Tag Archives: rubber liners

‘Circularity in action’: the Metso mill liner recycling offering

Comminution of minerals, Environmental, Mining consumables, Mining equipment, Mining services, Sustainable mining, , , , , , , ,

The idea of mill liner recycling is nothing new for Metso, with the first feasibility studies examining its potential conducted 15 years ago. Just ahead of MINExpo 2024, Metso announced that it is now expanding the offering to the North American market, with the company continuing to view the offering as a key contributor to making mining more sustainable, IM learned.

“The recycling program was initiated in 2015, achieving an important milestone of 1,000 recycled Megaliner™ liners in 2016,” Lars Furtenbach, Director, Research & Technology Development, Mill Lining, told IM last month in Las Vegas. “Back then, the machine we initially designed was not as flexible as the one we use now. This meant our global expansion had to be very deliberate to ensure we could offer the best services possible to as many customers as possible.”

Following studies and customer pilots, Metso launched a new liner separation unit in 2022 for its customers in Europe. In May 2024, the services were expanded to customers in South America – where the company now has two separation machines. Additionally, as mentioned, North America has just been added to this global roster.

The recycling service is facilitated by an innovative technology that enables safe and efficient separation of different rubber and metal liner components, like cast inserts, wear plates and backing plates. Composite liners, like Megaliner™ and Poly-Met™ liners, as well as rubber liners, can be processed using this solution. Metso also has an existing recycling process for metallic mill liners.

“One good example is the Megaliner where this service offering means that recovered backing plates, which are certified for reuse, can be returned to the same customer as part of new Megaliner liners,” he says.

“This is real circularity in action.”

Indeed, Metso says the recycling service is a concrete example of how it can drive the mining industry towards more sustainable practices and a circular economy. “With less unprocessed waste material sent to landfills, recycling helps to reduce CO2 emissions and improve environmental efficiency,” the company explains.

It is also “tightly linked” with ongoing product development, Furtenbach says, singling out Skega™ Life mill lining rubber as an example.

Introduced in November 2023, Skega Life offers up to 25% longer wear life compared with the predecessor premium rubber, Skega Classic. It was developed in Metso’s own laboratory and validated by field studies, also being part of Metso’s Planet Positive offering.

Furtenbach expects the mill lining recycling service to grow in terms of production and product offering, saying Metso’s existing capacity has significantly increased with the current expansion into three regions.

“This is all part of Metso’s plan to do what is needed to make the industry more sustainable,” he concluded.

Miners able to pick ‘n’ mix with latest FLSmidth mill lining components

Comminution of minerals, Equipment maintenance, Mineral processing, Mining equipment, Mining maintenance, Mining safety, Mining services, , , , , , ,

FLSmidth says it has launched redesigned mill lining components engineered to suit the specific functions and differing operating environments of the mining industry with its.

The new PulpMax™ mill liners are designed to increase the throughput of semi-autogenous (SAG) mills and substantially boost the wear life of liners, the company said.

FLSmidth said: “Delivering on a promise to provide increased productivity to the mining industry, the composite design incorporated in FLSmidth’s new PulpMax mill liners ensure that users enjoy reduced downtime and maintenance, increased throughput and improved worker safety.”

With lighter weight mill liners, installation is faster and safer as each liner is easier to manipulate, according to the company. There are also fewer parts, and, hence, fewer movements are required to perform a reline, resulting in a significant decrease in scheduled downtime.

The composite nature of the liner reduces its weight by almost 50%, according to FLSmidth, which allows the plant to increase its ball charge level without increasing the total weight of the mill.

This higher ball charge further contributes to the higher throughput.

“The lighter weight of these liners has an important impact on size, design and installation time,” the company said. “Each liner can now be larger – subject to the size of the mill opening – and the mill can be lined with fewer of them, reducing the downtime required to conduct replacement.

A lighter liner means fewer bolts to hold it in place, a factor further reducing installation time, according to the company. This shorter downtime also means less time for contractors inside the mills, leading to a faster and safer liner changeout.

Another important benefit of the composite material used in many of FLSmidth’s redesigned liners is it is not necessary to torch the liners, as is sometimes required when removing old steel liners, the company said. “This torching process in the mill is best avoided, as it can cause costly damage to the mill shell,” FLSmidth explained.

Finally, there has also been the development of composite material shell liners bolted from the outside of the mill, once again, speeding up installation and reducing risk.

Jack Meegan, Product Line Manager for Comminution at FLSmidth, said: “As mines increasingly recognise the positive financial impact derived from just a few more percentage points in throughput improvement, many are looking beyond conventional steel cast liners for mills. FLSmidth’s innovations, based on combinations of steel, rubber and ceramic components, allow the liners to be thinner, resulting in a larger volume inside the mill, making higher charge levels possible.”

He continued: “Responding to the continuous assessment of customer needs, FLSmidth has launched a mill liner solution based on extensive data on mill operations, shutdowns, wear profiles and other factors. These have been used to develop a high-end technical and financial solution.”

Following installation, an ongoing measurement of actual wear, tonnage processed and estimated wear life is conducted so further recommendations can be made to improve performance, Meegan explained.