Tag Archives: Linard

Weir releases new gate valve as it advances Terraflowing, ToolTek solutions

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Weir Minerals has released a new Isogate® WR knife gate valve to reduce cycling discharge while improving wear life.

The lightweight, long-lasting Isogate WR knife gate valve offers miners and aggregates operators alike a step change in valve performance, according to Weir Minerals.

The release came on the same week Weir Group announced its 2020 financial results, which saw the company report revenue and adjusted operating profit of £1.97 billion ($2.73 billion) and £305 million from continuing operations, respectively. These figures were down 4% and 3%, respectively, from 2019 totals.

On the new valve, Weir said: “Incorporating the latest advances in design and materials technology from Weir Minerals’ expert engineers, the range of Isogate WR knife gate valves are more reliable, while producing minimal fluid discharge and weighing considerably less than equivalent mining valves.”

John Abbott, Global Product Manager – Valves & Tailings, said: “Drawing on decades of wear analysis, we’ve optimised the Isogate WR knife gate valve’s body design, by reinforcing the areas subjected to the harshest wear and pressure. At the same time, we have reduced the weight elsewhere to produce a robust, long-lasting mining valve that’s significantly lighter than comparable products.

“The weight reduction can be especially significant in situations where a number of valves are used on a specific installation, such as in a hydrocyclone cluster, or where lightweight piping systems are used.”

The gate has also been redesigned, with stronger materials resulting in a thinner gate that can still withstand the pressure of mining slurries. This combines with the valve’s unique gate guide that, Weir says, reduces deflection by ensuring smooth gate movement and less strain on the sleeve elastomer during blade transition.

The Isogate WR knife gate valve uses Weir Minerals’ new Isogate WSL sleeve, which comes with proprietary Linard® HD 60 silica-reinforced natural rubber to solve the three most common problems with sleeved knife gate valves: leakage during cycling, tearing and load distribution ring (LDR) failure due to corrosion and erosion, the company explained.

Leveraging the Linard HD 60 rubber’s high resilience against cut, tear and abrasive wear to improve wear life, the new Isogate WSL sleeve fully encloses the LDR to prevent corrosion. By allowing the rubber to move with the blade cycles, the design reduces the chance of tearing while reducing slurry discharge by up to 75%, according to Weir.

The Isogate WSL sleeve can also be used in existing Isogate WS knife gate valves, improving wear life and decreasing discharge on cycling.

Abbott added: “When designing the Isogate WR knife gate valve, we focused on features that improve the everyday experience of working with our valves. This includes important things like improved grease distribution and improved body flushing when used on high solids concentration applications.

“In-depth finite element analysis enables us to ensure the product’s integrity, while making it lightweight. There are also a lot of smaller features to make life easier, such as a larger grease reservoir, ISO mount standardisation and an external visual indicator for the valve’s status.”

Other notable developments from Weir Group’s 2020 financial results included the first order for ESCO’s ToolTek™ system.

This collaborative effort with key mining customers provides enhanced safety for maintenance personnel during the replacement of worn Nemisys® points and adapters, according to ESCO. It features a hydraulic crane mounted tool that is remotely operated, well out of harm’s way during the replacement of worn components. New parts are pre-staged on racks  positioned on the flatbed truck outfitted with the hydraulic crane. The truck also features a recycle bin for safer disposal of worn parts.

Alongside this, Weir said in 2020 it installed the first pilot Terraflowing® plant at a customer’s mine site designed to cost-effectively reduce water in tailings, enabling this waste product to be safely stored or repurposed.

Terraflowing incorporates a two-stage cyclone dewatering process followed by centrifugation of the final stage of cycloning overflow. In the process, three dewatered tailings streams are produced: a primary cyclone underflow, a secondary cyclone underflow and a centrifuge pulp. These three streams can be combined or used in different configurations depending on the end use of the tailings stream, according to Weir Minerals.

This three-stage system offers the flexibility to make provision for variations in mineralogy and particle size distribution as well as the opportunity to recover ‘tailings as a resource’, it added.

Weir Minerals makes an impact with Linard modular anti-abrasion panels

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Weir Minerals says it has developed new modular anti-abrasion panels that can reduce downtime caused by high impact and abrasive wear in mines and quarries.

Linard®, developed by Weir Minerals engineers and inspired by its customers’ everyday pain points, is available in 30 mm and 50 mm thicknesses, and ideally suited to minimising wear and maintenance in localised impact and wear points, the company said.

The outstanding wear life is owed to the wear material, according to Weir Minerals.

Linard HD60 rubber is configured in a rigid self-sealing construction with steel backing, while the optional composite ceramic (92% alumina) or high-chromium white iron inserts add to the wear life of the panels, Weir Minerals said.

Mark Doyle, Global Product Manager – Rubber, Spool and Hose for Weir Minerals, said: “Our new Linard panels have been designed from the ground up to last in some of the most arduous wear applications.

“Depending on the customer’s needs, we offer composite panels with either ceramic or high chromium white iron inserts, which combined with our Linard HD60 rubber compound to deliver world-class impact and abrasion resistance in chutes, hoppers and under-pans.”

Optimised through comprehensive trials in real mine site applications, Linard outperforms the competition time and again, Weir Minerals said.

Linard modular anti-abrasion panels improved wear life by 10 times replacing a competitor’s teflon wear panels in chutes across two quarries run by Boral Australia, saving more than A$12,000 ($7,605) per annum in direct costs and achieving significant uptime increases due to a 90% reduction in shutdowns, the company claimed.

“The 300 mm² panels interlock to facilitate quick and easy installation and replacement, while reducing the potential for fine material to ingress between the panels,” Weir Minerals said. “Linard modular anti-abrasion panels are supplied in a convenient kit including a range of hold down plugs, and capability to supply drawn arc studs where needed to provide a convenient off-the-shelf but customisable solution to the application.”

Paul Duthy, Wear Solutions Product Manager, Weir Minerals, said the company’s engineers can replace the Linard panels in minutes, reducing the amount of time they need to spend in chutes and other confined spaces.

“They are a bolt-in, bolt-out solution and being modular, they’re easy to fit onto any flat surface that requires extra protection,” he said. “This also makes it easy to swap around composite and standard panels to ensure the highest wear areas are the best protected.”

Weir Minerals improves plant uptime at mineral sands, gold mines

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Two African mines are achieving increased production time and plant availability after converting to Weir Minerals rubber lining solutions, the company says.

A mineral sands operation in Mozambique approached Weir Minerals just over two years ago, after experiencing high wear on its pipe and launders. This was leading to frequent maintenance, leaks and downtime. The Weir Minerals team observed that part of the challenge was worn out and corroded metal work on the mine’s wet concentrator plants due to the proximity to the coast.

Access to reline the existing launders was difficult and posed safety risks necessitating a more effective solution, the company said.

The solution was to replace the competitors’ products – chemically-cured rubber – with Linatex® rubber and Linard® 60 rubber. This was done during the mine’s monthly shutdowns.

Whereas the competitors’ rubber lasted only two to three months, the Linatex and Linard linings are still in operation after 25 months, according to the company.

The Linard 60 rubber lining solution was also applied at a gold mine in South Africa’s North West province. The mine’s maintenance team had been replacing the rubber lining on mill feed hoppers and spouts every 10 days, but the Mechanical Foreman was looking for a more resilient solution.

The Foreman was not familiar with Linatex rubber products, so a trial using Linard 60 rubber was arranged, with the entire feed hopper and spout lined with this silica-reinforced natural rubber.

The results saw wear life increase to 12 weeks. With only the partially worn areas requiring relining, there was a reduction in relining costs. This, in turn, increased plant availability, resulting in fewer stoppages and reduced operating costs.

Linatex premium rubber is a proprietary vulcanised natural rubber produced through a process that uses high quality natural latex, according to Weir. “It has outstanding strength, resilience and resistance to cutting and tearing – with high performance in wet, abrasive conditions,” the company said.

Linard 60 rubber, which is silica reinforced, retains the natural strength and nerve of latex, while combining with the toughness needed for handling coarse materials, according to the company.