Trelleborg has introduced what it says is a unique natural abrasion-resistant rubber sheeting product to the mining market in the form of its GoldLine® Premium 38.

This sheeting protects mine owners’ investments in mineral processing plants from wear caused by wet abrasive slurries, the company says.

Recognising that limitations in testing of sheeting makes it difficult for engineers to rank, specify and select premium natural rubber compounds. To solve this problem, Trelleborg developed the SETAT™ – Submerged Elevated Temperature Abrasion Test.

This advanced, rigorous test and performance ranking tool demonstrated that GoldLine Premium 38 offered significantly lower rubber loss than alternative products, maximising sheeting life and thereby lowering total cost of ownership for mine operators, the company said.

Keith Jones, Business Development Manager for the product, says: “The new GoldLine Premium 38 improves equipment, piping and asset reliability in arduous wet abrasive applications, reducing downtime and maintenance costs.

“In a two-year development program to perfect the sheet rubber’s formulation, extensive in-house SETAT verified the product outranks alternatives in terms of rubber loss.”

Jones said the sheeting, with its distinctive gold colour, represents a significant milestone for Trelleborg in the premium natural abrasion sheet rubber market.

“A dedicated and collaborative product development effort across multiple Trelleborg operations has culminated in an offering that will help mining and mineral processing operations across Australia manage wear caused by abrasive process slurries,” he said.

Developed to deliver the optimum combination of physical and mechanical properties, GoldLine Premium 38 has a well-balanced rubber formulation to resist wear and abrasion in a range of wet abrasive mineral processing slurry applications, Trelleborg says. In addition, it demonstrates high tensile strength, resilience, elongation at break and tear strength.

The sheeting is easily applied to steel surfaces using Trelleborg’s contact adhesives. It also has excellent workability and flexibility, in particular when applying under tension and compression, the company says, while custom-manufactured roll widths and lengths minimise yield loss or offcuts when lining equipment and pipe spools.