Tag Archives: Weir Minerals

Weir Minerals guards against Warman slurry pump maintenance problems

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Weir Minerals has announced the global release of its new telescopic gland seal guards to further protect maintenance personnel performing gland seal adjustments on its Warman® slurry pump range.

The guards never need to be removed to adjust the gland seal followers, making this routine task far safer, according to the company. The telescopic design, which can be retrofitted into existing Warman pumps without disassembly, ensures secure fitment no matter how the pump is set up.

Marcus Lane, Global Product Manager, Centrifugal Pumps, said: “At Weir Minerals, we always put the safety of our customers and employees first. That’s why I’m proud to announce these innovative gland seal guards, which provide miners with an elegant solution to a long-standing safety concern – how to safely adjust the gland seal of a slurry pump while it’s operating.”

The guards, which comply with global standards including ISO 14120, ISO 13857, AS4024.1601 and AS4024.1801, are available for most Warman pumps including MCR, WBH and AH, with additional designs engineered upon request, Weir said. Manufactured from stainless steel to prevent corrosion, they are painted golden yellow to be quickly identifiable as a safety feature.

Slurry pump operators often need to adjust glands while the pump is in operation. Historically this meant removing the guard and exposing personnel to rotating parts.

“The new guards never need to be removed during pump operation and address a number of safety concerns our service teams frequently observe on site, such as the possibility for the rotating elements to forcefully eject the tool being used to adjust the gland follower,” Lane said. “Another common concern is the tendency for operators to lay cloth over the seal area during adjustment to block the water spray. These fabrics can become entangled around the rotating shaft whilst also ensnaring the tool, fingers, hand or arm of the maintenance personnel.”

He added: “Warman telescopic gland seal guards fully protect maintenance personnel from potentially dangerous situations arising from an exposed shaft.”

Weir Minerals mobilises team to take on tailings treatment challenge

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Water requirements for intensive applications such as hard-rock mining and oil sands processing have historically been supplemented by local water sources. Today, these applications face new challenges as the focus shifts to how operations can minimise their environmental footprint but continue to improve productivity while also complying with new regulations. This global shift in focus reveals the need for increased sustainability in tailings processing, Weir Minerals says.

The way forward is not only installing energy-efficient products that offer improved reliability, but also working directly in partnership with companies such as Weir Minerals that can design engineered-to-order solutions tailored for optimised and sustainable results, the mining OEM explains.

One of the ongoing challenges for customers is tailings reclamation. The question of how best to reduce dependence on tailings ponds yet expedite reclamation of both water and product in the process, was top of mind for one Weir Minerals customer.

Pumping stations are a critical element of tailings management, providing the energy needed to drive the downstream processes. Static slurry pump houses have, until now, been the norm, but they are costly and present many limitations when considering alternate tailings processing techniques.

A new approach to tailings reclamation

When the customer approached the Weir Minerals Canada dewatering team with a vision to mobilise the pump system for their new tailings treatment process, initially they didn’t even know if it was even possible.

“The sheer size and energy requirements of the equipment needed for the application meant that this was a huge undertaking from the beginning. You don’t normally think of 3,500 hp (2,610 kW) pumps and 160 t of equipment as mobile,” Kris Kielar, Product Manager for Dewatering Engineered to Order Solutions at Weir Minerals Canada, explains.

The Weir Minerals team worked directly with the customer to design an innovative booster pumphouse, engineered especially to manage the non-segregating tailings on site. The proposed solution played an integral role in reducing the tailings pond footprint on site through accelerated fines capture and decreased fluid tailings production, thus releasing more water for recycling and reducing necessary water intake from local sources. This, in turn, would expedite reclamation to create landforms that support wetlands and self-sustaining forest ecosystems, according to Weir Minerals.

The standard tailings processing model takes time, but this solution dramatically reduced tailings residence time with a total solution realised through Weir Minerals equipment, it said.

Multiflo® pump barges mounted with Hazleton® submersible slurry pumps extract the target fluid tailings that feed high-powered, land-based Weir re-locatable pump houses. Inside the pump houses, Warman® slurry pumps boost recovered tails from the pond to drive the new tailings treatment process plant.

Kielar continued: “By working directly with the customer, we understood not only their desired outcome, but also the existing capabilities on site. We stayed close and were able to proactively tweak our design based on the customer’s needs, so when it was time to present, we were already prepared with the ideal solution.”

Engineering for extra value

The Weir Minerals dewatering team designs solutions using engineered and reliable equipment that is not just efficient, but also adds value to a customer’s site process, it says.

“For example, the entire module of the Weir mobile pump house can be built offsite at a much lower cost than traditional pump houses, which are built in-situ,” Weir Minerals said. “Building a pump house in-situ is time-consuming and expensive, as the method requires skilled trades to work for extended periods of time in remote locations.”

Peter Pavlin, Weir Minerals’ North America General Manager of Engineering, said: “Competitor pump houses built using in-situ construction methods can more than double the construction time and costs compared to the steel fabrication methods we have used. When faced with a complex problem from a customer, we always evaluate the situation holistically and strive to develop a new approach. That is the beauty of engineering, the possibilities are endless, and the Weir Engineering Team have the expertise and tenacity to go against the norm and develop novel and cost-effective solutions.”

The Weir mobile pump house provides a variety of pumping possibilities for intensive tailings applications, according to the company.

It is designed to relocate across the site using especially engineered, military-style skid and ‘jack-and-roll’ elements and a novel patent-pending pump/motor suspension system, providing a unique advantage in mobile pump house technology. These advances provide operators with distinct advantages over traditional fixed-in-place designs, creating a more agile and cost-effective solution, according to Weir Minerals.

Pavlin explained: “Our ground-breaking design sets a new standard for tailings management applications. Other pump houses in the market are static and often cause difficulties for operators when they wish to expand into new areas, as they must discontinue service, resulting in a large capital expenditure. Our solution has overcome these limitations by providing the customer with the tools to rapidly reconfigure a changing pumping network and move it to other sections of the tailings pond.”

The Weir mobile pump house incorporates an integral gland water supply system and a separate eHouse for power control and remote communication. A patent-pending, three-point pump base mounting system allows the base and skid to act independently, minimising the risk of pump and motor shaft misalignment during operation and the relocation process, according to Weir.

Weir Minerals addresses pump impeller and throatbush wear life

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Weir Minerals says its Warman® Wear Reduction Technology (WRT®) impellers and throatbushes for slurry pumps can help miners reduce operating expenses through improved efficiency, reliability and wear life.

An upgrade compatible with all Warman AH®, M and L series slurry pumps, the streamlined parts offer total ownership cost reductions, according to the company.

Warman WRT technology is the culmination of decades of research into the wear patterns and hydraulic performance of the Warman AH pump’s impeller and throatbush, the company explained. Together with a unique vanelet on the back shroud, replacing the five-vane impeller with a modern four-vaned design improves fluid guidance through the pump and represents a step change in impeller design, it said.

This technology has already proven its worth in the field, such as at Blackham Resources’ Matilda gold mine in Western Australia. Here, the installation of Warman WRT technology more than doubled impeller wear life in a demanding application involving abrasive, highly viscous slurry, Weir Minerals said. The new impeller and throatbush reduced total ownership costs for the pump by A$27,000/y ($19,117/y) due to the parts’ higher efficiency and longer wear life.

Marcus Lane, Global Product Manager, Centrifugal Pumps, said: “What I love about our Wear Reduction Technology is how it improves on everything our customers expect from the iconic Warman AH pump range.

“It uses best-practice design techniques leveraged by the world’s top slurry pump engineers to maximise hydraulic efficiency and reduce operating costs without increasing the pump’s complexity. Its advanced wear materials improve reliability and reduce time spent maintaining the pump.

“It simply makes the world’s most famous slurry pumps even better.”

Not only do the hydraulic refinements lower the pump’s lifetime consumption, but they reduce the net positive suction head requirements of the pump, making the upgrade an ideal way to compensate for process or feed changes which have left a Warman AH pump overtaxed, the company said.

“I’m so proud of the way Warman constantly innovates for existing customers,” Lane said. “Retrofitting WRT technology into an installed pump couldn’t be easier – next time you need to replace your impeller and throatbush, simply install the Warman WRT parts instead. Nothing changes in your setup, fitment, or general maintenance practices. The pump doesn’t need a speed change and the entire process uses existing maintenance tools.

“Really, the only thing that changes is that your pump is now a lot better at its job.”

NRRI and Weir Minerals offer up HPGR alternative to Minnesota Iron Range operators

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The University of Minnesota Duluth’s Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) is helping introduce high pressure grinding roll (HPGR) technology to Minnesota’s Iron Range.

Working with Weir Minerals, NRRI acquired an industrial-scale Enduron® HPGR to carry out testing on a variety of ores with this process. This is the only large scale HPGR dedicated to research in the US, NRRI claims.

The NRRI explained: “Traditional taconite pellet-making processes use a rod mill to get the rock to the consistency of coarse sand, and a ball mill to grind the rock into a fine powder. This technology is still in use on Minnesota’s Iron Range by some facilities.

“A taconite plant may have as many as 18 rod mills with one rod alone weighing as much as 500 Ib (227 kg). Tumbling around in the mills with the hard taconite wears away the rods and balls and need to be replaced frequently.”

This is a costly and energy-intensive process and the waste rods and balls are a disposal problem, according to NRRI.

NRRI researchers think there’s a better and more efficient way of carrying out this grinding process with the use of HPGRs.

Tim Lundquist, Weir HPGR Manager for North America, said: “NRRI has done a lot of testing for many of our projects. The proximity to the Iron Range is key, but we’ll also bring in material from all over the US, Canada, and elsewhere when it makes sense. Our preference is to work with NRRI whenever possible due to their flexibility, expediency and expertise.”

Unlike rod or ball mills, HPGRs reduce particles by compressing and crushing the feed between two counter rotating, parallel rollers with a small gap between them. This forces the rocks against each other. There are no rods or balls that need replacing and it reduces energy consumption by about 40% for certain ore types, Breneman said. It also substantially reduces water consumption compared with rod and ball mills.

Reducing energy, eliminating costly grinding media, and higher machine availability will make the Minnesota iron industry more cost competitive while also offering the opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas generation, NRRI said.

NRRI Metallurgical Engineer, Shashi Rao, Lead Researcher on HPGR-related projects at NRRI Coleraine, said: “It’s really helpful to the industry to have their ores tested in our large HPGR before replacing their rod or ball mills.

“We’re able to determine if the ore is amenable to high pressure roll crushing, identify the mineral composition, and test a variety of pressures and roll speeds. Third-party testing is very important.”

Keeping the project moving ahead during the COVID-19 pandemic required extra steps and protocols, according to NRRI. This work was coordinated by NRRI Project Engineer, Jeff Kinkel.

“The machine is isolated to one specific area,” Kinkel said. “We adhered to strict sanitation and masking requirements and communicated daily with the contractor doing the installation.”

NRRI acquired the HPGR technology via Weir Minerals from the shuttered Magnetation LLC operation and both organisations are sharing the cost of maintenance.

“This is a great example of a partnership project,” Kevin Kangas, NRRI Coleraine Director, said. “We’ve been working on this for over two years and it’s exciting to have the global interest in this capability.”

The process is now in place at a Minnesota Iron Range facility with a Weir Minerals Enduron HPGR.

On average, 53% of a mine site’s energy consumption is attributed to crushing and grinding ores, accounting for almost 10% of a site’s production costs, according to information from Weir Minerals. NRRI’s HPGR is manufactured in the Netherlands by Weir Minerals.

Weir Minerals’ Terraflowing offers up tailings storage and reprocessing options

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More details of Weir Minerals novel dewatering process, TerraFlowingTM, have emerged as the company steps up marketing of its tailings management offering.

This week, on May 27, Nils Steward, General Manager Operations and Development at Weir Minerals, will describe the test work and results achieved in the development of TerraFlowing in a webinar and, ahead of that, the company has provided some important details about the technology.

“This process has been developed to address both the value proposition of tailings inherent in the tailings, and tailings storage,” the company said.

Weir Minerals is able to look at tailings reprocessing as well as storage with TerraFlowing thanks to the incorporation of a two-stage cyclone dewatering process followed by centrifugation of the final stage of cycloning overflow, it said.

In this 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, according to Weir Minerals.

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

This ability to deal with feed variations in PSD and mineralogy, and deliver variations in PSDs, tailings solids concentrations and recoveries is owing to the ability to vary the cyclone and centrifuge configurations and operation, Weir Minerals said.

“This flexibility further allows for optimisation of power utilisation,” Weir Minerals said. “In many instances, water is an annual issue; during the rainfall season water recovery is less important than dry seasons. During the rainy season, the need to operate the process at maximum water recovery, associated with maximum power consumption, is less necessary and power can be conserved.”

Two main TerraFlowing process outcomes have been identified by the company corresponding to:

  • A maximum solids recovery at maximum solids concentration of the two cyclone and centrifuge streams; and
  • A recovery of a tailings stream for tailings storage facility (TSF) embankment construction with the remaining cyclone and centrifuge streams being combined for deposition within the TSF.

Water recovery can be up to 85% with a 78% wet solids concentration final tailings product from combining the three streams in the maximum solids concentration case, the company says. Transport of this final stackable tailings product will be by positive displacement pumps, conveyors or trucks, the company noted.

For the case where the primary cyclone underflow has been shown to deliver a PSD suitable for TSF embankment construction, through geotechnical investigation, the remaining secondary cyclone underflow and centrifuge pulp is suitable for beaching deposition within the TSF, it said. The water recovery in this process is up to 75%, while transport of these tailings products can be through centrifugal pumps.

Weir Minerals says: “TerraFlowing is an opportunity to not only store a thickened product but also recover the value in the tailings through the construction of TSF embankments or the manufacture of structural concrete products, as well as shotcrete for reinforcement and support.”

To find out more about the webinar click here.

Weir Minerals targets customer ‘pain points’ with integrated solutions teams

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Weir Minerals says its integrated solutions teams are combining experience from comminution to tailings, from chemistry to hydraulics, to deliver reliable solutions that solve its customers’ most frustrating pain points.

Since brothers James and George Weir founded what would become the Weir Group with their 1871 invention on the Weir boiler feed pump, engineering expertise, the company says, has been the driving force of its success.

“For almost 150 years, Weir has built its business on the principle that if something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right and to do something right on a mine, you need the right team,” it said.

This is where the company’s integrated solutions teams come in, which combine technical expertise, local access and global knowledge to optimise mining companies’ entire process, according to the company.

John McNulty, Vice President of Global Engineering and Technology for Weir Minerals, says the industry needs integrated solutions now more than ever.

“With this approach, we continually listen to our customer’s pain points and identify ways in which we can improve their process,” he said. “Integrated solutions also aligns closely with the Weir Group’s sustainability strategy.

“We often talk to our customers about the challenges they face in terms of energy consumption, water usage and waste, and brainstorm ways in which we can help reduce their environmental impact. In this current climate, this approach is absolutely critical.”

When confronted with a problem that requires more than a single piece of equipment, Weir Minerals draws on its integrated solutions teams, made up of process engineers, design engineers, product experts, materials scientists, supply chain and logistics experts, as well as local sales teams who know the customer’s site.

These multi-disciplinary teams ensure a problem is considered from all perspectives, identifying potential issues and opportunities to optimise the circuit with upstream and downstream benefits, according to Weir Minerals.

With almost 10,000 employees operating in more than 50 countries, Weir Minerals can build teams with experience working in every kind of mine and quarry, in environments ranging from Canada’s frozen oil sands region and Indonesia’s rain-prone coal mines to remote deserts in Chile, Mongolia and Australia.

“As well as optimising equipment to provide maximum efficiency and wear life in any given situation, the integrated solutions team’s expertise allows them to tailor solutions that can be flown onto site when the roads freeze in the winter, prevent crocodiles climbing onto floating equipment, and utilise waste products like tailings as a resource,” the company says.

Seda Kahraman, a Regional Process Engineering Manager for Weir Minerals, says the company believes nothing is ‘impossible’, with engineers continually looking for better ways of doing things.

“Our team is made up of specialists each possessing different process systems’ expertise including, but not limited to: troubleshooting, designing tools and process simulation programs,” he said. “We combine this wealth of knowledge to deliver innovative solutions that address our customers’ varied needs.”

The key to Weir Minerals’ integrated solutions approach is the entire team of experts collaborating to identify all root causes of a customer’s challenge, considering all the contributing factors – which is where Weir Minerals’ interdisciplinary expertise is so important, it says.

The team perform process audits during site visits to identify bottlenecks and then, using flowsheets, mass balances, 3D layouts, and feasibility studies, advise on the most appropriate solution for the customer to not just resolve the problem they came to Weir Minerals with, but to optimise their process to save energy, reduce water waste or increase capacity, and ultimately save the customer money.

Weir Minerals continues to go with the Multiflo in barge applications

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Even with 40 years of custom barge solution expertise under its belt, Weir Minerals says it is continuing to innovate with new designs for applications in oil sands, tailings management and tropical and cold climates.

Developed over the decades, the Weir Minerals range of Multiflo® barges provides a solution for numerous applications, according to the company.

Water reclamation for oil sands market

Reclaim water barges are an integral part of tailings management solutions in oil sands applications, where tailings contain high percentages of water that can be recycled back through the process plant.

Upon identifying the need for reliable systems which were easy to manage and maintain, Weir Minerals developed its mega-barge exclusively for the oil sands market. This all in one package includes pumps, valves, hoses, and piping.

“This is where our turnkey value proposition really took off,” Kris Kielar, Product Manager for engineered-to-order dewatering products at Weir Minerals Canada, explains. “Our largest barge system includes a fully integrated electrical control houses that powers 9,000 hp (6,711 kW) worth of pumps, overhead cranes, remote monitoring and control, and the longest floated walkway we’ve ever provided, with ‘warm-up’ stations every 150 m for one kilometre.”

Mega-barges are the ideal solution for unique applications, such as the scale of water reclaim needed at some of the world’s largest oil sands operations, according to Weir Minerals.

“A typical oil sands operation requires nine barrels of water per barrel of bitumen produced,” continues Kielar, “so the more water that can be reclaimed, the better. The larger the operation, the bigger the water saving potential.”

In addition to the mega-barges for the oil sands market, Weir Minerals also developed modular barge packages as a fully customisable solution for ease of shipment, and a reduction in both capital costs and onsite installation costs. The introduction of both static and mobile, land-based, booster stations and pumphouses further expands the Multiflo barge solution capability while maintaining a single point of contact for customers, the company says.

Tailings management

The need for custom barge solutions for tailings management has increased in recent years. Where previously dewatering pumps in tailings applications were “set-and-forget”, the increased focus on tailings dam safety has shined a new spotlight on barge solutions that can provide heavy-duty, reliable pumping, Weir Minerals said.

Not only must sites revisit current arrangements to consider how their tailings will be handled in the future, they also need to empty the old dams decommissioned by environmental and mining authorities, the company said.

Ricardo Menezes, Barge Systems Specialist at Weir Minerals Brazil, said: “We are equipped to provide the entire solution. From initial consultation and design, to manufacturing, commission, and training and supervision of site operators. We work hard to bring our customers the best possible solution for their site, and we do it all under one roof.”

These all-in-one Multiflo packages eliminate the headache of integrating civil construction, electrical control rooms, control systems, pipes, cables, and mechanical and electrical works, according to the company. Weir Minerals engineer these dewatering barges in-house and employ naval engineering consultants to create tailored solutions for its customers.

Menezes continues: “Sites are being asked to transport tailings on a larger scale than before. An off-the-shelf solution might not work with their existing site infrastructure and that is where our fluid transport expertise comes in.”

Reliability in any situation

Applications in tropical environments, which experience heavy and sometimes unexpected rainfall, often require barge-mounted dewatering pumps to handle the rapidly rising water levels.

Multiflo land-based barges are built to float, protecting the pump unit from being flooded as often happens with a traditional skid pump unit, Weir Minerals says.

These land-based barges are fitted with integrated skid runners that allow them to be towed around mine sites and launched or retrieved with the use of dozers or excavators. The integrated skid runners also provide the added benefit of using the barge as a skid pump operating at the pond edge with easy land access for operators and servicing, the company says.

Marnus Koorts, Product Manager for dewatering pumps at Weir Minerals South Africa, says the company gets very specific requests for these land-based barges.

“We recently completed a project for a customer experiencing regular high wind speeds and tropical storms,” he said. “We needed to account for wave action and wind loading to ensure our solution would minimise risk of structural damage during these storms.”

Other considerations such as water quality, where pH can range from very low through to high, and water content, such as high percentages of suspended solids and floating debris, are also key to maintaining dewatering equipment on site, according to the company.

“Multiflo barges maximise reliability through innovative protection systems chosen specifically for the environment that the barge will operate in,” Weir Minerals says.

For one customer in South Africa, the Weir Minerals team needed to account for more than just water, according to Koorts.

“One of the design requirements for this particular installation was for the handrails and other structures to be engineered to prevent crocodiles from gaining access to the deck space.”

Dewatering in cold climates

In the last year, Weir Minerals barge specialists from Canada have been working with teams in Russia and Finland, to establish a European centre of expertise specifically for dewatering barges in cold-climate applications. Key environmental factors such as wind, snow and seismic loading can affect the buoyancy and stability of the barges, which they looked to address.

“We’re building on the work of the North and South American teams,” Artem Filippov, Dewatering Product Manager at Weir Minerals Russia, said. “Working together and using insights gained from their years of experience have allowed us to create unique barge dewatering systems for our European customers.”

Weir Minerals’ cold-climate expertise comes from experience in floating barge systems at temperatures below -45°C, de-icing systems and winter barge access systems. In addition, Multiflo barge systems are fully marine naval certified under all weather conditions and are marine architect certified, the company says.

New Weir Minerals Sand Wash Plant to boost recoveries

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Weir Minerals has released a complete sand wash solution that draws on its long experience in the sand and aggregate industry.

The Weir Minerals Sand Wash Plant comes with Linatex® lining, produces more saleable product than conventional sand screw plants, with fewer moving parts, and has an optimised process that produces a drier, higher-quality product with less fines, according to the company.

The solution has already proven effective at sites like Coimbatore Minerals in Tamil Nadu, India, Weir says, where a custom-built wash plant reduced its total cost of ownership by 51%, while offering a 23% reduction in fines that helped the company consistently meet the industry’s high standards for a saleable product.

Bruce Cooke, Global Product Manager – Sand Wash Plants for Weir, said: “We know the most important thing for quarry operators in washing is recovering as much sand as possible to maximise their sales, which is why we’ve designed an integrated solution for washing their product, with a hydrocyclone which can deliver greater recovery than sand screws. In addition, every component has been selected by our expert engineers for its long-service life, interoperability and ease of maintenance.”

The compact solution features a range of Weir Minerals equipment designed for high efficiency in sand and aggregate applications, including Warman® WGR pumps, Cavex® hydrocyclones, Enduron® dewatering screens, Linatex hoses and Isogate® knife gate valves.

The Warman WGR is a popular pump in the sand extraction industry, according to Weir, combining top of the line hydraulic design with an adjustable impeller, long bearing life and a simplified wet end, making replacement predictable and cost effective.

Precision moulded and lined, Linatex premium rubber is used for wear zones throughout the plant due to its proven wear performance in wet sand applications in operations around the world, Weir said.

Cavex hydrocyclones provide “exceptional classification efficiency” thanks to their unique 360° laminar spiral, delivering more saleable product than a sand screw solution would, the company said. Enduron dewatering screens, meanwhile, reliably separate product with a high degree of efficiency. And, finally, Isogate knife gate valves contribute to the plant’s straightforward maintenance.

Surendra Menon, President, Weir Minerals India, said: “For the new sand wash plant, we focused on making it quick and easy for quarry operators to get up and running. Its straightforward design means it can be assembled in just two days while its compact skids make it easy to drag into any operation.

“Efficient, reliable and easily integrated into flowsheets, we think the plant is a game changer for quarry owners.”

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 looks to keep slurry moving with new lubrication system

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Weir Minerals has announced the global launch of a new lubrication system that, it says, can prevent bearing assembly failures, reduce maintenance downtime and promote safety.

The launch of Accumin™ lubricators follows international demand for the grease lubrication that has been ensuring optimal performance for equipment such as Warman® slurry pumps in Asia Pacific since 2014, Weir said.

Across more than 100 sites, the Accumin lubrication system has proven itself an efficient way of preventing expensive bearing assembly failures, reducing maintenance downtime and promoting safety by decreasing the amount of manual interface to keep equipment performing, the company said.

Making the move to Accumin lubricators helped one Australia iron ore mine save almost A$120,000/y ($73,705/y) in downtime reduction, pump rebuilds and bearing assembly replacements, Weir explained.

Michael Roinich, Accumin Specialist, Weir Minerals, said: “At Weir Minerals, we make the market-leading slurry pump for mining applications, but we can’t always control what happens when it gets to site. Between dust, overflow and gland seal leaks, lubrication is a vital tool in the constant battle to keep machinery going. Having an Accumin lubrication system fitted prevents over and under greasing, protects equipment from bearing failures and frees up man hours for more critical tasks.

“When we offer Weir Minerals equipment with an Accumin lubrication system installed, what we’re really doing is giving that equipment its best shot at a long and productive working life.”

Made in Germany, Accumin canisters are produced in 125 cm³ gas driven; 120 cm³, 250 cm³ and 500 cm³ electro-mechanically driven configurations, and can be deployed up to five metres away from the lubrication point, allowing easy and efficient access to the mount, Weir says. The electro-mechanical driven lubricator dispenses a consistent dosage of lubricant, regardless of ambient temperature. The system delivers 6 bar of operating pressure and can be monitored via an LCD display, flashing LED alert system and a transparent grease cartridge.

Roinich added: “Designed to meet the arduous demands of the mining industry, Accumin single-point lubricators set the global standard for lubricating Warman pumps and other grease-lubricated, mission-critical mining equipment supplied by Weir Minerals.

“We’re excited to share our market-leading, best-practice system with mines around the world who are embracing new technologies to simplify their operations.”