Outotec says it has expanded its grinding portfolio with a new range of mills and a polymer bearing system that are both low cost and help maximise grinding mill availability.

The new Outotec MH Series grinding mill range offers a cost-effective and easy to operate and maintain grinding solution across the mill lifecycle, the company says. The series includes a range of SAG, ball, and rod mills in standardised sizes with a capacity of up to 3.1 MW installed power.

“All mills in the range use Outotec’s proven and robust technology to ensure safe and reliable operation,” the company says.

MH Series mills feature a standardised design, where some parameters are fixed in order to keep manufacturing costs and delivery lead times to a minimum, but they still offer a range of configurable options for elements such as the shell, bearings, feed chute, and rock box, as well as the drive arrangements, according to the company.

Carl-David Johansson, Product Manager, Grinding business line, said the new mills are an ideal choice for customers valuing faster overall delivery and lower capital expenditure over extensive tailoring and customisation options.

“Put simply, with these mills customers benefit from a mill that gets the job done, is easy to operate and maintain, and has been designed based on Outotec’s vast comminution knowhow,” he said.

The MH Series mills are compatible with the optional Outotec mill control system, which features n state-of-the-art technology and is the preferred control option for all Outotec grinding mills, the company said.

Complementing this new series of mills is the Polymer HSB system. This is fitted to all new Outotec grinding mills as standard and is designed to maximise grinding mill availability and simplify maintenance, thus increasing revenue and reducing maintenance costs, the company said.

The system significantly improves the reliability and longevity of radial and axial pads compared with bronze or white-metal pad bearing systems, according to the company. This eliminates failures associated with surface-to-surface contact caused by journal defects, lock-charge starts, or hydraulic system failures.

“The state-of-the-art self-aligning capability ensures that the pads are always precisely aligned with the mill journal, helping to protect the longevity of the mill by distributing stresses more evenly across the support structure and mill body,” the company said.

Tuomas Tani, Technical Product Manager, Grinding business line, said the Polymer HSB systems have clocked up over 7.5 million hours of production with zero hours lost due to bearing failure.

“The Outotec Polymer HSB system is a field-proven example of our technological leadership in grinding mills,” he concluded.

Outotec is currently the subject of a merger propsoal from Metso.