Kwatani has once again shown its mineral processing expertise in a retrofit project that saw one of the largest coal processing plants in South Africa boost screening throughput.
The South Africa-based company was brought in to consult on possible solutions to assist the plant in not only returning its screening throughput performance to the original design parameters but increasing it further.
Kwatani Chief Operating Officer, Kenny Mayhew-Ridgers, said: “Having evaluated the challenges on site and consulted extensively with the plant personnel, we determined that the suggestion to incorporate a bigger gearbox onto the screen would fail.”
The screen lifespan was in excess of six years and Kwatani determined it would not be able to accommodate substantially larger gearboxes offering 50% more output than the currently installed exciter gearboxes. “This would have resulted in irreplaceable damage to the screens,” Mayhew-Ridgers stated.
Because the customer was also looking for a quick and cost-effective solution, purchasing new screens with larger vibration capabilities was not an option, according to the company.
Kwatani came up with a simple solution, according to Mayhew-Ridgers.
“The plant was achieving 450 t/h on 480 t/h screens and was looking to increase this to about 525 t/h. This equated to roughly a 17% increase in performance. Replacing the screen’s existing gearboxes with those that could deliver greater vibration but would not exceed the output torque that the 37 kW drive motor could provide was the answer,” he said.
With a range of locally designed and manufactured exciters gearboxes in its portfolio, Kwatani was quickly able to provide the customer with two new exciter gearboxes delivered to site, installed and operational in the two-week timeframe the customer was looking for. “The increase in screen throughput was immediate,” Mayhew-Ridgers said.
The success of the retrofit saw Kwatani secure the order to replace three additional screens for the customer with new exciter gearboxes now currently operating at 550 t/h – 22% more than the original requirement. “Our success has proven our capabilities and screening knowledge and we have further secured all the screen repair work as well,” Mayhew-Ridgers added.
“We have positioned this business to offer expertise that extends beyond the supply of screening equipment. Our product knowledge enables us to correctly specify the right equipment and components for the application – in a case-by-case scenario,” he concluded.