the life of the blade while achieving up to a maximum of 75% cleaning.”
Sibanda said: “The secondary Mato MUS2 belt cleaner is one of our latest design belt cleaners and offers an M-TRAK slide on cushion and blade for easy installation and maintenance.”
The M-TRAK is designed to eliminate lengthy maintenance downtime and ensures blade alignment is 100% true across the entire conveyor belt width, according to the company. Blade replacement is simple with the design of the slide-on and slide-off principle, eliminating the need for special tools or training when maintenance is performed, Mato said.
Sibanda continued: “The unique design of our MUS2 cushion is based on the principle of a parallelogram whereby the cushion also stays true to the conveyor belts surface ensuring the angle of attack is maintained. This cleaner’s primary duty is to remove fines and duff, to almost zero carry-back.”
Blades on the cleaners come in a range of materials suited to different applications, including polyurethane and tungsten.
While the application in South Africa was initially mainly underground, equipment variations for surface have now also been developed and introduced to market, Mato said. The plant tail-end cleaner is based on the same concept but is mounted on channels rather than on stringer pipes.
“This product includes innovative blade stoppers,” Sibanda said. “When the blade is worn to a certain level, the mounted flat plate does not touch the belt, for better protection.”
Mato has also engineered closer integration between its fastener clips and the belt cleaners.
“For instance, we have added a profile to the clip which optimises the life of both the clip and the tungsten tip on our secondary belt cleaner,” Sibanda said. “The skiving process embeds the clip slightly into the belt ensuring the mechanical splice is on the same surface as the conveyor belt thereby minimising the impact on the tungsten tip as well as lowering noise levels. Longer life of both means less downtime for the customer and greater reliability.”
Sibanda said all the offerings in Mato’s conveyor belt systems range helps to improve the lifespan of equipment at loading points. The energy of ore transfer is absorbed, and wear resistance is increased by Multolag ceramic products.