Australian Bulk Handling Review

www.BulkHandling.com.auVolume 19 No 3 May/June 2014

Features: Food, powder handling & pneumatic

conveying Dust control

Two peer reviewed papers: Chute design modelling considerations Fatigue failure of a rotating shiploader

component

SKM’s reality check on in-pit crushing and conveying

AIR POLLUTION CONTROLClean air solutions

CBS0011 Full Page Advertisement_REV.indd 1 30/05/14 7:01 PM

3

CONTENTS

8 SKM’s reality check on in-pit crushing and conveying (IPCC)

10 iBulk to represent Bepex

10 Holcim, Lafarge merger faces hurdles

10 Shareholders push for Asciano split

11 SafeCon conveyor safety meet scheduled for October

12 NORD Drivesystems for Chinese port

14 PEER REVIEWED PAPER A case study into a fatigue failure of a rotating shiploader

component, by Aurecon’s Daniel Blanks and Patrick Torok This paper has been peer reviewed by at least two

independent referees.

20 Telestack bought by Astec for US$36m

TRANSHIPMENT, BARGES & CONTAINER TIPPLERS

24 Investigating South Australia’s mining export scene

26 New CSL transhippers signal shrinking role for tug boats

28 Centrex shifts from deepwater jetty to transhipment at Port Spencer

31 Ram Spreaders, Gray Bulk Concepts continue partnership

32 Q&A with Qube’s Antony Perkins on the Rotabox

34 Update: Cokal’s Indonesian coal barging venture

35 BHP opens Jimblebar mine

36 Flexicon opens Singapore office

36 Orrcon debuts corrosion-resistant Maxi-Tube

37 Minprovise develops frames with polymer covers

38 ThyssenKrupp opens parts facility at Henderson

38 Precia-Molen supplies belt weigher to McCain

39 Haver’s vibration analysis targets efficient screening

FOOD PRODUCTS, POWDER HANDLING, PNEUMATIC CONVEYING FEATURE

42 Flexicon aids winery with powder filtration

46 Fly ash recycling achieved with Kason circular dryer

48 Olds picks up Archimedys line

50 Jenike & Johanson on moisture sorption isotherms

51 Acromet supplies bulk bag unloading system

52 IBS boosts pneumatic conveying, opens in China & Thailand

53 Tubular conveyors Flexicon’s answer for delicate handling

54 ADM re-jigs portfolio, loses chocolate appetite

55 Gough Elecon’s multi-axis bucket elevator lands in Oz

56 Institute of Chem. Engineers to host powder handling course

56 White conveyors for foodstuffs from ContiTech

56 Motion Technologies on slew rings

58 Asset tracking evolves with Maptsoft

59 Brazilian cement producer gets Schade spreader

DUST CONTROL FEATURE

60 ASBSH & ABHR team up for dust explosions conference

60 AAF delivers RotoClone to Disney supplier

61 Proof Engineers tours mobile dust monitor

64 Dr Leong Mar’s 12 dust control tips for mining

66 Coal Services: ABHR goes to the Doctor’s office

69 Tecpro’s owner gives four dust hotspots around mines

71 Metso’s latest Lokotrack hits Oz

72 Upgraded Adani loader delivered to Abbot Point

74 PEER REVIEWED PAPER Chute design modelling considerations by Kazimierz Golka This paper has been peer reviewed by at least two

independent referees.

76 ContiTech expands conveyor design manual

77 Omron launches NJ controller platform

78 National enquiry for audacious Project Iron Boomerang

81 Parsons Brinckerhoff’s expert on value engineering

www.bulkhandling.com.au

EDITORCharles MacdonaldTel: +61 2 9080 4443Email: [email protected]

REPORTEROliver ProbertTel: +61 2 9080 4484Email: [email protected]

ADVERTISING SALESPeter DelbridgeLevel 2, 120 Sussex St, Sydney, NSW 2000Tel: +61 2 9080 4478 Fax: +61 2 9299 4622Email: [email protected]

PEER REVIEWRonda McCallumTel: +61 2 9080 4354Email: [email protected]

PRODUCTION MANAGER/GRAPHIC DESIGNERMagazines byDesign - Linda GunekTel: +61 2 8883 5890Email: [email protected]

FOR SPONSORSHIP & EXHIBITION OPPORTUNITIESPeter DelbridgeTel: +61 2 9080 4478 Fax: +61 2 9299 4622Email: [email protected]

PLEASE SEND ADVERTISING MATERIAL TORonda McCallum Email: [email protected]: +61 2 9080 4354

PUBLISHING DIRECTORPeter Attwater

SUBSCRIPTIONSNatalie Gardner – Tel: +61 2 9080 [email protected]

ABN 66 086 268 33AUSTRALIAN BULK HANDLING REVIEW (ABHR) is published 7 times a year by Informa AustraliaLevel 2, 120 Sussex Street,Sydney, NSW 2000, AustraliaPO Box Q1439, Queen Victoria Building Post Office, NSW 1230Tel: +61 2 9080 4480Fax: +61 2 9299 4622

ISSN 1444-6308 Circulaton: 5,837 (audit period ending April 2014) Member Circulation Audit Bureau (Australia)

Copyright © 2010 Informa Australia Pty Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the editorial or pictorial content by any manner without written permission of the publisher is prohibited.While contributed articles to ABHR are welcome, return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings and photographs if they are to be returned and no responsibility can be assumed for unsolicited materials. All rights in letters submitted will be treated as unconditionally assigned for the publication. All products listed in this magazine are subject to manufacturer’s change without notice and the publisher assumes no responsibility for such changes.The publisher’s advertising terms and conditions are set out in the current Advertising Rate Card, which is available to read before placing any advertisements.

contents MAY/JUNE 2014

www.BulkHandling.com.auVolume 19 No 3 May/June 2014

Features: Food, powder handling & pneumatic

conveying Dust control

Two peer reviewed papers: Chute design modelling considerations Fatigue failure of a rotating shiploader

component

SKM’s reality check on in-pit crushing and conveying

AIR POLLUTION CONTROLClean air solutions

COVER STORY10 tips for making your dust collector as safe as possibleOn page 62, David Higgins, Camfil Australia air pollution control general manager, offers an essential guide to buying and improving dust collectors.Though a dust collector is a vital component in the safety of any bulk processing plant, it is usually a reluctant purchase. Few processing professionals get excited about buying a dust collection system and as a result, they will often select the lowest-cost equipment available for the job.Sadly, the cheapest solution can prove to be the most costly in terms of worker safety, production downtime, regulatory compliance and other problems that plague companies when dust collectors do not perform properly.David Higgins’ guidelines are essential reading for both those selecting new equipment and others improving existing systems.

56

22 26 51

64 66

Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2014

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Dr Leong Mar knows a thing or two about dust.

As dust management leader at international chemicals giant DuPont, he won awards in 2009, 2011 and 2013 at the Aus-

tralian Bulk Handling Awards.In 2009, his win was for provision of a dust suppression agent

and system to treat coal trains travelling 120kms from Anglo Coal’s Callide mines to Gladstone.

In 2011, he was recognised for an automated dust manage-ment system at Port Waratah Coal Services’ Carrington Coal Ter-minal in Newcastle. Two years later, the newcomer at Newcastle, Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group, drew on Mar’s expertise for another automated dust management system which won the 2013 award for dust control.

In this edition, Mar, who has left DuPont to form his own dust consultancy, called Red Planet Innovations, distils his experience down to 12 tips for dust afflicted miners.

Mar’s overarching message is that people are the problem.Despite major scientific and technological advances in mate-

rials handling, collection and suppression equipment, dust is still a major headache at many sites.

“I have found in most cases that the limiting factor is not the technology, equipment or products being used, but the people that use them. People are often the weakest link, the most unpre-dictable and error prone element in the system,” said Mar.

After that, Mar said that prevention is the single most impor-tant factor. “Once fine particles get airborne, you will find it ex-tremely difficult to deal with and impossible to recapture 100% of them.”

Mar suggested that miners get back to basics and understand their materials’ properties and the conditions that cause dust. This means that sites need to be well versed in concepts across friability, dust extinction moisture level, dust lift off and wind speeds.

Mar said there is no silver bullet, no universal solution and no one-size-fits-all either. “If someone tells you there is, they are either lying or don’t know what they are talking about. In either case, you should avoid dealing with them.”

If a mine’s dust control solution isn’t working, Mar cautioned that it may not be the technology at fault. “Don’t be so quick to blame the solution that you have chosen for not working; maybe it’s how you use, misuse or don’t use it.”

For the full story, see page 64.

Dust guru’s top tips

EDITORIAL

By Charles MacdonaldEditor – ABHR

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8 Australian Bulk Handling Review: May/June 2014

Your editorial suggests that the Aus-tralian mining industry doesn’t em-

brace the use of IPCC technology partly because it requires far more demands on mine planning. Actually, it doesn’t: it’s quite a bit simpler – you mine what’s in front of you because selectivity in IPCC systems is very expensive.

The reality has to be faced that IPCC only provides an economic benefit when the circumstances are right for it, and the Australian mining industry, as a body, knows this.

The industry has not been slow to embrace the use of IPCC; instead, it has been circumspect in adopting what often appears to be a risky financial proposition with potentially dubious financial returns. It instead seeks to place investment in areas where better returns to shareholders can be found.

I speak with some authority on this subject. SKM has performed a huge body of work on IPCC systems with the number of man hours spent on analysis and design of systems near-ing 1,000,000. The vast majority of the studies we have delivered show only a marginal financial benefit. Sometimes the returns on investment get into dou-ble figures (as a percentage of the initial spend) and in those cases the study pro-cess continues. Very, very occasionally the study process results in sufficient return on investment to justify spend-ing that money on an IPCC system, but those cases are quite uncommon. A more typical return on investment is less than 10% and that additional capital can be better invested in new deposits where the greater revenue stream pro-vides enhanced returns.

The examination of the use of IPCC systems is clouded by reference to per-ceived operating cost benefits that are often overstated by the OEMs and the industry struggles to give credibility to these claims. All of BHP Billiton’s engi-neers can have access to or can find re-ports on the cost of the SHECON system when it was operational at Goonyella or the relocatable crushing stations in

Escondida. All of Rio Tinto’s study en-gineering staff can have access to the operating costs at Clermont, Escondida and Freeport. Other miners also have sources they can delve into to gain a more intrinsic understanding of the true cost of IPCC operations.

There are a few fundamental truths that need to be fully understood before going into print on this subject of op-erational cost benefits.

There is a direct correlation be-tween the cost of a capital asset and its maintenance cost. The more you pay for it, the more equipment it has inside it that wears out and the more that equip-ment needs replacement.

There aren’t many components in a materials handling system that last more than 10 years, not belt, idlers, drive units, let alone those real wear parts like chute liners and belt scrapers. The true long term maintenance replacement parts cost of a conveyor-based system is close to 8% of its total capital cost. How can it be otherwise? More than 10% of the mechanical and electrical equipment is replaced every year.

Then there are the relocation costs. While a system may be designed to be moved, the actual movement is a huge task, both expensive and time consum-ing. The duration of the relocations is such that it is almost an argument for having much of the equipment dupli-cated to facilitate the ‘relocation’ in the same manner as in longwall mining op-erations. Almost. The economic returns are not there in the IPCC space. Capi-talisation of spare equipment is huge.

The expenditure on the Clermont and Escondida relocations was a very significant portion of the total capital cost of supplying their systems in the first place. Repeat that task often and that double digit return on investment can very quickly become a single digit return – and potentially one preceded by a negative sign.

And while there may be 200 systems in operation around the world – and I find that number somewhat dubious,

suspecting a lot of breadth in the de-scriptive limitations being applied – many of the larger ones that went to work in the past ceased operations be-fore they could possibly have paid back the capital expended.

I am not negative on the technology. It certainly does have its place: large contiguous deposits, with predictable ore distribution, economic stability and ready access to secure power supplies are ideal areas for deployment. If your deposit meets those criteria, then I want to speak to you because there can be an enormous benefit to be had. Vale’s S11D deposit fits all of those criteria.

On the other hand, if you don’t have those circumstances, and they are pretty rare in the Australian mining industry, then you probably don’t have a project that justifies the expense. The decision to not embrace the technology is the correct one. In this respect Australian mining companies have been mature, circumspect and considered, not slow.

I would ask that the tone and ten-or of these articles become a bit more circumspect, and the attitudes become more respectful of the mining company personnel who make the decisions on how to spend their cash. The Australian industry has and continues to consider the use of IPCC technology thoroughly and in many cases can’t find a justifica-tion for embracing it. There are better uses for the capital. On the other hand anyone with a gigantic resource, access to power and an appetite for managed risk, might have a case to put forward.

*David Morrison is manager – in-tegrated mining systems, Sinclair Knight Merz. SKM is currently deliver-ing the implementation contract for Vale’s S11D truckless mining system, one of the world’s highest profile IPCC installations.

IPCC reality check

In its March/April edition, ABHR questioned the slow uptake of in-pit crushing and conveying (IPCC) in Australia and included some enthusiastic comments from OEMs on the technique’s potential. Below, one of Australia’s foremost experts on IPCC – David Morrison* of Sinclair Knight Merz – sounds a cautionary note.

Contact: [email protected]

IN-PIT CRUSHING AND CONVEYING (IPCC)

C M Y CM MY CY CMY K


NEWS

A combined press release from the two companies spoke of “a strategic opti-

mization of the portfolio through a pro-active divestment process, in anticipation of regulatory requirements.”

Asset sales are expected to amount to US$8bn.

The merger of equals of the two ce-ment companies into LafargeHolcim will create a building materials supplier with US$44bn in annual sales and profits (EBITDA) of nearly US$9bn each year.

LafargeHolcim says it will have a

“number one position globally across ce-ment, concrete and aggregates,” with pro-duction sites in 90 countries and no one country accounting for more than 10% of combined revenues.

The chairman of the new board will be Wolfgang Reitzle of Holcim. Bruno Lafont, chairman and CEO of Lafarge will become CEO of the new group. Thomas Aebischer, Holcim’s CFO will become CFO of the new group. Jean-Jacques Gauthier, Lafarge’s CFO will be-come chief integration officer.

Lafarge and Holcim expect billion dollar synergies from their merger.

Hurdles for merging Holcim and LafargeMerging cement and building products giants Lafarge and Holcim are planning to sell businesses in a bid to assuage concerns of anti-trust regulators worried about the market clout of the new entity.

The AFR’s Street Talk column reported in April that shareholders of rail and ports company Asciano have “approached the company’s board to agitate for a spin-off or sale of Patrick’s stevedores.”

Lafarge cement plant in Romania.

Shareholders again agitate for split of Asciano

According to the AFR, Asciano CEO John Mullen has successfully re-

buffed such previous calls with a strategy to improve its existing businesses and cut costs, against the backdrop of a buoyant share price.

However, with Asciano’s share price struggling in comparison to the S&P/ASX 200, “investors are starting to become im-patient again.”

Mullen is sharpening his focus on cost cuts with an additional $150m by

2018 promised by combining Pacific National Rail, which carries grain, cars and consumer goods, and Pacific Na-tional Coal.

According to the AFR, Mullen has been open about being receptive to ac-quisition offers for all or part of Patrick, a business regularly involved in bouts of arm wrestling with the aggressive Mari-time Union of Australia, which represents its employees. However, no attractive of-fers have been forthcoming.

However, as Patrick automates with technologies like container-lifting strad-dle cranes, it may become more attractive to potential buyers.

The AFR speculated that the Chris Corrigan-chaired Qube Holdings could be a potential bidder.

Another option for Asciano would be a demerger of Patrick on the ASX, although the paper warned this could be an expensive and time-consuming route.

iBulk to represent BepexFine particle separation and processing technology company iBulk, based in Melbourne, is now representing Bepex International of Minneapolis in the USA. Bepex is a provider of material processing technology and systems.

Bepex offers a complete line of indus-trial technology for mixing, size re-

duction, drying and agglomeration.“We use this technology along with

a comprehensive understanding of cus-tomers’ application to develop custom-ised systems across the food, chemi-cal and mineral industries,” said Mike White, director of international sales operations, Bepex.

“We look forward to more actively ap-plying Bepex technology to food process-ing applications in Australia with the help of iBulk. We believe our ability to address complex process needs combined with

their focus on quick response time and industry know-how will position both companies to offer customers the best possible system for many applications.”

“Bepex already has a history of instal-lations in Australia,” explained Tony Web-ber, managing director, iBulk Solutions.

“With our appointment, we can of-fer first hand support for agglomeration, compacting and size reduction require-ments. Combined with iBulk’s track re-cord in screening, feeding, mixing and drying technology, the addition of Bepex completes the range.”

Bepex International has roots dating

back to the early 1900s with companies such as Strong-Scott, Komarek Greaves and Rietz Manufacturing.

Seeing an opportunity to combine these complimentary technologies Ber-wind Corporation acquired all three brands and reintroduced the line of tech-nology as Bepex in the 1970s.

In 1993 the Bepex Corporation was acquired by the Hosokawa Micron Group which held the company until 2004 when a management buyout saw the formation of Bepex International LLC.

Contact: www.ibulk.com.au

CMA, which has for a long time been involved with BeltCon, an interna-

tional conveyor conference, says the first SafeCon event is designed to ad-dress safety in conveying, an often ne-glected topic which it says “is attracting increased interest as the number of con-veyor and splicing accidents continues to grow in response to an expanding ma-terials handling industry.”

SafeCon will serve as a platform for constructive examination and discus-sion of the many safety aspects sur-rounding the design, operation and maintenance of conveyor systems, the association says.

“Over the past few years, the CMA has held regular short symposia on safety matters, and SafeCon is a natural progression to a more formalised, com-prehensive event.”

CMA plans to hold SafeCon on a bi-ennial basis, alternating every two years with Beltcon. The first SafeCon is sched-uled for Johannesburg, South Africa

from 21-22 October 2014.The conference will aim to provide

information relating to the general en-vironment around conveyor systems with particular emphasis on belt splic-ing. Current legal requirements will be examined; accident case studies will be presented and analysed with the inten-tion of gleaning information which adds to the body of knowledge and thus to improved safety around belt conveyors; accident statistics involving belt convey-ors will be reviewed to identify hazards and risks during operation and main-tenance; and designers will be encour-aged to adopt a philosophy incorporat-ing the principles of safe development, operation and maintenance in conveyor installation design.

Several papers have already been identified. However, the organisers are encouraging potential contributors to get in touch.

SAFETY

Contact: www.CMASA.co.za

Conveyor safety meet scheduled for October 2014

Conveyor Manufacturers Association (CMA), the South African society which includes in its membership Takraf, ThyssenKrupp, ABB, Voith and dozens of others, has announced SafeCon, a two-day conference focused on safety issues related to belt conveying.

The first biennial SafeCon will examine safety matters relating to the construction and operation of conveyor belts.

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GEARS, MOTORS & DRIVES

Now often billed as an island paradise, the Zhoushan Ar-chipelago comprises more than 1,300 scenic isles and is-

lets off the Chinese eastern seaboard.The Zhoushan ports are the region’s chief entrepôts for

all sorts of goods. They include industrial commodities such as iron ore, mostly destined for Wuhan Iron and Steel Group (WISCO), China’s oldest steel giant headquartered about 400 miles inland up the Yangtze.

While WISCO operates a number of mines in China, it sources most of its iron ore from abroad. Water transport on the Yangtze is the obvious, highly efficient, and economic choice, but ore imports for the industrial group usually arrive in the East China Sea in very large ocean-going vessels.

Inevitably, these must call first at a deep water coastal port, where cargo can be offloaded and transferred onto smaller ships. Even on the lower reaches of the Yangtze, large freighters would be stopped cold at the river bridge in Nan-jing. 10,000 dwt ships, on the other hand, can pass under it and make their way onwards to Wuhan.

New port with super-size machineryIn line with China’s steel industry, demand for WISCO’s prod-ucts has grown exponentially over the course of the last dec-ade. As raw materials are needed in Wuhan in ever growing quantities, establishing additional unloading and loading bas-es along the coast – preferably under WISCO’s own direction – has become a pressing issue.

Partnering with two co-financiers, WISCO took a stake in a new port construction project in the island town of Wugang, in the south of the Zhoushan Archipelago. All facilities at Wu-gang Port were built in 2010 and 2011.

As inspections, test runs and approvals for full-scale opera-tion concluded in mid-2012, Wugang now serves as WISCO’s main transhipment terminal with a cargo throughput of up to 30 million tons of ore per year.

The port includes an unloading berth boasting a water depth of 27m, where huge ships carrying up to 300,000 dwt can arrive. Three loading berths are 15m deep and can accom-modate smaller ships – one will fit a 50,000 dwt class vessel,

Geared motors for Chinese transhipment port

China’s Wuhan Iron and Steel Group (WISCO) has built a new transhipment port, called Wugang Port, which handles 30 million tons per annum of iron ore. The facility employs over 170 geared motors from NORD Drivesystems.

Capable of handling up to 5,000 tons of iron ore per hour, the ship loaders and unloaders at Wugang Port are the largest machines of this kind for civil use in China.

Large stacker-reclaimers service the iron ore stockyards at the port.

WISCO had heavy-duty NORD geared motors installed as traveling drives for port machinery

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two are cut out for 10,000 dwt ships.Designed to handle up to 5,000 tons of ore per hour, the

ship loaders, ship unloaders, and bucket-wheel stackers in-stalled along the berths and yards in Wugang Port are all the biggest equipment of their kind for civil use in China.

Reliable drive solutions are essentialWISCO says its key requirement for all heavy machinery was high reliability and low maintenance characteristics. It takes at least one hour for a maintenance crew coming from the coast or Zhoushan Zhujiajian Airport to get to Wugang by ship, plus possible delays in bad weather, which might also rule out helicopters as an alternative.

In any case, serious problems with machinery would very likely incur heavy costs for repairs and, of course, disturbanc-es of unloading and loading processes due to dysfunctional equipment.

NORD Drivesystems was commissioned to supply heavy duty geared motors. Over 170 units were integrated into cranes and con-veyor systems sourced from several different Chinese OEMs.

Geared motors for demanding conditionsThree very large clamshell unloaders (2,500 t/h) serve the 300,000 dwt berth. These machines incorporate a total of 72 three-stage bevel gear units from NORD.

Two massive mobile ship loaders (5,000 t/h) are equipped with 16 three-stage bevel geared motors and a two-stage heli-cal bevel gear unit each. These drives are capable of moving these large systems along the berth on tracks to position them as needed to access various areas of operation.

Another 72 three-stage bevel gear units are installed in three bucket-wheel stacker-reclaimers (500 t/h) for the ore stockyards at the port.

Designed to move large loadsAccording to NORD’s publicity, all gear units are manufac-tured from a single housing block.

“This design ensures optimal resistance to axial and radial forces as well as high efficiency, high output torques, low-noise operation and minimal maintenance efforts during a long ser-vice life.

“Solutions for cranes and trolleys feature a wide choice of gear ratios. The manufacturer supplies two or three-stage designs with a hollow or solid shaft as required. Users can choose between models with a foot mount, flange models, and shaft-mounted models.

“All models are also available as explosion-protected (ATEX) versions if required.”



NORD drives move the loaders on tracks along the berth.

AbstractThis paper presents a case study of a fatigue failure of a rotating shiploader spout component. Within three years of operation, extensive cracking was found and the component was taken out of ser-vice for replacement. This paper details the investigation, which also provided in-sight into the methodology required for a re-design.

The investigation lead to the conclu-sion that although the design of the com-ponent considered both static and dy-namic effects of the loading operations, it underestimated the number of loading cycles and did not take into account the additional stress ranges resulting from the rotations of the component.

In order to determine the underlying cause of the fatigue failure, service load-ings were measured on the replaced com-ponent. This revealed a strong correla-tion between the magnitude of measured strains and the slew angle of the spout. The stresses were unable to be meas-ured at the critical locations which had cracked; therefore a finite element model of the shiploader was used, to derive a relationship between the slew angle, and the stress at each critical location.

A rainflow cycle count was per-formed on the measured slew angle data, which had been converted to an equiva-lent stress level. A fatigue life assessment of the component was then undertaken, combining the effects of both the load-ing operations and the spout rotations. Correlation of the predicted life, and the actual life, provided confidence that the methodology employed in the fatigue life estimation is correct, and the same meth-odology can be applied to the re-design.

IntroductionDuring a routine inspection on a ship-loader, severe cracking was discovered in the rotor component of the spout assem-bly. The rotor component was fabricated from AS/NZS 3678-350 structural steel (ISO E355B equivalent). The shiploader had been in service for approximately three years. Fig. 1 shows the shiploader spout assembly, and the terminology used for each component. A replacement rotor was manufactured based on the original

design with only a minor modification to the stiffening gussets. The replacement rotor was installed, and the shiploader was returned into service. An investiga-tion was launched to determine the cause of the fatigue failure, and to determine an appropriate methodology for a re-design.

Inspection of failed rotorA visual inspection was conducted on the failed rotor to determine possible loca-tions of crack initiation and the failure mechanisms. Fig. 2 shows the failed ro-tor. Almost all of the stiffening gussets were found to be cracked, with around one third completely fractured. Fig. 3 shows one of the fractured gussets. The fracture has extended back into the ro-tor shell, continuing a length around the circumference. From the observations of the failed rotor, the cracks appear to have initiated at the outside edge of the

gusset plate weld toe, as presented in Fig. 3. However no metallurgical examination was conducted to confirm this statement.

An inspection was carried out on the spout rotor slew bearing, which connects the stator to the rotor. Sub-surface initi-ated fatigue, in the form of spalling and flaking, was observed on the inner and outer ring raceways. This is usually a re-sultant of excessive loading, which caus-es high Hertzian contact stresses. It was noted that a possible contributing factor was a non-planar deformation pattern around the circumference of the bearing support structure, resulting in excessive deflection of the slew bearing.

Instrumentation of shiploaderThe identified potential fatigue crack initiation areas at the stiffening gussets were unable to be accessed on the as-sembled rotor due to obstructions from other components. Therefore the strains/stresses to be used in the fatigue life as-sessment could not be directly measured with strain gauges. In order to capture the in-service loading conditions, a num-ber of areas were instrumented.

The instrumentation aimed to cap-ture three distinct loadings in the spout rotor; vertical load, slewing torque and dynamic effects. It was intended that these loadings would be utilized in a fi-nite element analysis (FEA) model to de-termine the stresses at the gussets.

To measure the vertical loads, uniaxial strain gauges were mounted on each of the spout pipe support brackets (channels G0 and G1), and a rosette strain gauge was applied on the tilt-ram bracket (channels G2, G3 and G4). A rosette strain gauge was

14

A case study into a fatigue failure of a rotating shiploader component

Aurecon’s* Daniel Blanks and Patrick Torok investigate the fatigue failure of a rotating shiploader’s spout component in this peer-reviewed case study.

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Figure 1: Shiploader spout assembly.

Figure 2: Failed rotor.Figure 3: Fractured stiffening gusset. The arrow indicates possible origin.


applied on the rotor ring beam to meas-ure any shear resulting from a slewing torque (channels G5, G6 and G7). Triaxial accelerometers were installed on the spout pipe to measure any dynamic effects.

A camera was also installed on the shiploader boom, centered on the spout pipe. This was programmed to take a pho-tograph every second, and a time stamp synchronized the photographs with the other instrumented data.

Fig. 4 shows the locations of each of the strain gauges on the rotor. Fig. 5 shows an installed strain gauge on the right spout pipe support, corresponding to channel G0.

Along with the applied instrumenta-tion, data from the pre-existing SCADA

data acquisition system was collected. The main data reported was the spout pipe slew angle and the conveyor belt weigher tonnages.

The instrumentation was carried out over a period of three weeks, which was deemed sufficient time to capture a representative number of ship loadings. The strain data, photographs and SCA-DA data were compiled into a custom built data visualization software pack-age using LabVIEW.

Review of instrumentation dataThe three weeks of recorded data was reviewed in an attempt to derive the op-erational loadings. However it was soon discovered that the measured strains

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Figure 4: Strain gauge locations.

Figure 5: Spout pipe support strain gauge – G0. Figure 6: G0 strain and spout slew angle vs. time.

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were not trending as expected. Fig. 6 shows a two hour period of data, plot-ting the G0 strain, and the spout slew angle, versus time.

Rather than being influenced primar-ily by the material loading, a strong cor-relation was observed between the meas-ured strains and the rotational slew angle of the spout pipe. As can be seen in Fig. 6, the large changes in the strain appear to be as a direct result of changes in spout slew angle. The smaller changes in strain, which aren’t related to the changes in spout slew angle, are attributed to the material impact loads.

To further investigate the correlation, the spout slew angle was plotted against the measured strains, as shown in Fig. 7. As can be seen, a clear sinusoidal relation-ship exists.

The majority of the strain gauges were influenced by the spout pipe slew angle, although it was noted that the gauges on the tilt-ram bracket (channels G2, G3 and G4) were less sensitive.

Finite element analysisA finite element model of the shiploader spout components was used to deter-mine the source of the spout pipe slew angle sensitivity. Using the Strand7 Ap-plication Programming Interface (API), a program was written to simulate the spout pipe rotations. The spout pipe was incrementally rotated and the elastic static model solved through 360 degrees.

During these analyses the only loading applied was gravity loading. No other external loads (e.g. material flow or dy-namic effects) have been considered.

The resulting strains/stresses were recorded at each increment, along with an exported image of the stress contours. The strains at the location corresponding to the G0 strain gauge versus the spout slew angle were plotted, and overlaid on the measured strain gauge data, as seen in Fig. 7. A good correlation was found, giving confidence in the validity of the FEA model.

Upon playing back the rotations of the spout pipe, it became clear that the cyclic stresses at G0/G1 were not due to a cyclic vertical load, but due to the spout pipe support plate bending. As such, the true vertical load in the plate was not able to be derived (as no secondary strain gauge had been installed on the inside face to remove the bending component).

Fig. 8 compares the plate-yy stress-es in the stator/rotor at 140°, 180° and 220° (note: these images are captured in a frame relative to the rotor; hence the stator appears to be the component rotating).

As can be seen the location of the highest stresses follow the rotation. This is considered to be as a result of insuf-ficient stiffness in the stator and rotor components. The load path travels from the stator supports directly down into the rotor, rather than being distributed more

evenly around the rotor circumference. This agrees with the comments made in the slew bearing inspection, where a pos-sible cause for the observed bearing dam-age was inadequate structural support.

The stress at the weld toe of a nomi-nal gusset was recorded at each slew an-gle increment. At 70° and 250° the stress at the weld toe is -27 MPa, reversing to 60 MPa at 160° and 340°, giving a stress range of 87 MPa. A sinusoidal function was derived to describe this relationship between the spout slew angle and the stress in the weld toe. This function was then applied to the recorded spout slew angle time-history data from a typical day of loading.

Using the FEA, the stress at the weld toe due to the material impact loads was calculated to be 229 MPa for the maxi-mum possible discharge rate. The belt weigher time-history data, for the typical day of loading, was then proportioned to this stress/discharge rate.

These two stress time-histories were then added, to derive the stress in the weld toe due to a combination of the spout rotations and material impact loads, over day of loading.

Preliminary fatigue life assessmentA preliminary fatigue life assessment was carried out on the rotor compo-nent. The rainflow cycle counting method [1] was applied to the weld toe


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Figure 7: Spout pipe slew angle vs. G0 strains for 24 hours.

Figure 8: Plate yy-stresses [MPa] at 140°, 180° and 220°.

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stress time-history data. The fatigue life assessment method given in BS 7608 [2] was then used to evaluate the predicted life of the stiffening gusset. Although this standard has been superseded, it allows the user to select a different number of standard deviations from the mean. By selecting the mean stress vs. life curve (i.e. zero standard deviations) one can correlate the life to actual ser-vice failures. This leads to the “most probable” failure case.

The identified critical area was the weld toe, which has been categorized as a class F2 detail (T-butt joint type 8.4) as per BS 7608. Using the class F2 stress-life curve, with a standard deviation of 0, the mean number of cycles to failure for each stress range was then determined. The cumulative damage (Miner’s) summation was applied, using the cycle count for each stress range to calculate the total number of repetitions to failure. Table 1 shows the complete Miner’s summation for the combined stress time-history. As can be seen, the life is driven by low cy-cle, high stress range fatigue, with over half of the fatigue damage caused by the

top two stress ranges.Table 2 lists the results of the prelimi-

nary fatigue life assessments, for the indi-vidual and combined load cases.

The loading cases for the spout rota-tions/material flow alone gave fatigue lives of 49.3 and 5.3 years respectively. The combined spout rotation and mate-rial flow loading resulted in a 2.7 year fatigue life. A number of other factors have not been included in the fatigue cal-culation such as additional loading cases, consideration of multiaxial fatigue and the effects of the corrosive salt water en-vironment. These additional factors will further reduce the fatigue life.

Review of original designA review was carried out on the original design of the shiploader spout compo-nents. It was found that the original de-sign had considered the required static and dynamic loading conditions; how-ever upon comparing the number of de-sign loading cycles to the actual meas-ured cycles, it was revealed that they had been underestimated by more than a factor of five. As can be seen in Table

2, the predicted life to failure under the actual material flow loading alone is 5.3 years, far less than the 50 year required design life.The stiffening gussets had been joined to the ring beam flange with partial penetra-tion butt welds. It was identified that the original purpose of these gussets was to simply stiffen the circumference of the ro-tor web. However from the FEA it can be seen that the gussets directly carry the cy-clic vertical loads. It is noted that the use of a full penetration butt weld in this location would increase the fatigue life by over 40%.The original design had also not con-sidered the additional fatigue damage due to the spout rotations. Whilst the design had calculated the fatigue life at various spout slew angles to find the critical angle, no loading case was included to actually capture the stress ranges in the rotor as the spout rotates. As can be seen in Table 2, inclusion of the spout rotation stresses have a sig-nificant impact on the fatigue life and should not be ignored.

ConclusionsAn investigation was undertaken to de-termine the cause of a fatigue failure of a rotating shiploader spout component. Through instrumentation of the re-placed component, a strong correlation was found between the magnitude of measured strains and the slew angle of the spout. This lead to the discovery of a large stress range induced in the criti-cal areas during unloaded rotations of the spout, which had not been consid-ered in the original design, along with an underestimation of the design loading cycles and non-optimal weld detailing. A fatigue life assessment of the component was undertaken, considering both the loading operations and the spout rota-tions. Correlation of the predicted life, and the actual life, provided confidence that the (i) methodology employed in the fatigue life estimation is correct, and (ii) the same methodology can be ap-plied to the re-design.

References[1] ASTM E1049-85, Standard Practices for Cycle Counting in Fatigue Analysis, American Society for Testing and Materi-als, 2005[2] BS 7608, Code of practice for Fatigue design and assessment of steel structures, BSI, 1993

*Aurecon, 23 Warabrook Boulevard, Warabrook, New South Wales 2304, Australia

Contacts: [email protected] [email protected]

Table 1: Combined stress time-history Miner’s summation.

Table 2: Results of the preliminary fatigue life assessments.

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NEWS

Telestack, founded in 1999 and bought by senior managers Malachy Gribben and Adrian McCutcheon in 2008, designs

and builds mobile bulk material handling systems. The company markets its products throughout the world with a combination of direct sales and distribution through dealers.

Telestack employs 100 staff and turns over roughly $30m per annum. The business has grown fourfold since being taken over by Messrs Gribben and McCutcheon and announced a $5m ex-pansion to its premises in 2013.

Astec is a far larger business with annual revenues of around $1.1bn. Despite that, Malachy Gribben of Telestack told the Ulster Herald that the Irish company will open doors for Astec globally, particularly customers at seaports and river terminals.

“The core part of our business is loading and unloading of boats with coal, iron ore or grain and that’s a market sector that Astec are not into, so that’s one of the attractions for them, to expand their portfolio,” he said.

Gribben and McCutcheon will stay with the business and Gribben sees the takeover as a handy way to grow more quick-ly, while re-assuring customers of a deep-pocketed parent.

“We have owned the business since May 2008 and we have had ambitious growth plans for the business for over the next five to ten years, which was going to take a lot of investment and one of the drivers behind the acquisition is that it allows us to ac-celerate our growth development plans, which obviously secures the jobs immediately here,” he said.

“Whilst as an independent company Telestack was financially strong, the high profile blue chip customers we are dealing with

around the world now feel this is a very good thing for them,” Gribben said. “It cements their confidence that we are part of a large global multi-national company, which is financially strong, has no debts and has a global footprint around the world.”

Continuity is assured with Telestack management staying on.Gribben told the Ulster Herald that he will remain with the

company along with Adrian McCutcheon. “It was critical to the deal that they wanted us to stay on and we wanted to stay on. All management will be staying on, including myself and Adrian.

“It’s been a great run for us. Since we bought the business in 2008, we have invested a lot of time and money in it. We have grown the business, and we want to keep going on with that rapid growth path and this transaction helps us to do that, so it’s great news for everybody.”

Benjamin G. Brock, chief executive officer of Astec, said the transaction would be immediately accretive to his company’s earnings. He anticipated that synergies between Telestack and Astec’s aggregate product lines would benefit both companies.

“We are excited to welcome Telestack to the Astec Industries family of companies,” said Brock. “Telestack and Astec share many core business values, such as a commitment to customer service and providing the most innovative products for the indus-tries we serve – infrastructure, mining and energy.

“With this acquisition, we have further demonstrated our commitment to growth in not only these industries but in inter-national markets as well. Telestack will help us provide a broader product line to all of the industries mentioned in addition to ma-terial handling at ports around the globe.

Astec Industries buys Telestack for US$36mAstec Industries of Chattanooga, Tennessee – a US manufacturer of equipment for asphalt road building, aggregate processing, oil, gas and water well drilling and wood processing – has bought Telestack of Omagh in Northern Ireland.

Contact: www.telestack.com

Some of Telestack’s greatest hitsABHR has written about some of Telestack’s more interesting projects over the years.

Recently, Telestack won an award for innovative technology at the International Bulk Journal (IBJ) Awards held in Paris in

November 2013. The company provided steel and mining compa-ny Arcelor Mittal with an innovative mobile shiploading system.

Telestack believes the system offers the shortest hatch change time in the mobile shiploader industry, thus providing the customer with added efficiencies.

The TS2058 All Wheel Travel Mobile Shiploader can load iron ore at a rate of 2,000tph. It can load vessels with a freeboard height of up to 16m, and a beam of 43m.

“One of the drivers behind the acquisition is that it allows us to accelerate our growth development plans,” Malachy Gribben of Telestack

Benjamin G. Brock, chief executive officer of Astec, said the transaction would be immediately accretive to his company’s earnings.

Telestack’s TS2058 can load iron ore at a rate of 2,000tph for customer Arcelor Mittal. Telestack won an IBJ award for this application.

NEWS

Telestack told IBJ that “In the first 12 months our custom-er loaded approximately 3.5mt with the Telestack system. The unique mobility of the system allows Arcelor Mittal to quickly move from hatch to hatch and when loading is complete, the entire system is easily relocated away from the quay side to free up valuable ground space.”

At Port Kembla, Telestack supplied a mobile conveyor ship-loading solution to BlueScope Steel for coke handling.

The shiploader was Telestack’s TS1242; the truck unloader the company’s TU1015R.

The 1242 shiploader was fitted with an 18m Cleveland cas-cade chute with a 1.2m trimmer chute attached to the bottom, which allows access to all but the very extremities of the hold.

Originally, the customer thought that to ensure constant flow to the cascade chute, which is essential for proper operation of the chute, two truck unloaders would be required.

However, Telestack said that the capacity of the TU1015R truck unloader, and the ease with which the eight wheel trucks can cy-cle through the unit, meant that the one truck unloader could de-liver the required throughput without a disruption of flow.

The Arcelor Mittal application. Telestack’s TU1015R truck unloader being fed by an eight-wheel tipper at Port Kembla.

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This translates to approximately 700m≥ per hour of material running being delivered reliably.

In another application, Telestack Australasia supplied two mobile material handling machines to Streeters Earthmoving, operator of a quarry in Gladstone.

Telestack’s TS842 radial telescopic stacker is being used at the quarry as part of a crushing and screening plant to stockpile crushed rock feeding from a screener. It handles about 400tph of material less than 35mm lump size.

Raw material is fed into a Powerscreen Chieftain 2100T 2 deck screener with a 35mm top deck. Oversize from the screener is fed to a Powerscreen 1300 Maxtrak in a closed circuit that pro-duces around 400tph.

The material less than 35mm lump size is fed to the Telestack TS842 to optimise the stockpile size.

Telestack’s representative said that Streeters initially ordered a Cat 980 machine for this application but that the TS842 offers several advantages.

“By choosing the TS842 over the Cat 980 loader, the custom-er has cut the costs of purchasing, operation, maintenance and employing an operator.

“When stockpiling material, the TS842 optimises the use of space within the quarry as it is capable of stockpiling 40,000t of material at 120∞.”

Telestack has recently appointed new distributors in Aus-tralia. OPS will represent Telestack in WA, NT and SA, while Tricon Equipment will handle QLD, NSW and Victoria.

Contact: Gregory Snodgrass, group business development manager, OPS, email: [email protected]

Shiploading with the TS1242 shiploader at Port Kembla.

The TS1242 with its 18m cascade chute and trimmer loading into the hatch of vessel at Port Kembla.

A TC421 truck mounted radial conveyor being used at Streeters quarry.


For several years, much of the conver-sation surrounding transhipment and

tippling in Australia has centred on South Australian projects: Flinders Ports has its cutting-edge container tippling operation at Port Adelaide; Arrium has its ongoing transhipment operation out of Whyalla; junior miner IronClad continues to de-velop plans to tranship iron ore via bulk containers from Lucky Bay.

Why is there such favour for these methods of bulk shipment in South Aus-tralia? Why, in a country with such a rich bulk export industry, are iron ore and other miners in South Australia resorting to alternative means of getting their prod-uct to market? The answer is threefold.

First, size: Many mining operations in the South Australian region aren’t big enough to justify the construction of a major, landside bulk export facility utilis-ing large scale conveyors and stockpile facilities.

Second, geography: The shape of South Australia’s coastline means that most resources projects are within 150km of the coast. This is unlike the

layout of resources in NSW, Queensland or WA, where, with mines often 300kms from the coast, transport channels have developed over time – which in turn lends itself to the development of large, shared ports.

And third, depth: Unlike Australia’s east coast and much of its west coast, South Australia’s coastline does not drop off steeply enough – into the ocean – to berth big bulk carriers, which often re-quire in excess of 14m of depth, fully loaded, to safely manoeuvre.

The cost of dredging and associated engineering required to build a tradi-tional ‘deepwater’ port in South Australia would therefore be dramatically higher than elsewhere, not to mention the fact that gaining environmental approval for major projects gets exponentially more arduous once large-scale dredging is on the table.

That’s not to say no-one’s trying to build a deepwater port in South Austral-ia, however.

A consortium led by Flinders Ports is in the advanced stages of planning for a

3km jetty, featuring a bulk shiploading conveyor system and associated land in-frastructure, at Port Bonython.

The consortium, titled the Spencer Gulf Port Link, received guidelines for its Environmental Impact Statement from the South Australian Development Asso-ciation Commission in August 2012, and in October 2013, it released that EIS for public comment.

“Providing all required environmen-tal approvals are secured, construction of the facility could begin in 2015,” the con-sortium says on its website. “The build phase is expected to take three years, with the possibility of exports starting from the common-user facility during 2018, subject to financial close.”

After the Flinders’ consortium, the next most promising deepwater port de-velopment was that of Centrex Metals at Port Spencer. But in November 2013, Cen-trex announced that it was also consider-ing a transhipment plan – and in April this year, Centrex chief executive Ben Ham-mond told ABHR that the company was leaning towards the transhipment option.

Oliver Probert investigates the ins and outs of transhipping and container tippling, and gives an update on some of the key projects going on in South Australia.

TRANSHIPMENT, BARGES & CONTAINER TIPPLING

Setting the scene: why so much tippling and transhipment in South Australia?

Photo credit: CSL

“The major thing it means is just one project can justify the port,” Hammond said. “You’re never going to be able to

build a single port that’s optimal to eve-ryone. It’s a good thing that occurs in South Australia – everyone’s so close to

the coast. When you’re all 300km inland, there’s a common corridor, but when you’re all so close to the coastline, the transhipment’s going to allow single pro-jects to justify ports.”

Centrex’s transhipment operation would likely use services from tranship-ping specialist CSL, which is going full force on Arrium’s transhipment opera-tion up at Whyalla, having now devel-oped a faster, more efficient method of transhipment, which eliminates tug boats from the process.

And container tippling continues at Flinders Ports, which has just bought a new Gottwald crane for tippling bulk ma-terials at its container terminal.

In this year’s transhipment, barges and container tippling feature, ABHR pro-files these projects, and more, in an effort to grant a greater understanding of the full scope of transhipping and container tippling in Australia.


A computer-generated illustration of the Spencer Gulf Port Link’s proposed deepwater jetty at Port Bonython – an unusual project for South Australia, which otherwise is a hotbed for transhipping and tippling operations. Photo credit: Spencer Gulf Port Link

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Date : May 22, 2014 3:54 PMClient : CSLProject No : 5124-CSLProject : Adv_HalfPage_Bulk_Handling_ Review

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Transhipping, in the past, has relied heavily on the use of tugboats, which are used to push and pull barges into place for loading or unloading of bulk cargo. But newly-designed transhippers are set to reduce reliance on tugboats in the future, Oliver Probert reports.

CSL’s new technology signals shrinking role for tugs

Arrium (formerly OneSteel) is the proud owner of what you could call

Australia’s flagship transhipping opera-tion. Running more-or-less at a nominal rate of 12mtpa, it is something of a bulk handler’s dream operation.

For several years, CSL has run Arri-um’s transhipment operation at Whyalla, in the northern region of South Austral-ia’s Spencer Gulf. It has included the use of Svitzer tugboats.

During that transhipment process, two CSL barges – the Barngarla and the Middleback – are ferried (by the tug-boats) between Arrium’s wharf and a third CSL vessel, the Spencer Gulf, which acts as a platform at anchor in deepwater.

Capesize vessels berth on the opposite side of this platform, and the anchored plat-form’s conveyors transfer iron ore from the smaller barge, into the bigger bulk carrier.

The barges can be loaded at 3,000tph, and have a capacity of 12,000 tonnes each. The Spencer Gulf platform can transfer iron ore from the barges to the Capesize vessel at a rate of 5,000tph. Given a 12 hour cycle period for each barge, the operation can ex-port at a rate of 48,000 tonnes per day.

Through this process, a standard 175,000 tonne Capesize vessel could be filled for export in less than four days, and Arrium exports about 6.5mt of iron ore, each year, through this method.

But CSL’s new method, which it is also operating for Arrium at Whyalla, elimi-nates two key pieces of that process: the tugs and the floating transfer barge.

With expanded iron ore exports on the cards for Arrium following its purchase of Western Plains Group’s South Austral-ian iron ore assets in 2011, CSL allocated the Whyalla to the export operation. The Whyalla is a modified Panamax-size bulk carrier, which CSL has turned into what it calls a Transhipment Shuttle Vessel (TSV). The modification took a year.

The modified CSL Whyalla can raft up to a bigger Capesize vessel in deepwater, and transfer iron ore to it at a rate of 4,200tph.

“Our plan is to have a couple of these interim vessels, like the CSL Whyalla,” CSL Australia’s director of transhipping operations, Captain Ian Ives told ABHR. “And we’re doing another one called the

CSL’s ‘old’ transhipping method, which it still uses at Arrium’s export operation in Whyalla. CSL’s Middleback barge (left) is held in place by a Svitzer tug, as the platform Spencer Gulf (middle) transfers iron ore from the barge into a Capesize vessel (right). Photo: CSL

CSL’s ‘new’ transhipping method, which it is now running alongside its ‘old’ method at Arrium’s export operation in Whyalla. The CSL Whyalla (left) loads directly into the Capesize vessel Lowlands Brilliance. Photo: CSL

A comparative diagram of CSL’s two methods of transhipping, both of which are currently underway at Whyalla, with the red labels showing the companies involved with each step.Graphic: Oliver Probert

CSL Trimnes; it’s one of our smaller, 17,000 tonne vessels in Europe and we’re convert-ing her to a transhipper; that should be done probably February/March next year.”

But the Whyalla and the Trimnes aren’t the endgame for CSL.

While it’s using the interim vessels, CSL will have a number of dedicated TSVs built, most likely in China, to develop into its next generation of transhippers, which don’t need tugboats to guide them around.

“We’re doing the designs [for the new TSVs]; we’ve got early-start agreements,” Ives said. “We’re doing the design work, and we’re now at the stage where we’re tendering with the yards for the construc-tion of the new vessels.”

Ives says CSL is likely to stick to Chi-na for shipbuilding – as that’s where it spends most of its shipbuilding dollars already – but he says a Chinese shipyard

is not set in stone.“We haven’t discounted other areas,”

he explains, “but we’ve just finished building nine new Panamax in China – so we’ve got the expertise in that area. If we go to another country, then it’s really a matter of introducing that technology to other countries as well.”

While CSL’s new way of doing things might seem like a great idea to most, tug providers will be perturbed to see that they may have a reduced transhipment role in the future.

Ives says it’s just a matter of cost efficiency.

“The thing with the [new] TSVs is you do away with the tugs entirely, and we’ve found [tugs were] more a hindrance for us in Whyalla,” he told ABHR. “But to be fair, we got the tugs at the right price in Whyalla, at a time when they were totally

underutilised – but tugs have become a lot more expensive now.

“We wouldn’t go back to using tugs at all. We would only ever use self-pow-ered, self-propelled TSVs.”

He continued: “We’ve still got the barg-es and the platform there [at Whyalla]. We will leave them there probably; they’re still well-suited for that operation, because the jetties are set up for the automated mooring systems that we’ve fitted to the barges.

“But moving forward we wouldn’t use tugs on our new designs.”

The TSVs that CSL is having built will be able to load a Capesize vessel at up to 10,000tph, Ives said, thanks to the fact that they will be fitted with two convey-ors (the CSL Whyalla has only one).

“They will be fitted with twin booms, 5,000tph on each,” Ives said. “So we have a coverage of six hatches on a Cape. That’s all


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designed to limit the amount of movement you need to do while you’re alongside the Cape. You just slew the boom, and shuttle the boom in and out, so you don’t have to actually move the transhipper alongside the Cape while you’re discharging.”

Once a contract is signed off, Ives said, the new TSVs will have a lead time of between two and two-and-a-half years.

Along with CSL’s work with Arrium, and the potential of future work with Centrex Metals, Ives said the tranship-ping specialist is also in talks with three different potential clients in and around Port Hedland, as well as several potential clients with operations in Africa.

He was, understandably, unable to go into detail on those projects.



CSL’s designs for its new transhipment shuttle vessels (TSVs), which are designed to have a shallow draft, while maintaining Panamax capacity. Graphic: CSL

Azimuth thrusters: the secret to transhipping without tugsThe secret to CSL’s transhippers that don’t need tugs is a German invention called an azimuth thruster.

An azimuth thruster is a propeller, pow-ered either mechanically or electrically,

which can turn in any horizontal angle (also known as an azimuth).

A pair of azimuth thrusters, fixed to the underside of one of CSL’s new transhippers, enables the ships to dock, or raft up along-side another anchored vessel, without the aid of tugs.

With traditional rudder and thruster de-signs, a ship almost always needs tugs to po-sition itself alongside a stationary object, but the presence of azimuth thrusters means a rudder is no longer needed, and a ship can manoeuvre sideways with ease.

Ships with azimuth thrusters still need tugboats in tricky situations, but for situa-tions like the transhipment going on at Why-alla, they’re more than enough to eliminate the need for tugs.

A pair of Siemens azimuth thrusters. Photo credit: Siemens.

Centrex leaning towards transhipment for Port Spencer

Centrex Minerals is likely to choose transhipment over a deepwater jetty at its Port Spencer export project in South Australia, chief executive Ben Hammond has told ABHR.

After initially planning to build a 500m jetty and shiploader out to water deep enough to handle a large bulk carrier, Cen-

trex had a re-think in November last year when it commissioned a Parsons Brinkerhoff study to investigate a transhipment option.

Under a transhipment model, a jetty would not need to go out to as deep an area, and smaller vessels would tranship bulk material between the jetty and a large bulk carrier, which would be anchored in deepwater.

Following the study in November, Centrex did say that the transhipment idea would be a cheaper option, but did not sug-gest that it was leaning either way on the decision between it and the original, deepwater plan.

But now, Centrex is close to officially deciding on the cheap-er, transhipment model.

“It’s likely we’ll go ahead with the transhipment option,” Hammond said in April 2014. “It’s more cost effective. It reduces

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the capital by about half. Not only that, but the operating costs are staying reasonably similar to direct loading.”

On top of the start-up cost factor, Hammond said the tran-shipment option made the port project a more viable one in an operational sense.

“Just one project can justify the port,” he said. “Rather than needing two of our mines to justify the port, now a single project can mean the port can still produce a good infrastructure return, operating as its own company. You can go ahead with a [deepwa-ter] port, but the mine’s subsidising the port. Through this new design, the port – as its own business – is making a good return, charging the mine a reasonable rate.”

While there is no contract in place between Centrex and shipping business CSL, Hammond said the mining company is working with the transhipper while it plans its next steps.

“We’re not contracting anyone at the moment, but we’ve certainly been working in conjunction with CSL to this point. I’m aware of other companies starting to look at similar systems, [but] the advantage of CSL is they’ve already been operating up the road [at Whyalla] and there’s synergies with these vessels be-ing shared between ports.”

CSL’s new transhipper technology – comprising a self-powered, self-docking vessel, replacing the traditional barge and tug arrange-ments – is what attracted Centrex to the transhipment option.

“Under the new design option the transhipper would load cape-class vessels anchored approximately one nautical mile off-shore in a water depth of about 23m,” Centrex said in a Novem-ber 2013 ASX release.

“This depth would also allow consideration in the future for larger vessel sizes if warranted. The transhipper would also be capable of loading smaller Panamax-class vessels required for grain exports.”

Centrex hopes to build the Port Spencer export facility to support a number of its projects in the region.

Its Fusion project, under the Eyre Iron magnetite joint venture with Wuhan Iron & Steel, is currently in its feasibility stage, and would ideally move product 40km by slurry pipeline to Port Spencer.

The Bungalow magnetite project, a joint venture with Bao-tou Iron & Steel Group, also in its feasibility stage, would use a 100km slurry pipeline to export from Port Spencer.

Meanwhile, Centrex’s wholly owned hematite project, Wilgerup, yet another project in its feasibility stage, would trans-port product by road, 110km to the port.

“The thing with these new transhipment designs, it’s a better solution because you’re never going to be able to build a single port that’s optimal to everyone,” Hammond continued.

“It’s a good thing that occurs in South Australia – everyone’s so close to the coast. When you’re all 300km inland, there’s a common corridor, but when you’re all so close to the coastline, the transhipment’s going to allow single projects to justify ports.”

But Hammond clarified that this decision, and his reasoning, doesn’t rule out the port as a multi-user facility.

“Ours has always been a multi-user facility. The other thing with these transhippers is – to handle one project for us we may only need one of the smaller ones (the same as is operating up at Arrium). But our new design actually still extended the jetty out to 10m of water to handle some of CSL’s larger shippers.

“If other people did want to come on board – even using the smaller transhipper we can handle far in excess of what we need, because we’ve got a much shorter transhipment distance than Arrium. Probably a tenth of the distance. So the turnaround time’s a lot quicker.

“And we can always add a second of those smaller ones, and double that production. Or we could move to the larger [tran-shippers] with the 10,000 tonne shiploaders on them, and then pretty much handle anyone in the region.”


Contact: www.centrexmetals.com.au


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Centrex’s proposed transhipment facility at Port Spencer. Graphic credit: Centrex, Parsons Brinkerhoff.


Daryl Gray, Ram Spreaders continue fruitful partnership

Ram Spreaders’ Cameron Hay told ABHR about the company’s strategy and its ongoing relationship with container tippling consultant, and proprietor of Gray Bulk Concepts, Daryl Gray.

“Ram’s focus recently has been to develop models that can be used

with all types of cranes,” Hay told ABHR. “So we’re now able to offer a ship-to-shore crane system, a mobile harbour crane system, a ship’s crane system and a reach stacker system.”

All of Ram’s systems are separately designed, unique to the crane they are used on.

And Hay says the longevity and reli-ability of Ram’s systems has been demon-strated at Port Adelaide’s outer harbour, where container rotating spreaders in-stalled there in 2009 have now facilitated over 4mt of iron ore exports.

Ram worked with container rotation expert Daryl Gray while he was working at Flinders Ports, and Hay says the busi-ness continues to work with Gray in his role as a consultant, most prominently for IronClad Mining.

“Daryl came to us with a brief of what he needed, very much as he did in 2009 [while with Flinders]. We designed that first ship’s crane unit for use in Australia for his project [for IronClad].”

IronClad plans to tranship contain-ers full of iron ore out to deepwater, and then tipple them, using a ship’s crane, into a waiting large bulk carrier. Ram Spreaders’ ship’s crane tippler will facili-tate this process.

Gray’s alignment system is designed to speed up the process of a tippling spreader picking up a container, by using ‘female’ and ‘male’ attachments. He says that this technology can almost double the speed at which a crane can pick up a container, and Ram Spreaders knows that that could be a big factor in future con-tract negotiations with miners.

“If we can have that exclusively sup-plied on a Ram Spreader, and a mining

company is reviewing this – that’s a really critical factor in the decision making,” Hay said.

Ram Spreaders, like its close competi-tors Qube and Container Rotation Sys-tems, is looking to expand its business

Testing of the Ram Spreaders/Daryl Gray design for IronClad’s export operation. Under the proposed method, iron ore will be transhipped in containers to be tippled into

a large bulk carrier at deepwater.

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overseas, and is already doing so.“We’ve got projects on four conti-

nents now,” Hay explained. “We have a customer in Africa – he’s a major iron ore exporter – in his project it takes about seven years to build a convention-al bulk loader (in that part of the world). He’s purchased a revolver system with containers, mobile harbour cranes and dust suppression systems.

“I believe they’re going to be operat-ing at two to three million tonnes per year using that system.”

Hay said the company’s strategy was to split its current and potential clients into two distinct categories.

“I think this industry falls into two categories,” he said.

“The high value, low volume custom-er, who has a number of concerns, such as dust emissions and cargo security. Copper concentrates exporters; those types of things. We have a number of

features we’ll be bringing in to support those. We’re actually working hard on those in the background now, in terms of reducing material loss, pollution re-duction, those types of things.

“[The second category is] our low value, high volume customers, of coal and iron ore, who are all about efficien-cy of operation.”

A potential third category, in which Hay says Ram Spreaders and Daryl Gray could work together, is in the field of containerised bulk discharging.

One of the latest developments from Gray is a ship unloader which will allow an operator to unload bulk solids direct from a ship’s hold to a container, thus eliminating the need for ship unloaders or silos.

Gray told ABHR that the system, which he says works “like a big vacuum cleaner,” can fill a container with a bulk solid, like grain, within two to three minutes.

“It’s not the quickest system in the world, but what it’s got going for it is it’s dust free – when the container lands on the wharf it’s already sealed, we can put it on a truck and we can cart it away,” he said.

“Then you can either empty it and bring it back, or you can actually store [grain] in the containers.”

Gray said the grain industry is the most likely to show interest in the prod-uct in Australia, but says the system is suited to a lot of dry bulk products.

“Most of our ports are next to peo-ple,” Gray explained. “This process is cheap – it’s really just a spreader which allows you to unload ships – and it al-lows you to unload product from a ship in an environmentally sensible way.”

ABHR: Tell me about Qube’s Rotabox.Antony Perkins (AP): Rotating contain-ers is not a new concept. It started 30 years ago doing coal. Then it went silent for many, many years, and we’ve picked it up.

We do a lot of copper, and histori-cally, Qube did a lot of copper through shiploaders around the country at various port locations. It doesn’t matter which port you pick, [in the past] they were

all very dusty and dirty, and usually took two to four hours’ clean-up at the end of every ship.

Plus it was infrastructure heavy with shiploaders, and negatively-pressured, grade-separated sheds. The sheds were expensive to construct and the product tends to eat away the sheds as well; it rots them fairly quickly, because of the acidic nature of some of the concentrates that are handled.

We decided there had to be a better way. We came up with the idea that may-be we should look at it in a completely different way, which has become the Ro-tabox: you put it in containers, you store it in containers, and you tip it out.

The very first container rotator that was developed 30 years ago didn’t have a lid-lifter, and it weighed 28 tonnes, which was huge and heavy. So we were looking at how we could develop a frame that was

One of Daryl Gray’s most recent innovations is the male/female fittings, shown here (male fitting on the spreader, female on the sides of the containers) designed to speed up the alignment of container tippling spreaders and the containers themselves.

Daryl Gray’s proposed containerised bulk discharging system, which uses a vacuum-like system to draw dry bulk into containers.

Contact: www.graybulkconcepts.com.au www.ramspreaders.com

Q&A: Qube’s tippling expert Antony Perkins

Antony Perkins, Qube’s director of project development, spoke with the ABHR’s Oliver Probert about the stevedore’s Rotabox container tippler, the potential limits of the tippling model and the future of tippling around the world.



lightweight (for ships’ gear) and had a lid-lifter to contain dust, because dust on some of these products is not environmentally friendly, and also the product itself is expensive. Containing as much of it as possible was key.

Prior to any rotating containers being operated in Austral-ia, we started working on the concept of the lid-lifting, rotat-ing container.

We’re now up to our Mark 5, which is good for 38 tonne [ca-pacity] rotating. It’s very quick, lightweight, and can be adapted to reach stackers. We can clip it to the underside of a reach stack-er and rotate boxes.

Our containers are kind of unique. We use normal, standard, square containers as well, the typical half-height bulk containers, but we’ve found they crack over time, because they’re square. They also trap concentrate; the C-channels on the bottom of the containers – when you put them on the ground – dirt finds its way into the C-channel on the underside of the containers.

We’ve developed special containers which have no C-channels, and minimal square edges (apart from the corner castings everything else is sloped). So dust doesn’t settle on it; when you put the box on the ground there’s no risk of dirt being taken with the box.

We’ve also developed the Qube Connect system, which is an IT system. We use RFID tags on the side of the box and we con-nect those to the weighbridge at the minesite, typically. So it’s a true pit-to-ship solution.

We do the sampling, it’s all connected by the RFID technol-ogy. We know when the truck leaves the minesite, we know when it arrives at the port for storage, we know when we ship it. The RFID tag, once the sampling is done, records the results of the sam-pling – the concentrate percentage, the moisture content – and all that is recorded digitally. So the customer can see from their office what they’ve got at the port, in which boxes, the grade, the type of concentrate, the moisture content, the weight. They’ve got good control of their inventory, which also allows for some blending, if they require to blend.

ABHR: So you utilise the capability to blend as you fill bulk ships?AP: Yes, it’s possible to do. With ours it’s very easy, because from the minesite to the vessel, what’s in every box is recorded. The weight, the moisture content, the grade – so it’s just a case of do-ing some blending if they have different products. They can tell us how many of each box to load, to tip, to get a consistent blend.

ABHR: Where is Qube using the Rotabox?AP: We’re using it in Bunbury, for Iluka’s mineral sands and iron oxides. We’re using it in Geraldton for quite a few products: nick-el, copper and zinc. We’re using it in Port Hedland for copper, we’re using it out of Townsville as well.

These are all, generally, on long-term contracts, but we use it, occasionally, for ad-hoc work as well; mineral sands, zinc and nickel concentrates, iron oxides and small parcel type cargos.

ABHR: So at Qube’s operations you’re using the Rotabox for higher value, lower volume products, rather than in South Australia where they’re doing a lot of iron ore?AP: Yes. Typically, that’s the case. It’s generally a higher value product.

It can be a higher value product, [and that’s for] when there’s no port infrastructure. If you’re doing large volumes of iron ore, Rotabox, in my view, is not a long term solution for significant volumes.

ABHR: How do you define significant?AP: You’re talking six million tonnes – there’s no way Rotabox can perform that function. One or two million tonnes you can get away with.

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Adelaide is kind of unique, in that it is a container terminal, so it’s got a lot of infrastructure, but it doesn’t have a lot of volume in terms of general containers. So it was able to use a lot of the container capacity at the terminal to do larger vol-umes of iron ore, because the infrastruc-ture was already there.

If you were building that infrastruc-ture purely for iron ore, you would not do it in rotaining containers. You would be doing it in bulk ship loaders, because the loading rate [of a rotaining system] is a lot slower, and it’s a more labour-intensive and expensive to set up method.

ABHR: How recently has this Mark 5 de-sign been developed?AP: Well, as we’re a stevedore, we use this equipment every day of the week. We’re using it, and as we own the design, we’ve been continually refining it. The Mark 5 came about last year, and it, I think, will be our final design.

We’ve improved it to the point where it is a very fast and efficient machine. The key changes from the Mark 4 to the 5 is it can now clip on to the reach stacker.

The beauty of ours compared to oth-ers is it’s lightweight. So we can use it on ships’ gear, we can use it on harbour mo-bile cranes. There’s not many portainer cranes in the country that are used on bulk, with the exception of Adelaide.

Ours can clip onto the underside of a normal container spreader, but we haven’t used it [the ability to clip onto a portainer crane]. The only place we could is in Townsville, where through our ownership of NSS we have a portain-er crane, but it’s just as easy to hook the wires onto the headblock of the portainer crane, it just makes no difference.

ABHR: What’s next for Qube in terms of this technology?AP: We’re looking offshore. Histori-cally, Qube has been an Australia-based company. The Rotabox was developed by us, for our own use in Australia. But a lot of people have copied our design; our lid-lifters.

As I said: rotating containers is not new; it’s been around for 30 years. The unique thing we’ve brought to it was the lid, and the application for concentrate

markets. That’s what we did. Since that time, a lot of people have copied our de-sign, and we’ve decided now to market it as an offshore equipment sale, of the con-tainers and the frame.

ABHR: Is that something that’s started happening, or is that something you’re looking to achieve? And to what scale?AP: That’s something that is happening now.

And the scale depends on the market. We’re tendering on a number of jobs. I think the world has cottoned on to the benefits of rotating containers, and I’m aware other suppliers have started push-ing this overseas.

To be honest, I think any new cop-per, nickel, zinc market will go Ro-tabox, because it’s a cheaper option to sheds, and bulk shiploaders. And envi-ronmentally, it’s more friendly. There are new, large-scale copper mines com-ing on stream, and they’re turning to the Rotabox system, as opposed to the shiploader method.

ASX-listed metals group Cokal has secured a loan worth at least $80m

from Platinum Partners to facilitate the construction and commissioning of its 2mtpa BBM project in Indonesia’s Cen-tral Kalimantan region.

The project area sits adjacent to BHP Billiton’s Indomet Coal Project. BBM’s resource consists of 10.5mt Measured, 13.5mt Indicated and 237mt Inferred Coal Resources, according to Cokal.

In a somewhat audacious plan, Cokal has set out to export coal by barging it 774km down the Burito River, where it will then be transferred onto an ocean-going bulk carrier, for

export to international buyers.A year ago, the bold play that would

defy several significant logistical hur-dles seemed slightly farfetched. Now, with a significant portion of secured funding, Cokal looks poised to begin development on its BBM venture.

Another win for the developers came on December 19, 2013, when the Indonesian Transport Ministry granted Cokal permission to build Purnama Port, the barging terminal where the mined product is to be-gin its long barge journey down the Burito River, once the project is in full swing.

Qube’s Rotabox in action. Photo Credit: Qube Holdings.

Cokal’s Indonesian coal barging adventure: an update

In 2013’s July/August edition, ABHR profiled the Bumi Barito Mineral (BBM) Project, the flagship project of Australian metallurgical group Cokal. Just under a year on, Oliver Probert gives an update.



Cokal plans to barge coal nearly 800km down river from the terminal it will build – Purnama Port – to an export facility at the mouth of the Burito river.

WA Premier Colin Barnett, BHP Bil-liton’s president of iron ore Jimmy

Wilson, and representatives of joint venture participants ITOCHU and Mitsui & Co. at-tended the ribbon-cutting ceremony in late April for the mine that cost US$3.6bn to de-velop, of which US$3.2bn came from BHP.

“This project demonstrates BHP Billi-ton’s ongoing confidence in the strength of WA’s iron ore industry,” Barnett said at the opening.

The mine brings BHP’s Western Aus-tralian Iron Ore (WAIO) business to a total capacity of over 220mtpa. In the longer term, a low cost option to expand Jimblebar to 55mtpa and the broader de-bottlenecking of the supply chain could grow WAIO capacity to around 260 to 270mtpa, BHP said.

BHP’s Wilson said trucking efficiency was of particular consideration through-out the design of the new mine.

“Mobile crib rooms and fuelling stations have been positioned closer to the mine pits so our trucks and equipment spend more time moving earth and less time trav-elling or parked out of action,” he said.

“Our pursuit of productivity gains

and operational excellence is delivering significant value at WAIO. The business is now well positioned to deliver high margin volume growth at a substantially lower cost.”

Wilson also said that an ongoing au-tonomous truck trial at Jimblebar would be expanded to the miner’s Wheelarra operations, using six Caterpillar 793-F trucks in the second trial.

He acknowledged the positive re-lationships between BHP and its joint venture partners, its employees, and the traditional owners of the land around Jim-blebar, the Nyiyaparli people.

“The agreement we have with the tra-ditional owners will build on our existing relationship and will ensure that the Nyi-yaparli people can share in the benefits of the new mine,” Wilson said.

The Indonesian government has also given BBM the tick on its mining licence and the haul road for the project.

Cokal has not delineated its plans for further development be-yond the first phase, but the company’s chairman and chief ex-ecutive, Peter Lynch, has indicated on the Cokal website that the project would be set up with the potential for future expansions in capacity.

BBM’s coal is 70% coking and 30% PCI; it is low ash, low sul-phur and high calorific value, and ready for direct shipping, with-out any processing.

But for all of its promise, especially to a junior miner like Cokal, the BBM project site poses the significant logistical challenge of being 300km inland, and nearly 800km up river from the ocean.

On the upside, however, the mouth of the Barito River is only 3,450km from the Chinese mainland by sea, compared to the 8,000km trek by sea from Newcastle to China, for example.

So Cokal will barge product down the river for export. The transhipping operation comprises three elements, with several transhipment loading-and-unloading points.

Some companies have experienced navigability issues in the Barito River during dry season. The shipping channel within what is a very wide river narrows and becomes relatively shal-low, which has hindered local miners’ deep-draught barging op-erations in the past.

Cokal has developed a plan to circumnavigate this problem,

proposing the shallow-river barges similar to those used exten-sively on the Mississippi River. In fact, some 600mt plies Old Man River in this way each year.

Traditionally, barges on the Barito River have been towed deep-draft ocean going vessels. The Mississippi style push-barges that Cokal plans to employ will be vessels designed for river trav-erses. They are shallow running, in this case drawing a draft of just 2.7m. An added benefit of Mississippi style barges is increased manoeuvrability compared to ocean going barges.

And the most recent news from Cokal, of a funding pack-age from Platinum Partners worth at least US$80m, and up to US$150m, should help see the whole barging project begin to ma-terialise in the next few years, Lynch said.

“The Platinum financing is a significant achievement for the company and puts us on target for production in 2015,” he said. “It builds on the major advances achieved this year, of BBM JORC upgraded to 261mt – [and] the release of the Definitive Feasibility Study, which confirmed BBM is an economically and technically robust project.

“The company has its resources focused on obtaining our final forestry approval which will enable construction to commence,” he concluded. “With this approval and now with financing almost in place we should be able to proceed rapidly into construction.”

Contact: www.cokal.com.au



BHP opens 35mtpa Jimblebar iron ore mineAustralian mining giant BHP Billiton has opened the Jimblebar iron ore mine, 40km east of Newman in Western Australia. Jimblebar is expected to hit its phase one capacity, 35mtpa, by the end of 2015.

A BHP train near Newman, Western Australia.

NEWS


NEWS

David Gill, Flexicon’s president, said South East Asia has been a good

source of revenue for Flexicon since 1975, but that the company has seen exponential growth there over the last several years.

“We have committed to accelerating this growth with the opening of our Sin-gapore office and hiring of a dedicated staff with full access to Flexicon’s corpo-rate resources,” Gill explained.

The Singapore office will be headed by applications engineer Jhuning Chng, who holds a Bachelor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the Univer-sity of South Australia, alongside an MBA from Manchester Business School.

Chng, who has trained on site at Flexicon’s world headquarters in Beth-lehem, Pennsylvania over the past year,

will be responsible for building relation-ships with plant managers, engineers and other decision-makers at South East Asian facilities that handle bulk solid materials across the food, pharmaceutical, packag-ing and general chemical industries, the company said.

The Singapore office will have direct ac-cess to details on more than 15,000 installa-tions of Flexicon bulk handling equipment.

“The Singapore office also has full ac-cess to Flexicon’s worldwide engineering resources, which, together with our Life-time Performance Guarantee, can take the risk out of purchasing bulk handling equipment and systems,” Gill added.

Flexicon opens Singapore office for S.E. Asia

International bulk handling equipment provider Flexicon has opened a facility in Singapore aimed at servicing the South East Asian region.

Contact: www.flexicon.com.sg [email protected]

Jhuning Chng will head Flexicon’s new Singapore office.

NEW PRODUCT

Orrcon’s Lester Kirkwood told ABHR the release of Maxi-Tube reflected Orrcon’s pursuit of continuous innovation and desire

to offer its customers solutions to corrosion issues and sustainability.“It is a real game-changer for us, suitable for a wide range of

steel tube and pipe applications where corrosion resistance is required,” he said.

Independent studies into the durability of Maxi-Tube have shown that it provides at least 50% greater corrosion resistance than traditional batch hot-dip galvanised steel.

Orrcon describes the further features of Maxi-Tube, saying:• it is suited for coastal, industrial, intensive farming, food pro-

cessing and infrastructure applications • it has lower life cycle and maintenance costs compared to gal-

vanised products• it can be welded, painted and powdercoated• lead times are reduced by eliminating steps from the tradi-

tional batch HDG process• with a coating 2.5 times harder than zinc, Maxi-Tube delivers

superior scratch resistance • it has a lower carbon footprint due to reduced manufacturing

processes and a longer product life• it is aesthetically pleasing with zero spangle and a smooth

satin finish.Orrcon is offering a defined warranty for tubular steel

products in areas less than 1km from marine and coastal environ-ments, and Maxi-Tube comes with a warranty of up to 25 years depending on the environment and the application in which the product will be used.

Maxi-Tube from Orrcon for corrosion resistance

Orrcon Steel says its zinc-alloy coated Maxi-Tube, which it will soon launch into the Australian market, can provide exceptional corrosion resistance for tubular steel products used near marine and corrosive industrial elements.

Contact: www.maxitube.com.au

Orrcon’s Maxi-Tube is coated in zinc-alloy, making it 50% more corrosion resistant than standard galvanized steel.


Produced in response to a request from one of the supplier’s iron ore clients, the locally designed and built transport

frames are adjustable for load fixing and are designed to give sev-eral key advantages over other methods for transporting heavy, bulky items such as gearboxes, electric motors and pulleys. They are fully engineered to conform to AS4991 and also conform to the National Transport Commission Transport Guidelines.

The frames come in six, eight, ten and twelve tonne WLL models, are constructed from heavy gauge steel, and are supplied fully painted with side curtains made from industrial strength chloride PVC.

Minprovise says this construction means the frames will last for decades, and can be used by the customer for all manner of goods in transit over and over again. This, the company adds, is a key feature because carted items are often stored on a hardstand, in the weather, for some time after unloading.

The roof and wall coverings provide protection from such weather, and a large, permanent plaque area for signage is also provided, saving time and complications which sometimes oc-cur when trying to locate this kind of information with other systems, Minprovise says.

Wall coverings are affixed to the transport frame sides by strong Velcro, which the supplier says also makes it easy for op-erators to check what is in each container.

“In a situation where an engineer might want to check the num-ber of flange holes on a pump he’s planning on fitting for exam-ple, this instant visual accessibility is a major bonus,” Minprovise explains, adding: “Poly side curtains are much stronger and able to breathe, releasing moisture but still protecting the goods inside.”

The frames’ adjustability is achieved through slotted longi-tudinal rails, which allow the latitudinal rails to be easily slid to snugly meet the item being transported. The fastening points on the latitudinal rails can also be slid along those rails to secure the goods safely and firmly during transport.

Minprovise says another key advantage to the frames is the 6 point rubber vibration mounting system positioned between the support rails and the base frame. These are designed to give the carried item a high degree of cushioning from vibrations and bumps in transit. The supplier says when carting complex ma-chinery like electric motors or gearboxes this can deliver signifi-cant benefits – preventing bearing damage for example.

Ben Casley, manager of offsite repairs at the Minprovise heavy engineering workshops in Maddington, WA is convinced there’s a bright future for these new frames.

“When you sit down and think about all the advantages our adjustable transport frames have over the rest, they really do make sense” he told ABHR.

“And we’re more than happy to customise the design to meet a particular client application. Because we design and fabricate them here it’s not difficult or costly to design and produce modi-fied versions.”

The first production batch of Minprovise’s frames was deliv-ered in March 2014.

Polymer covers add value to Minprovise’s steel frames

Adjustable, steel-framed containers lined with polymer curtains could soon be the industry standard for the transport of bulky items like gears, motors and drives, according to the containers’ manufacturer, Minprovise.

Contact: www.minprovise.com.au

Minprovise’s frames come in six, eight, ten and twelve tonne capacity options.

A six-point rubber vibration mounting system can reduce the potential of impact damage.

Velcro along the edges of the Minprovise frames’ covers allow for easy access, while also being relatively secure.

TRANSPORT & STORAGE

JAC 031

Jacmor Screw Conveyors are designed and manufactured

to the end user requirements.

Scr

ew

Conveyo

rs

Victoria Head Office20-22 Macquarie Drive Thomastown Vic. 3074 AustraliaTelephone: 61 3 9463 0888 Facsimile: 61 3 9465 8788

E-mail: [email protected]

FreeCall 1800 334 005 Web Site: www.jacmor.com.au

The main function of the facility at 78 Sparks Road, Henderson, is for the

storage of long lead time spare parts, ma-chine pre-assembly and administration of the after sales business.

The facility is located on a 1.5Ha site which includes 1,000 square metres of double-storey office space, 3,000 square metres of undercover warehousing fea-turing a 15t overhead crane, and a 7,000 square metre construction and pre-as-sembly yard.

“The warehouse will be able to pro-vide storage facilities for various clients

including the provision for care and maintenance of key components,” said Matt Roberts, general manager services,

ThyssenKrupp Materials Handling.“The facility is located at Henderson

within the large AMC precinct. It is near ThyssenKrupp Polysius Australia’s exist-ing service centre, which allows the ser-vice businesses of both companies to be more aligned, and for the additional op-portunities of being able to work togeth-er to be realised.”

The head office of ThyssenKrupp Ma-terials Handling will remain at 25 Cedric Street, Stirling, WA.


NEWS

ThyssenKrupp opens Henderson parts facilityThyssenKrupp Materials Handling has moved its after sales, spare parts and warehousing functions into a new facility located in Henderson, WA.

Contact: www.thyssenkrupp.com.au

ThyssenKrupp’s new facility.

WEIGHING

McCain was unhappy with the perfor-mance of its existing intake potato

conveyor belt weigher. According to Au-rélien Roques, sales and technical engi-neer, Precia Molen Australia the existing system was unreliable and had not func-tioned properly since installation.

In response, McCain placed an order with Precia-Molen for an FX belt weigher and I400 controller, which could be oper-ated in conjunction with the plant’s own process control system.

The FX Belt came complete with twin load cells mounted on an adjustable frame to maximise the weighing accura-cy of the machine.

“With McCain engineers preparing the site beforehand, the installation was completed over a single weekend when the plant was shut down,” explained Roques. “Precia-Molen engineers then

commissioned and calibrated the new weigher before handing it over to McCain Foods to operate.”

The speed of the belt was established by measuring the belt speed at the con-veyor’s tail end drum. This was slowed down to allow the weight of material on the belt to be increased to present a more accurate measurement of material pass-ing over the belt scale.

Final adjustment and fine tuning of the Precia-Molen I 400 controller was then completed to record and log key in-formation. This information is managed and distributed using McCain’s on-site communication protocol to the compa-ny’s process control room.

“The in-house automated control sys-tem allows the operator to set the desired weight they require for their process,” said Roques. “This records the weight of

material passing over the potato intake conveyor belt scale, passing the informa-tion to the automated controller.

“The automatic controller then adjusts the controlled belt speed to maximise potato intake demand and prevent over or under feeding to the process peelers, ensuring the plant is always operating at an optimum levels of efficiency, saving on energy costs whilst providing increased production performance.”

Tony Rudeforth, McCain’s senior tech-nical shift engineer who worked closely with Precia-Molen engineers, commented, “We now have the confidence to operate the potato intake conveyor weigh scale in conjunction with our own production au-tomated process, which is something we could never have done before.”

McCain Foods gets a more accurate belt weigherWeighing specialist Precia-Molen has supplied a belt weigher and controller to McCain Foods, a UK-based manufacturer of oven ready chips.


The new intake potato conveyor belt weigher at McCain’s oven-ready chips plant.

SCREENING

Contact: www.haveraustralia.com.au

The system and program allows for operations to respond quickly and

directly to screening data to enhance product quality, improve productivity, reduce unscheduled maintenance and extend screen life, all of which translate to more profitability, Haver explains.

Haver Australia’s technical manager, Dominik Vennewald, says the product was designed with the clear needs of the clients in mind.

“We set out to create vibration analy-sis options that will positively impact the bottom line for mines and quarries,” he says. “Our signature Vibration Analysis is technologically advanced and caters to the unique characteristics of vibrating screens, measuring key parameters including speed, stroke and overall performance.”

The system uses eight wireless Blue-tooth accelerometers attached to the outside of the vibrating screen, and a hand-held device, to collect the data. It then optimises the parameters of the screen in a way that particles can find as

many opportunities as possible to pass screen openings.

Further to this, Haver adds, data sup-plied by the system allows for a more accurate monitoring of screens and the capability to conduct preventative and predictive maintenance.

The collection of data culminates in a report which Haver says is both detailed and easy to understand. The report is intended to help operators bet-ter understand the relationship between their feed material, screen media and vi-brating screens.

In conjunction with the system, Ha-ver Australia offers its Vibration Analy-sis Partnership Program, which involves certified technicians visiting each cus-tomer’s site on a regular basis to collect data from the vibrating screens.

Haver says customers get immediate feedback and recommendations for the efficiency of their vibrating screens. This service offering allows for the peri-odical monitoring of the screen over an

extended period of time, and also cre-ates historical data that customers and Haver Australia can use to evaluate per-formance over extended periods.

Vennewald says Haver strives “to maintain a presence with our cus-tomers that goes beyond just the first transaction.”

Haver’s vibration analysis designed for more efficient screening

Material handling technology specialist Haver Australia says its Vibration Analysis System can give efficiency gains to operations relying on screening as a key component in their value chain.

The Haver Vibration Analysis system relies on wireless Bluetooth sensors and a handheld device.

Haver says operators can use the system to make their screening processes more efficient.

Thursday 6th November, Doltone House, Darling Harbour Wharf, Sydney

Bulk Handling Facility of the Year (Resources and Infrastructure)

An award for a bulk handling facility servicing the resources sector (mining, grains, commodities), ports and terminals.

Bulk Handling Facility of the Year (Manufacturing and Processing)

An award for a bulk handling facility servicing the manufacturing and processing industries encompassing, food, pharmaceuticals, stockfeed, chemicals, plastics, resins, and building products.

Innovative TechnologyAn award for the introduction of new technology or improvement to established technology in the bulk handling industry.

Environmental Project of the YearAn award for a project or technology displaying environmental sensitivity and innovation in waste management, site or facility rehabilitation, recycling or energy/water conservation.

Dust Control Technology, Application or PracticeAn award for best practice in dust and fume suppression, management or control; or for innovation in dust control technology, equipment or application.

Best Practice in WH&S An award recognising the implementation of WH&S, ergonomic or risk management practices, policies or technologies to enhance the safety and health of employees and/or the general public.

Excellence in Transport and/or ConveyingAn award for new or improved technology affecting conveying and/or transport systems with positive impact on performance, reliability, efficiency and the environment.

Excellence in the Application of Gears, Motors or DrivesAn award for the application of gears, motors or drive technology in an Australian bulk handling facility.

Supplier of the YearAn award recognising exemplary service, performance and customer commitment by a supplier to the Australian bulk handling sector.

Excellence in Engineering PhotographyAn award for onsite photography of a bulk handling plant or facility, machinery, or engineers at work. The subject is not specific, but may include photos of conveyors, shiploaders or stacker reclaimers. Subjects may include resources and non-resources industries as well as rail and port bulk handling infrastructure. The judges welcome nominations from both professional and non-professional photographers and may, depending on the quality of nominations, choose to recognise each group separately. Nominations from professional photographers will be judged on a portfolio of 10 photos.

Australian Society for Bulk Solids Handling AwardRecognising an outstanding contribution to the field of bulk solids handling. PLEASE NOTE: Nominations for this award are welcome but this category will be judged only by the Australian Society for Bulk Solids Handling. Nominations, including a full CV, should be sent direct to Society chair Peter Wypych on [email protected] by August 15th.

The A.W. Roberts AwardAn award presented to a young engineer (aged 35 or under) who has made a significant contribution to bulk solids handling in the areas of research, design and/or practice. PLEASE NOTE: Nominations for this award are welcome but this category will be judged only by the Australian Society for Bulk Solids Handling. Nominations, including a full CV, should be sent direct to Society chair Peter Wypych on [email protected] by August 15th.

Moderator: CHARLES MACDONALDEditor, Australian Bulk Handling Review

ASSOC. PROFESSOR PETER WYPYCHSchool of Mechanical Materials & Mechatronic Engineering University of Wollongong

PROFESSOR MARK JONESDirector, Centre for Bulk Solids & Particulate Technologies,University of Newcastle

IVAN PRICEChairman, Kockums Bulk Systems

Judging Panel

The Australian Bulk Handling Awards were first held in 2006 in Melbourne.

The event gathers an audience of bulk handling engineers and technicians together to celebrate outstanding performance and high achievement across various facets of their industry.

At the 2014 event, which will be held at Doltone House’s Darling Island Wharf (opposite Star City), there will be awards for: the bulk handling facility of the year, innovative technology, dust control, supplier of the year, environment, WH&S, excellence in transport and/or conveying, excellence in the application of gears, motors and drives, and an exciting new category for excellence in engineering photography.

The 2013 Awards were sponsored by Schenck Process, Integrated Bulk Systems, Tenova TAKRAF, Bonfiglioli, Aurizon, Qube, the Australian Society for Bulk Solids Handling and ConvaTech.

Details of the 2014 event such as judging panel and categories are on the Awards website.

The ninth annual Australian Bulk Handling Awards will be held on Thursday 6th November 2014 at Doltone House in Sydney.

www.BulkHandlingAwards.com.au

Celebrating Achievement in the Bulk Handling Industry

Nomination ProcessWho can nominate...R Individuals can nominate themselves, their company, or their project

R Suppliers can nominate customers

R Customers can nominate suppliers

R Unsuccessful nominations from previous years can be re-entered

YES! You can nominate yourself or a colleague for an Award!

The Australian Bulk Handling Awards

Award Categories

How to nominateThere is no set application form or template for nominations.

Instead, nominations, which can be of any length, should be in the nominator’s own words and should include any photographs,

diagrams or illustrations that might aid the judges’ understanding.

The judges are not concerned with literary merit and encourage all sections of the bulk handling community to “have a go”.

Nominations close October 3rd, 2014 and should be emailed to Charles Macdonald at -

[email protected]

Or posted to: Charles Macdonald, Editor,Australian Bulk Handling Review (ABHR)

PO Box Q1439, Sydney QVB, NSW 1230

Nominations for ASBSH & A.W. Roberts awards close August 15th and should be emailed to Peter Wypych

on [email protected]

Questions?Unsure how to proceed?

Call Charles Macdonald on 02 9080 4443 to discuss a potential nomination.

Share the Kudos – Sponsor an AwardThe Australian Bulk Handling Awards offer a number of sponsorship opportunities to companies keen to associate themselves with the premier event in the bulk handling calendar. Sponsors’ names and logos will be extensively advertised in the months leading up to the Awards, and for several months afterwards. At the gala dinner, sponsors will introduce the winners and present trophies, while enjoying extensive signage and branding rights.

For more information contact Peter Delbridge on 02 9080 4478 or email [email protected]

2013 - 2014 Sponsors...

AwardsBrox_2014_6.indd 4-5 3/06/14 11:43 AM

Thursday 6th November, Doltone House, Darling Harbour Wharf, Sydney

Bulk Handling Facility of the Year (Resources and Infrastructure)

An award for a bulk handling facility servicing the resources sector (mining, grains, commodities), ports and terminals.

Bulk Handling Facility of the Year (Manufacturing and Processing)

An award for a bulk handling facility servicing the manufacturing and processing industries encompassing, food, pharmaceuticals, stockfeed, chemicals, plastics, resins, and building products.

Innovative TechnologyAn award for the introduction of new technology or improvement to established technology in the bulk handling industry.

Environmental Project of the YearAn award for a project or technology displaying environmental sensitivity and innovation in waste management, site or facility rehabilitation, recycling or energy/water conservation.

Dust Control Technology, Application or PracticeAn award for best practice in dust and fume suppression, management or control; or for innovation in dust control technology, equipment or application.

Best Practice in WH&S An award recognising the implementation of WH&S, ergonomic or risk management practices, policies or technologies to enhance the safety and health of employees and/or the general public.

Excellence in Transport and/or ConveyingAn award for new or improved technology affecting conveying and/or transport systems with positive impact on performance, reliability, efficiency and the environment.

Excellence in the Application of Gears, Motors or DrivesAn award for the application of gears, motors or drive technology in an Australian bulk handling facility.

Supplier of the YearAn award recognising exemplary service, performance and customer commitment by a supplier to the Australian bulk handling sector.

Excellence in Engineering PhotographyAn award for onsite photography of a bulk handling plant or facility, machinery, or engineers at work. The subject is not specific, but may include photos of conveyors, shiploaders or stacker reclaimers. Subjects may include resources and non-resources industries as well as rail and port bulk handling infrastructure. The judges welcome nominations from both professional and non-professional photographers and may, depending on the quality of nominations, choose to recognise each group separately. Nominations from professional photographers will be judged on a portfolio of 10 photos.

Australian Society for Bulk Solids Handling AwardRecognising an outstanding contribution to the field of bulk solids handling. PLEASE NOTE: Nominations for this award are welcome but this category will be judged only by the Australian Society for Bulk Solids Handling. Nominations, including a full CV, should be sent direct to Society chair Peter Wypych on [email protected] by August 15th.

The A.W. Roberts AwardAn award presented to a young engineer (aged 35 or under) who has made a significant contribution to bulk solids handling in the areas of research, design and/or practice. PLEASE NOTE: Nominations for this award are welcome but this category will be judged only by the Australian Society for Bulk Solids Handling. Nominations, including a full CV, should be sent direct to Society chair Peter Wypych on [email protected] by August 15th.

Moderator: CHARLES MACDONALDEditor, Australian Bulk Handling Review

ASSOC. PROFESSOR PETER WYPYCHSchool of Mechanical Materials & Mechatronic Engineering University of Wollongong

PROFESSOR MARK JONESDirector, Centre for Bulk Solids & Particulate Technologies,University of Newcastle

IVAN PRICEChairman, Kockums Bulk Systems

Judging Panel

The Australian Bulk Handling Awards were first held in 2006 in Melbourne.

The event gathers an audience of bulk handling engineers and technicians together to celebrate outstanding performance and high achievement across various facets of their industry.

At the 2014 event, which will be held at Doltone House’s Darling Island Wharf (opposite Star City), there will be awards for: the bulk handling facility of the year, innovative technology, dust control, supplier of the year, environment, WH&S, excellence in transport and/or conveying, excellence in the application of gears, motors and drives, and an exciting new category for excellence in engineering photography.

The 2013 Awards were sponsored by Schenck Process, Integrated Bulk Systems, Tenova TAKRAF, Bonfiglioli, Aurizon, Qube, the Australian Society for Bulk Solids Handling and ConvaTech.

Details of the 2014 event such as judging panel and categories are on the Awards website.

The ninth annual Australian Bulk Handling Awards will be held on Thursday 6th November 2014 at Doltone House in Sydney.

www.BulkHandlingAwards.com.au

Celebrating Achievement in the Bulk Handling Industry

Nomination ProcessWho can nominate...R Individuals can nominate themselves, their company, or their project

R Suppliers can nominate customers

R Customers can nominate suppliers

R Unsuccessful nominations from previous years can be re-entered

YES! You can nominate yourself or a colleague for an Award!

The Australian Bulk Handling Awards

Award Categories

How to nominateThere is no set application form or template for nominations.

Instead, nominations, which can be of any length, should be in the nominator’s own words and should include any photographs,

diagrams or illustrations that might aid the judges’ understanding.

The judges are not concerned with literary merit and encourage all sections of the bulk handling community to “have a go”.

Nominations close October 3rd, 2014 and should be emailed to Charles Macdonald at -

[email protected]

Or posted to: Charles Macdonald, Editor,Australian Bulk Handling Review (ABHR)

PO Box Q1439, Sydney QVB, NSW 1230

Nominations for ASBSH & A.W. Roberts awards close August 15th and should be emailed to Peter Wypych

on [email protected]

Questions?Unsure how to proceed?

Call Charles Macdonald on 02 9080 4443 to discuss a potential nomination.

Share the Kudos – Sponsor an AwardThe Australian Bulk Handling Awards offer a number of sponsorship opportunities to companies keen to associate themselves with the premier event in the bulk handling calendar. Sponsors’ names and logos will be extensively advertised in the months leading up to the Awards, and for several months afterwards. At the gala dinner, sponsors will introduce the winners and present trophies, while enjoying extensive signage and branding rights.

For more information contact Peter Delbridge on 02 9080 4478 or email [email protected]

2013 - 2014 Sponsors...

AwardsBrox_2014_6.indd 4-5 3/06/14 11:43 AM


Twin brothers Randall and Brad Lange can trace their family history back

to their great grandparents, Johann and Maria, who emigrated from Germany to Lodi, California. There, they rented a small country home with a few acres where they grew watermelons five generations ago.

As the family continued to expand, so did their property, which grew into a thriving vineyard from which grapes were harvested, crushed, fermented and filtered to produce wine.

Today, Randall and Brad own and op-erate LangeTwins Winery & Vineyards, located in Acampo, California, just a few miles north of Lodi.

Randall and Brad have automated the winemaking process, especially the filtration step, to produce a full line of wines ranging from table varietals to single barrel vintages, in varieties from Chardonnay and Zinfandel, to Merlot and the twins’ award winning Bordeaux blend, Midnight Reserve.

Once the grapes have been crushed and fermented, filtration removes dead yeast and solids (known as lees) from the wine. Since some of these particles can be extremely small, diatomaceous earth (DE) is used as a filtration aid.

DE, also known as diatomite or kiesel-gur, is a naturally occurring, soft sedimen-tary rock that is easily crumbled into a fine, white to off-white powder. Particle sizes range from less than 1µm to more than 1mm, but typically from 10µm to 200µm.

Flexicon system aids winery’s handling of filtration powder

Bulk handling manufacturer Flexicon has supplied a bulk bag weigh batch discharger system to a Californian winery. It is aimed at improving the efficiency and safety of DE powder handling during the filtration process.

FOOD, POWDER HANDLING, PNEUMATIC CONVEYING

A light, powdery material, diatomaceous earth is prone to

dusting when manually dumping it from 23kg bags.

Diatomaceous earth (DE) moves from the bulk bag through the hopper, flexible screw conveyor and downspout to a 1,136 litre tank before filtration of the wine. The completely enclosed system eliminates dust and reduces costs from manual dumping of small bags.

Consisting of fossilised remains of diatoms, a type of hard-shelled algae, it is very light and powdery due to its high porosity, which facilitates the gen-eration of airborne dust when handled. Because of its absorbent qualities, it can also cause drying of the skin if handled without gloves.

DE is added to the unfiltered wine in any of three 1,136 litre holding tanks and is then filtered out, along with the fine particles of lees that adhere to it.

LangeTwins used to buy DE in 23kg bags, which were emptied manually into the holding tanks. Repetitive lifting of the bags, and the possibility of airborne

dust from their dumping and disposal, posed potential safety risks.

To prevent these problems, while also reducing DE material cost, the win-ery installed a bulk bag weigh batch discharger with integral flexible screw conveyor from Flexicon.

The system includes a bulk bag dis-charger frame with adjustable extension posts to accommodate bags up to 1,814kg ranging in height from 91.4 to 213cm.

A forklift positions a removable bag lifting frame with suspended bulk bag, onto a receiving cradle atop the dis-charger frame, and then attaches the bag spout to the hopper via one of Flexicon’s

Spout-Lock clamp rings and a telescop-ing tube interface.

Flexicon told ABHR the clamp ring makes a high-integrity, airtight connec-tion to the bag spout, virtually eliminat-ing airborne dust while the telescop-ing tube maintains constant downward tension on the spout as the bag empties and elongates, promoting complete dis-charge from the bag.

Concurrently, bag activators raise and lower the bag’s bottom edges into a steep “V” shape, directing material into the outlet spout.

The 0.25m3 capacity hopper has a mechanical agitator that promotes the


DE aids in filtration to remove solids from crushed and fermented grapes in steel tanks before aging of the wine.

A forklift positions the bulk bag and bag lifting frame onto the cradle atop the discharger frame.

• The laws of physics work in harmony inside the Olds Elevator.

• As the bulk material rotates, it is conveyed on the static screw as a mass flow.

• It is safer and does duties other methods can’t. In use around the world.

• Free videotaped test of your product being elevated - phone 07 4121 3649

A practical innovation from ‘Archimedys’ in Europe- superior replacement polymer screw modules

- in 4 special materials and in a wide range of sizes

Learn more: http://www.oldselevator.com/modularscrew/

MODULAR POLYMER SCREWOlds network distributes Archimedys modules. Contacts:NZ - Mouats Engineering - 64 7 575-8616 Vic. & S.A. - Kockums Bulk Systems Pty Ltd - 03 9457 8245 N.S.W. & A.C.T. - EMTT Pty Ltd - 02 9623 4744 W. A. Lime Systems - 08 9259 8400 Qld. & N.T. - OLDS Engineering - 07 4121 3649

Olds Elevator... Safer Bulk Solids Handling

Learn more www.oldselevator.com

O ne moving element a rotating casing, revolves around a static helical screwLower energy and maintenance costsDust explosion risks reducedSimultaneously elevate, heat, cool, meter, process.

NEW

OLDS MayJun14_4.indd 1 2/06/14 3:17 PM

flow of material into the inlet of the 7.6m long, 11.4cm diameter flexible screw conveyor, which is connected to the outlet port of the hopper using a U-shaped charging adapter.

The conveyor rises to a height of 444cm at a 45° angle, while the elec-tric motor at the discharge end rotates a specially designed screw inside a poly-mer outer tube. DE gravity feeds from


DE flows from the bulk bag through the dust-tight bag spout interface, hopper and flexible screw conveyor to the holding tank. Bag activators on opposite bottom sides of the bag promote complete discharge. Load cells allow automated weigh batching.

The bulk bag spout attaches to the discharger inlet by means of a Flexicon Spout-Lock clamp ring positioned atop a telescoping tube, which maintains a high-integrity sealed connection to the bag spout, virtually eliminating airborne dust.

Grain Handling PLUS Weighing & Level MeasurementIn the next edition...The Australian Bulk Handling Review will showcase the best and latest in Grain Handling Techniques and Technology.• Conveying – Augers, Bucket Conveyors, Belt Conveyors, Train and Ship Loading• Grain Handling & Transport – This special report will also look at alternative transport

options for local and export delivery – Truck, Tanker, Train, Fixed and Flexible Containers

IMPORTANT BULK HANDLING EDITORIAL TOPICS FOR 2014July/Aug • Weighing & Level Measurement

Technology • Grain Handling Sep/Oct • Engineering Services

– Design & ConsultancyNov/Dec • Dust Control

• Explosion Management

The August edition will also carry a special editorial focus on all things to do with Weighing & Level Measurement in all aspects of the builk handling industries from Grain, Food, Plastics, Pharmaceutical, Chemical Handling, Building Products, Mining and Resources. Also Road Transport, Rail Weighing and Ship Loading• Weigh Feeders, Weighbridges, Load Cells, Scales, Congtrollers, Indicators, Software

Level Controllers, Indicators, Pressure Sensors, Ultrasonics, Strain Sensors, Microwave and Radar, Blending, Continuous Weighing, Gross Weighers, Ingredient Weighing, Batchinging, Blending, Impact Weighers, Net Weighing, Data Logging and Weighbelt Conveyors

If you have something to say, contact Peter Delbridge on 02 9080 4478 or [email protected]

Contact Peter Delbridge on 02 9080 4478 or [email protected]

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the conveyor’s discharge end, through a 168cm long, 15cm diameter flexible downspout that the operator clamps to

the inlet port of the steel tank in use, al-lowing completely enclosed transfer of the potentially dusty powder.

Since the filtration takes place on an ‘as needed’ basis depending on the vol-ume of wine being processed, the sys-tem provides the flexibility to program varying amounts of DE, accurately de-livering the exact amount required for each batch.

The entire bulk bag discharger rests on load cells that transmit loss-of-weight information to a controller that stops the conveyor once the pre-set batch weight has been discharged, and flashes ‘Batch Complete.’ A ‘Low Weight’ indicator flashes when the bag is nearly empty and needs changing.

Once the wine has been filtered, it is aged in wooden casks in preparation for bottling. The lees are spread out over the vineyards where they help the earth retain moisture.

“As a family and as a company, we are fully committed to the concept of sus-tainability,” says Randall Lange. “Return-ing the filtered solids to the ground from where they originally came allows us to complete the cycle of nature.”

Contacts: Email: [email protected] Web: www.flexicon.com.au


LangeTwins Winery & Vineyards produces varietal wines including (left to right) a Cabernet Sauvignon, a Chardonnay, a Sauvignon Blanc, a Zinfandel and its award-winning Midnight Reserve, a Bordeaux blend.

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Grain Handling PLUS Weighing & Level MeasurementIn the next edition...The Australian Bulk Handling Review will showcase the best and latest in Grain Handling Techniques and Technology.• Conveying – Augers, Bucket Conveyors, Belt Conveyors, Train and Ship Loading• Grain Handling & Transport – This special report will also look at alternative transport

options for local and export delivery – Truck, Tanker, Train, Fixed and Flexible Containers

IMPORTANT BULK HANDLING EDITORIAL TOPICS FOR 2014July/Aug • Weighing & Level Measurement

Technology • Grain Handling Sep/Oct • Engineering Services

– Design & ConsultancyNov/Dec • Dust Control

• Explosion Management

The August edition will also carry a special editorial focus on all things to do with Weighing & Level Measurement in all aspects of the builk handling industries from Grain, Food, Plastics, Pharmaceutical, Chemical Handling, Building Products, Mining and Resources. Also Road Transport, Rail Weighing and Ship Loading• Weigh Feeders, Weighbridges, Load Cells, Scales, Congtrollers, Indicators, Software

Level Controllers, Indicators, Pressure Sensors, Ultrasonics, Strain Sensors, Microwave and Radar, Blending, Continuous Weighing, Gross Weighers, Ingredient Weighing, Batchinging, Blending, Impact Weighers, Net Weighing, Data Logging and Weighbelt Conveyors

If you have something to say, contact Peter Delbridge on 02 9080 4478 or [email protected]

Contact Peter Delbridge on 02 9080 4478 or [email protected]

ACT NOW!Send your story and book your advertising for these popular annual bulk handling topics

ABHR House Ad HPH_MJ14_1.indd 1 3/06/14 2:11 PM


US kitty litter manufacturer PURR-fect Solutions (PFS) makes its product from fly ash, rather than the conventional so-

dium bentonite clay source.By using fly ash, an unwanted byproduct of coal-fired power

plants, PFS says its process is environmentally friendly, because it avoids the need for strip mining to obtain bentonite and it reduc-es the amount of fly ash that has to be landfilled by power plants.

Chett Boxley, who obtained his PhD in analytical chemis-try from the University of Utah in 2003 and now acts as general manager of PFS, notes that while other environmentally-friendly litters are on the market, derived from recycled products such as paper, corn and wheat, he says they don’t perform as well as PFS products, particularly with respect to odour control and clumpability.

“Our litter looks and feels like clay, which is the gold standard for cat litter, and it has excellent odour control,” he says.

After PFS was formed in spring 2012, Boxley and his col-leagues set about buying production equipment, and a pilot plant started up in November 2012 which is now producing and selling about 295 tonnes of litter per annum.

For pilot quantities, the process is a batch operation, but a commercial system would be continuous, Boxley says.

PFS’s litter contains about 85% fly ash (a fine powder consist-ing mainly of alumina and silica oxides) and 15% odour-control additives.

The ash is stored in a silo, from which it is pneumatically conveyed to a pan pelletiser. There, the powder is mixed with an aqueous solution that contains an activator to promote the forma-tion of pellets, which range in size from around 100 mesh (140 microns) to 6 mesh (3,350 microns).

Wet pellets fall from the pelletiser into a small hopper, from which they are transported by a flexible screw conveyor to the key piece of equipment in the process: a Vibro-Bed circular flu-id bed dryer, supplied by Millburn, New Jersey manufacturer Kason Corp.

The machine has a 762mm diameter circular chamber that has a perforated plate for a deck. Process material is gravity fed from the conveyor through a 203mm intake port in the top of the dryer and fluidised by hot air that blows upward through the

46

Circular dryer the cat’s whiskers of fly ash recycling

Fly ash is being used by one US manufacturer to produce kitty litter. The manufacturer, PURR-fect Solutions, uses a Kason Corp circular fluid bed dryer in the production process.


Fly ash, pelletised in an aqueous solution, is dried by the Vibro-Bed circular fluid bed dryer to the appropriate moisture content. Two oppositely attached electric motors impart vibration to enhance drying and removal of pellets.

From left to right: PFS’s final kitty litter product mixture, dried material before screening, and fines to be recycled to the pelletiser.

A flexible screw conveyor transports pellets to the circular fluid bed dryer. Operator fits the conveyor downspouting to the dryer intake.

perforated plate. Continuous air flow and vibration separate and fluidise individual particles, maximising the surface area of mate-rial and the rate at which it dries.

The air stream, generated by a 3.7 kW electric fan, flows through a duct and past a series of electrical heaters which, in the case of the litter, heat the air to 112°C. At the point where the duct reaches the underside of the plate it widens to a cone that covers the area of the plate. The feed rate is determined by the speed of the conveyor, which is set by a programmable logic con-troller. The dryer has its own electronic controls, which govern the drying rate by varying the fan speed.

The dryer reduces the moisture content of the pellets from about 5wt% to 0.3wt%, with a residence time of “a few minutes,” says Boxley.

“There is no subsequent agglomeration in the dryer, which is very important for us,” he says. The machine can process up to 9,000 tonnes of litter a year, working an eight-hour shift. “Right now we are operating at only about one-third that rate, so we have plenty of room for expansion with our existing equipment.”

The drying and removal of dried pellets from the dryer is en-hanced by vibrating the vessel, using two 0.37 kW electric mo-tors attached to opposite sides of its exterior.

As the pellets dry, the vibration causes them to migrate across the plate in a circular, radial pattern into the discharge port at the chamber periphery.

After the pellets exit through the port they fall into a circular vibratory screener, first onto a 12 mesh (1530 microns) screen that retains unwanted oversize material, then down to a second, 50 mesh (279 microns) screen that filters out fines. The oversize particles are reground and the material, along with the fines, is recycled to the pelletiser.

Pellets passed by the screener are collected in bins and manu-ally dumped into a rotary mixer, where the material is mixed with clumping agents and odour control ingredients to obtain the final kitty litter product.

The litter is packaged in 5.5kg and 10kg plastic bags. A larger bag, of 16-18kg, is being designed.


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PFS purchased the dryer through Clark Draney, of Process Control Equipment, the manufacturer’s representative. Prior to making a decision on the fluid bed dryer PFS investigated other types of dryers, such as rectangular fluid bed dryers, turbo dry-ers, and large ovens.

“The rectangular dryer was too large and expensive,” Boxley says. The turbo dryer was “really expensive,” he says, and the ovens were “a batch type process” as well as being too large.

PFS selected the circular fluid bed dryer because its circu-lar configuration offers an inherently high strength-to-weight ratio, employs a light gauge shell and components, and does not require heavy steel sidewalls or cross braces as does a rec-tangular dryer.

“Also, the price was very competitive. This was especially im-portant for us, as a startup company,” Boxley says. He says the machine has required no attention beyond “an occasional squirt of oil to the blower motor.”

PFS is supplying litter to a few regional pet store chains and expects that sometime next year the market will expand to a point where production will have to be scaled up. Boxley’s fam-ily is allergic to cats, so he does not own one, but he says the feedback from cat owners is highly favourable.

Kason’s Vibro-Bed dryer is distributed in Australia by DTD Engineering.


Contact: (02) 6043 1560 Email: [email protected]


Circular configuration offers inherently high strength-to-weight ratio, and enables light gauge shell and components.

Vibration and hot air blowing upward through the perforated plate separate and fluidise individual particles, maximising the rate at which the material dries.

Polymer holds several advantages over metal in the manufac-ture of helical screws, according to Olds.These include improvement of the flow of material, easy

maintenance, abrasion resistance, corrosion and chemical re-sistance, quieter operation, no intermediate bearing, and faster deliveries.

Archimedys’ screws come in variable pitch, constant pitch and short pitch formats; this can be achieved by stacking four standard flightings: T type termination, M type conveying, M type feeding and F type flange.

A standard metallic shaft makes up the core of Archimedys’ screws. Units available in stock are of a standard length of 3m, but exact lengths can be made by assembly and welding. Shafts come in widths of 32, 22, 17 and 13mm.

The shafts are available in steel c35, stainless steel 304, and stainless steel 316 (food grade).

The polymer, which surrounds the shaft and makes up the helical shape itself, comes in four different grades: U1, which is industrial; U2 and U5, which are for food contact; and U4, which is for an explosive atmosphere (ATEX grade).

Olds’ website features an online Archimedes screw calcula-tor, which includes a toolbox to help potential clients define a screw for their application.

“You have access to the material data base, sizes and you can easily calculate power and torque,” the company said.

Olds Elevator picks up Archimedys line

Bulk solids technology firm Olds Elevator has taken up the agency in Australia and New Zealand for Archimedys, a French manufacturer of modular polymer Archimedes’ screws for bulk handling.

Contact: www.oldselevator.com/modularscrew

Clients can build different Archimedes’

screws by stacking four standard

flightings.

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The Professionals in Powder Handling

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Pneumatic Conveying SpecialistsMOBILE Systems

Unload of a standard Containers with the Suck-Blow module. Unloading a modified container

Our primary Test Rig

For full scale pneumatic conveying of all materials. This enables a guarantee of the throughput rate.

A typical use forthe Microveyor,attached to a hopper under afiltration system.

Use clean dryinstrument air toeconomically send powder toa remote location.

Other Major Products: Bulk bag filling, and discharging systems; IBC systems; manual and automatic sack emptiers; flexible wall feeders; silo discharge systems; inflatable seat valves; sack filling m/c’s; vacuum assisted lifting;automatic palletisers, robot palletisers; wrappers and hooders.

IN-PLANT Systems

The flowability of a fine-grained bulk solid depends largely on the adhe-

sive forces between individual particles [Dietmar Schulze: Powders and Bulk Solids Behaviour].

These adhesive forces are due to van der Waals and electrostatic forces. In the presence of ambient humidity, wa-ter adsorption layers and liquid bridges usually are more important. Water ad-sorption layers can enhance the van der Waals forces by smoothing-out the sur-face roughness of the particles result-ing in a reduction of the actual distance between them. Also, chemical species can dissolve on the surface of the par-ticles and react, become rubbery and plasticized. As the particles soften, the adhesion forces are enhanced due to plastic deformation increasing particle-particle contact. With small amounts of “free” water, e.g., due to capillary con-densation, liquid bridges begin to form binding the particles due to capillary forces and surface tension. Under some conditions, moisture-caking could oc-cur causing a significant reduction of the bulk solids flowability.

Therefore, an understanding of the behaviour of a bulk solid in the pres-ence of ambient humidity can be very important when measuring flowabil-ity. The moisture sorption isotherm is a valuable tool for this purpose since

it provides the relationship be-tween a bulk solid equilibrium moisture content and water ac-tivity (or relative humidity RH divided by 100) at a constant temperature.

Foodstuff, salts, chemicals, etc experience different inter-actions with water; thus each substance has its own unique moisture isotherm. In general, the simplest approach for creat-ing a moisture sorption isotherm is to put dried samples into con-trolled humidity chambers at constant temperature and measure the weight gain with time until equilibrium occurs for each chamber.

Two common types of moisture sorption isotherm are depicted in Fig-ures A and B. The isotherm in Figure A is typical of most foods such as cereals: at low relative humidities, adsorption takes place in mono-molecular layers; at higher relative humidity levels, multi-layer adsorption takes place until capil-lary condensation starts.

The isotherm in Figure B represents the behaviour of a pure crystalline sub-stance, e.g., sucrose, salt: generally, crystalline substances show very little moisture gain until the water activity goes above the point where water be-gins to dissolve the crystal surface. This

is sometimes referred to as the deliques-cent point.

If your bulk solid is stored at ambi-ent conditions representing the blue re-gion in Figures A or B, chances are high that its flowability will be greatly af-fected and flow problems may arise. Or, if you are planning to install a handling system for a material that can be sen-sible to ambient moisture as illustrated in the figures, make sure the design of that system is based on the flow proper-ties of the material measured at ambient humidity conditions representing your process.

Using moisture sorption isotherms: bulk solids flowabilityBy Jairo Paternina, senior project engineer, Jenike & Johanson



Figure B: Moisture sorption isotherm type III (crystalline substances).

Figure A: Moisture sorption isotherm type II (most foods).

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The system comprises a custom built modular frame which accommodates

an under slung monorail set up for lifting one to two tonne bulk bags at a consider-able height.

The bulk bags are then placed onto a support dish with an opening to pull the bottom discharge spout through.

The product drops directly into a hold-ing tank where it is mixed by a mechanical stirrer.

Products that flow out of the bulk bag with difficulty are aided by the use of a mas-saging system that incorporates a four leaf plate mechanism on pneumatic rams.

The raising and lowering of the plates acts as a massaging motion allowing the product to flow out from the bulk bag into the mixing tank below, and the frequency

is controlled through timers, or via the plant’s control system.

An important part of the system is the ability to dispense different products with different physical characteristics, removing the headache of transferring multiple prod-ucts through a single screw conveyer.

According to Acromet, the client got an increase in productivity as well as reducing manual handling issues.

“Design works so well that the plant manager has put in a request for a second unit as part of their capital expenditure budget,” stated Acromet’s publicity.

“The bulk bag system installed by Ac-romet has few moving parts, having the ad-vantage of lower plant maintenance costs.

“The various bulk bag unloading sys-tems are designed either as a standard

option or a uniquely designed modular as-sembly system, adaptable to current site conditions, providing minimal modifica-tions to clients’ existing equipment, or fu-ture plant layout modifications.”

Acromet’s client’s plant manager said of the installation: “Our bulk bag dispenser unit is up and running and our team are ex-tremely impressed with its performance.”

Acromet says it also provides the option of on-site installation and commissioning.

Acromet supplies custom built bulk bag unloading system

Acromet has designed, manufactured and installed a bulk bag unloading system for a well known concrete chemical additive producer in Australia.

Contact: Callum Hair, Acromet (Aust), email [email protected]

Acromet’s bulk bag unloading system.


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Ray Hill, managing director of IBS said the firm was opening offices in Chi-

na and Thailand, with pneumatic convey-ing likely to be a strong focus there and in Australia.

“We have a lot of experience in pneu-matics,” Hill said. “We’re basically push-ing that back into the forefront again. Over the years we’ve been doing pneu-matics, but we’re actually going back into it in a bigger way.”

“Our capability includes analysing difficult to handle material, which may involve degradation, contamination, moisture content and inconsistent homo-geneity, which may impair the process.”

To spearhead IBS’s pneumatics ef-forts, the firm has recently hired Joseph Frisina as senior engineer.

Frisina’s background includes 35 years’ experience in pneumatic convey-ing and engineering management. He has previously managed design, manufacture, installation and commissioning of plant and equipment, including the supervi-sion of staff, liaison with subcontractors, engineers, draftsman and customers.

One issue in offering pneumatic sys-tems in varied geographic regions, Hill noted, is the climate conditions which have to be considered in every installa-tion. Humidity, condensation and heat are added variables in a field which already has to consider things like powder den-sity, particle size and moisture content.

Proposed remedial measures such as dehumidifiers or air chillers will be consid-ered to ensure reliable performance of each system installed by IBS, the company says.

“In the past, we put a milk powder system into Malaysia, and because Malay-sia is very humid, we had to use dehumid-ifiers,” Hill explained.

“We also put in a sugar conditioning system in Malaysia, where we had to con-dition the sugar, because otherwise in the night it would solidify in the silos.”

Pneumatic conveying systems vary considerably in their operation, Hill ex-plained, and have to be configured to all of these variables. Operational methods include dilute phase, “which is basically blowing it through a pipe”; dense phase, “where you pressurise the material and it

becomes a higher solid-to-air ratio”; and vacuum, “which is basically where you suck the stuff up.”

IBS’ pneumatic conveying systems may be interfaced with associated plant and equipment, which may extend to loading and unloading of FIBC to silo fill and unloading and weigh stations requir-ing ancillary related equipment.

Hill also said that IBS is very much fo-cused on providing pneumatic systems to businesses across multiple industries.

“We do a lot in the chemical indus-try,” he said. “Also, a lot of stuff like gyp-sum, coal, fly ash, cement. And then of course in the food industry you’ve got sugar, milk powders, grain...

“We’re materials handling experts. The material can be anything. It can be

iron ore, nickel concentrate, coal, bio-mass … As materials handling people we go across the whole gamut.”

IBS operates testing facilities, and offers turnkey project solutions, as well as design, manufacture, install, commis-sion, including service and maintenance and spare parts support.

The pneumatic conveying side of the business specialises in airslides, dense phase, dilute phase, vacuum systems, and fluidised cone discharge.

Hill said the benefits of IBS’ pneu-matic systems include flexibility with plant design, contamination prevention, a compact design and an environmentally acceptable process.


IBS expands in pneumatics, opens offices in Asia

Specialist materials handling engineering firm Integrated Bulk Systems is stepping up its activities in pneumatic conveying, with Joseph Frisina heading up a dedicated division. At the same time, the firm has opened two new offices in Asia.



Systems Phase Density Velocity Prime Mixer Pressure Typical Materials Conveyed

Low Pressure 0 – 1.5:1 20 – 40 m/s Fan 0 – 10kPa Sawdust

Medium Pressure 1.5 – 10:1 12 – 30 m/s Roots Blower 0 – 80kPa Flour, Sugar, Gypsum

Dense Pressure 10 – 60:1 5 – 15 m/s Compressor 300kPa Cement Limestone

Product to air ratio in pipelines.

Upstream equip-ment ranges

from inlet hoppers and metering de-vices to bulk bag dis-chargers, drum/box/container tippers, bag dump stations, weigh batching/blending systems and storage vessels, Flexicon explains, while typical down-stream equipment includes bulk bag fillers, drum/box/container fillers, packaging machines and storage vessels.

All equipment is available to sanitary or industrial standards with manual or automated controls, and is factory-tested for seamless integration with the conveyor and the user’s process, the supplier says.

The Flexi-Disc system moves material using high-strength polymer discs in 10 cm and 15 cm diameters that are affixed to a stainless steel or galvanised cable. The discs glide within smooth stainless steel tubing, moving fragile products gently, quietly and dust-free, horizontally, vertically or at any angle, through small holes in walls or ceilings, Flexicon says.

The system can have single or multiple inlets and outlets, and convey over short distances or hundreds of metres.

“Gentle handling offered by the conveyor makes it suitable for food products that are prone to breakage or degradation in-cluding: cereals, coffees, teas, dried fruits, frozen vegetables, grains, nuts, beans, peas, pet foods, seeds, snack foods and spic-es. Typical non-food applications include bulk chemicals, miner-als, chopped fibreglass, microspheres, regrind, pellets, tobacco and other friable materials.”

Modular system components of 304 or 316 stainless steel in-clude tubing, drive wheel housings, tension wheel housings, me-tered and non-metered inlets, and discharges with and without valves, as well as accessories for wet or dry cleaning, including CIP sanitising.

Flexicon offers free testing in its labs, to potential customers.


Factory-integrated tube conveyor for delicate handling

Bulk handling supplier Flexicon says its Flexi-Disc line of tubular cable conveyors is ideal for fragile materials, integrated with upstream and/or downstream equipment that sources material from single or multiple locations and delivers it selectively to storage vessels, filling machines or other processing equipment.

Flexicon’s tubular cable conveyors are designed for gentle transfer of fragile materials. Here they are shown factory-integrated with upstream and downstream equipment.


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Besides the typical vertical and horizontal movement, wedge-shaped buckets and a patented bi-axial chain design also al-

low Elecon’s buckets to turn corners.“No other conveying system in the world is as flexible as

the Elecon,” Australis says. “This three-axis capability is a re-sult of its patented chain design and wedge-shaped buckets. Because it’s so flexible, the Elecon system can handle virtually any circuit design you can imagine including multiple infeed and discharge points.”

Gough Econ designed the Elecon as a dynamic system that could be arranged in virtually any configuration, allowing it to turn corners and go around obstacles to the operator’s content.

This, the supplier says, allows operators to fit a conveyor into their existing facility, rather than changing their facility to fit a conveyor system. The Elecon can also be easily and safely raised off the floor, Australis says, allowing operators to maximise flo-orspace for other production purposes.

The system is also designed to optimise discharge capabili-ties. A rack and pinion system, which is also patented by Gough Econ, creates a multiple discharge capability which allows for discharge virtually anywhere in the conveyor circuit.

“In most applications, this discharge is very ‘gentle’ meaning your product should experience minimal damage,” Australis adds.

“The Multi-Axis Distribution System is completely modular, additional discharge points can be easily added, [and] the layout can be altered by adding or subtracting modules as necessary.”

Australis is targeting multiple industries to utilise the Elecon, citing its reliability and versatility.

The Elecon features a stainless steel tubular track with biaxial chain; the chain is very low friction and is a major contributor to the low energy consumption of the Elecon, Australis says.

The system can be designed to be fully open, or fully en-closed with clear polycarbonate panels or sheet metal to provide added safety and product security.

Bucket capacities range from 3.5 to 8 litres. Three differ-ent bucket configurations are available, depending on various throughput requirements and type of product. The buckets are constructed of polypropylene.

“The Elecon bucket conveyor provides customers an alterna-tive for materials handling that allows you to fit a conveyor into your production facility rather than change the facility to fit in a materials handling system,” Australis concludes.

Australis will be exhibiting the Elecon, among other prod-ucts, at the Foodpro 2014 exhibition and convention in Mel-bourne from June 22 - 25.

Foodpro, which is run once every three years, is expected to attract over 8500 visitors. More than 300 exhibitors are ex-pected to fill the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre for the event.

Elecon multi-axis bucket elevator for diverse food handling

Gough’s Elecon multi-axis bucket elevator is the world’s only conveyor that can move materials in all three dimensions, according to equipment supplier Australis Engineering, which is distributing the Elecon under a partnership with its UK manufacturer Gough Econ.


Gough Econ, Elecon’s manufacturer, describes it as the “go anywhere” conveyor, for its ability to transport bulk in all three dimensions: up and down, forward and back, and side-to-side.

Contact: (Elecon): http://www.australiseng.com.au/elecon.php Contact (Foodpro): http://www.foodproexh.com

MOBILE VEHICLE SAFETY


In summary, ADM is planning to sell its global chocolate business, and has concluded a deal to sell its South Ameri-

can fertilizer business to Mosaic. In turn, it will acquire the remaining stake of global grains business, Toepfer.

“We are committed to ongoing portfolio management to re-alize value from our businesses and to deploy our capital where it can best improve returns,” said ADM chairman and CEO, Pa-tricia A. Woertz. “The actions we are announcing are results of this continuing process. Each of these transactions will help ADM continue to improve returns and create shareholder value.

“These actions complement recent demand-driven strate-gic investments, such as our $250 million high-value protein facility in Brazil,” Woertz added. “We are taking action to re-alize returns today and positioning ourselves for continuing profitable growth around the globe in the future.”

The Mosaic Company is paying US$350m for ADM’s ferti-lizer business in Brazil and Paraguay. The transaction consists primarily of five ADM-owned blending facilities and the pur-chase price includes $150 million in working capital.

As part of the transaction, ADM will purchase fertilizer from Mosaic after the closing and will continue to supply cer-tain fertilizer customers in Brazil and Paraguay.

“Our fertilizer team has done a good job building the busi-ness since we purchased our first blending facility in 1997,” said Woertz. “But the lengthy value chain inherent in the fer-tilizer business, along with strong competition from fully in-tegrated companies that have entered the sector, has made it difficult for this business to consistently meet our return objectives. By selling our blending assets – while retaining our distribution business – we will be improving our returns while maintaining our important origination relationships with key growers in Brazil and Paraguay.”

Turning to sweeter matters, ADM will pursue the sale of its chocolate business, while retaining the majority of its cocoa press operations.

“Over the last year or so, we’ve taken significant actions to improve our cocoa business, most notably by significantly reducing invested capital. At the same time, we have also seen industry conditions improve as crop supplies have returned to normal,” said Woertz. “Given improved underlying conditions and the success of our efforts to reduce capital intensity, we see a promising outlook for the cocoa press business and be-lieve it will meet our returns objectives.

“We had extensive negotiations with a potential buyer re-garding the sale of our global cocoa and chocolate business. In the end, we could not agree to an outcome that met ADM’s objectives. Instead, ADM is moving ahead with a process to sell our global chocolate business while retaining most of our cocoa press operations. This approach will position ADM to realize the greatest overall value from these businesses.”

ADM has chocolate manufacturing operations in Hazleton, Pa.; Milwaukee, Wis.; Georgetown, Ontario; Liverpool, U.K.; Manage, Belgium; and Mannheim, Germany.

In its topping up transaction, ADM will acquire the remain-ing 20 percent minority stake of Alfred C. Toepfer Interna-tional for €83 million, representing about 1.1x net book value. Since 2002, ADM has owned 80 percent of Toepfer; InVivo has held the remaining 20 percent since 2010.

“Toepfer has an important presence in critical origination areas as well as growing destination markets,” said Woertz. “For years, ADM has benefitted from our investment in Toe-pfer. Now, full ownership will allow us to strengthen this business and fully integrate it into ADM’s global origination network.”

ADM loses appetite for chocolate, tops up on Toepfer

Archer Daniels Midland’s CEO Patricia Woertz isn’t losing any sleep over the Australian Government’s rejection of her company’s bid for GrainCorp. Instead, the giant agricultural company is re-jigging its portfolio in a chase for higher returns.

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“For these products we drew on a broad knowledge base, which in-

cludes the expertise we gained through our acquisition of the USA’s Legg Compa-ny or our new unit in Finland,” said Ste-fan Hoheisel, head of ContiTech’s Global Industry Segment within its conveyor belt group.

Latest additions to this portfolio

include white conveyor belts, which are particularly suited to the wood and food-stuff industries, where traces of abrasion from black conveyor belts must be avoid-ed at all costs to prevent products from becoming discoloured or contaminated.

The white conveyors are made from white nitrile or styrene-butadiene rubber.

Also new in the product line is a host of innovative chevron belt profiles and variants that make conveying materials along steep inclines more efficient, ac-cording to the business.

White conveyors for foodstuffsContiTech recently exhibited at the SOLIDS exhibition in Dortmund, Germany, where it showed off a range of forward-looking ideas in the shape of new products from its extended global network of sites.

Contact: www.contitech.de/contactlocator


A cross-section diagram, part of

ContiTech’s forward-looking ideas production.

Slewing drives, or drive slew rings (DSRs), are made by manufacturing

gearing, bearings, seals, housing and auxiliary components into an assemble-finished gearbox.

DSRs are suitable for industrial ap-plications such as man lifts, hydraulic machinery, telescopic handlers, digger

derricks, lift cranes, drilling equipment and bulk handling equipment.

Modular input flanges easily accom-modate hydraulic, DC and servo/stepper motor inputs, Motion Technologies says.

DSRs can be single or dual axis, en-closed or open, and come in a range of male drive input configurations.

High speed versions and precision geared or low backlash options are available.

Motion Technologies has been sell-ing and supporting DSRs for several years and says it is now one of Australia’s larg-est providers of motion solutions.


Motion Technologies profiles its drive slew rings

Motion Technologies’ slew drives are gearboxes that can safely hold radial and axial loads, as well as transmit torque for rotating.


One of Motion Tech’s drive slew rings.

The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) will host a powder handling and processing training course in Melbourne between July 15 and 17.

Powder handling training course in July

The course is recommended for peo-ple who have either recently become

involved in the handling and processing of particles and powders, or who have experienced problems in this field. In the past, participants have included chem-ists, physicists, pharmacists, and mechan-ical, chemical and process engineers.

Industrial sectors which will benefit from the training include pharmaceuti-cals, food processing, chemicals, oil, min-eral processing, metallurgical, detergent, cosmetics and related industries, IChemE told ABHR.

“The importance of knowledge of the science of particulate materials, often

called particle or powder technology, cannot be over-emphasised,” a spokes-person for the institution said.

“Difficulties in the handling or pro-cessing of powders are often overlooked at the design stage, with the result that powder-related problems are the cause of an inordinate number of production stoppages.”

The course, which is designed and delivered by experts in partnership with IChemE, aims to provide participants with a broad understanding of the fun-damentals of particle technology with an emphasis on basic concepts and practical problems.

Presenters include:• Martin Rhodes, emeritus professor

of chemical engineering, Monash University

• Michael Griffiths, managing director, Particle & Surface Sciences Australia

• Karen Hapgood, associate professor and head of chemical engineering, Monash University

• Mark Jones, school of engineering, Newcastle University

Contact: www.icheme.org/pt

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A South African software system that tracks the performance of assets at mines and plants is just being introduced to Australia. The system’s Australian backer says a sophisticated database and backend sets it apart from competing products.

Asset tracking system boasts global database


Maptsoft (short for ‘mining asset performance tracking software’) is

designed to allow miners to track every piece of plant in their operation, to en-sure that it is properly serviced and main-tained throughout its operational life.

Initially aimed at tracking conveyor rollers, Maptsoft Australia managing di-rector Matt Mayers says the system has proven to be applicable to just about every asset and component present in a modern mine plant.

“We’ve worked out that this system can be used across all the mining environ-ment,” Mayers tells AJM. “Our focus is con-veyor systems, but ideally that conversation will take us to other parts of the plant.”

Maptsoft works on a system of RFID tags, attached to each asset and moni-tored by a handheld device and scanning wand. By scanning assets around the plant, operators can track their age, loca-tion and condition over time.

“That’s not really anything startling,” Mayers concedes, however. “There’s RFID technology being used left, right and centre, in all industries, including this one.”

Where Maptsoft shines, he explains, is in its backend database system: “All that information goes off to a cloud-based database held on Amazon servers, and can be basically filtered and mined in any way that you want.

“Over time, as you build a history, not only will you be able to see reports on structures at your site, you’ll be able to build a profile.

“We can give you a visual analysis of roller failures or roller life along a single conveyor line. And you might be able to see spikes in a certain section of that con-veyor, which might lead you to detect that there’s an engineering fault.”

On top of that, Mayers says Maptsoft could soon become a global database of as-set performance, by pooling data from all of its clients.

“You’ll get access to aggregated data, so world standards if you like. That’s go-ing to take a long time to fill, but in time you’re going to know what’s the best

conveyor roller for your application, the material handled and the feet per second, for example.”

Mayers is quick to add that client ano-nymity will be maintained throughout the process: “If you were BHP you couldn’t see what Rio are doing up the road. But you’ll be able to see what the industry standards are, and see if you come up to that.”

Maptsoft is also designed to help moni-tor the performance of assets against their warranty lifetime.

“If you imagine you’ve bought a brand new drive pulley for $150,000, quite often

NEW PRODUCT

Screenshot of a page from the Mapsoft asset register, for a pulley, showing a high level of granular detail. This could generate information on the performance of different bearings.

A screen shot of filters for warranty expiration, overlayed with the reports that can come out of excel. This will allow customers to track warranties that are coming due.

it can be hard to keep track of the war-ranty. So we give it a date stamp when it goes into service.

“You can then start to do searches on your database for assets which are set to have their warranty expire in 30 days, or 10 days … it gives you the lead that ‘I’d better go and inspect that, because the warranty’s about to expire.’”

Operators are then better empow-ered to go back to a manufacturer if a component has clearly not performed its

role for its full, warrantied lifetime.“They’ll ask if you’ve had a rigorous

inspections and maintenance schedule, and the documentation on the database will explain that,” Mayers points out. “You’ll have a written log of when it was installed, and when it’s been inspected.”

Mayers says the Maptsoft system has already been deployed in South Africa mines, and the company is now in talks with multiple potential clients Down Under. With the robust global database

yet to be filled out, he says the full value of the product is yet to be realised, but he’s confident in the potential of the business.

“Until people see the uniqueness of the information sitting in the back of the database, and the ability over time to make a better buying decision on all their assets … they’re all in that stage of learn-ing what it is, and what it can be.”

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Kotzur_BHESG13_HP_1.indd 1 2/04/14 3:00 PM

Contact: Matt Mayers, 0400 454 162

Asset visualisation of trouble spots. Left side of screen is a conveyor tail, right side is head end. Every line is an asset. The higher the line, the more incidences of maintenance, so spikes mean there are problems. Users can click on each line (in the system), go to the asset and get all its DNA and history.


Developed in consultation with re-spected Australasian and internation-

al experts, the event examined industrial hazards and the means to control or elimi-nate dust, and analysed the latest technol-ogies to ensure the maximum protection and safety for bulk handling businesses.

The event also provided visitors with an overview of recent industrial case studies and new safety recommendations.

While the risk of complacency around dust management in the workplace may not be overtly obvious, the consequences can be dire. In a high profile case in 2007, a dust explosion at the Imperial Sugar re-finery in Georgia, USA, killed 14 and in-jured 42 more.

Key areas explored by the conference included dust combustibility and its asso-ciated risks, the prevention of explosions through the controlling of dust and ig-nitions, standards and compliance, and damage control.

The event also featured a live dust explosion demonstration, and a TestSafe site tour.

Speakers at the conference included such industry experts as CMC Technol-ogies managing director Con Carpis, Campbell Arnotts HSE manager Katie Chapman, AECOM technical director for minerals and industry Neil Dennis, and many more, including:• Anthony Green, from the University

of Wollongong, who outlined the risks presented by combustible dusts

• Chris Bloore, an independent systems consultant in the dairy industry, who discussed the development of a check-list as an aid to auditing industrial pro-cesses involving combustible dust

• Dr Rob Lade, managing director, Eu-rope, for IEP Technologies, talked about ignition location control as the key for barrier location

• Paul Shrubb, founder and CEO of Risk Response + Rescue, outlined how businesses can drive a safe culture through workforce training.To find out more, search online for

“ABHR Dust Explosions Conference”.

ASBSH, ABHR team up for dust explosions conference

The Australian Society for Bulk Solids Handling (ASBSH) and Australian Bulk Handling Review (ABHR) hosted the Dust Explosions 2014 conference in Penrith, Sydney, on June 17 and 18.

DUST CONTROL

AAF most recently installed one of its size 20 WRCs at the plant, to collect

various types of food dusts, some being combustible. Typical dusts included fine sugar, salts, spices, food colourings and various additives, in this case, as the client makes popcorn flavourings, cotton candy sugars, spices and other ingredients.

AAF’s WRC is a combination dust col-lector and fan, and is a wet collector of dust – which AAF says makes it ideal for this kind of application.

“The Type W RotoClone is a combina-tion dust collector and fan that will handle the dust collections from a variety of wet, sticky or explosive applications,” AAF says. “In addition to being versatile, the Type W is the most cost-effective, high efficiency wet dust collector in its class.”

When dust laden air enters the WRC it is subjected to a fine water spray. The water and dust, being heavier than air, impinge on the blades of the impeller and are directed into the water cone by the special blade design and the cen-trifugal force of the rotating impeller (see figure 1).

The impeller imparts energy to the clean air, which being lighter than the wa-ter and dust, is discharged in front of the water cone and continues on to the clean air outlet.

The WRC unit that AAF just installed in this case is made of carbon steel con-struction with food quality expansion chamber and 90 degree outlet.

“These features are key in food pro-cessing applications,” the company says. “The easy access doors and nozzles allow for easy clean-out when the sugary, sticky dust is built up in the unit.”

As well as carbon steel, the WRC can be made of stainless steel, and comes with a range of special coating options.

AAF claims the WRC achieves 98% ef-ficiency or better for most applications, and meets a water rate of ½-1GPM per 1000 CFM of air cleaned.

The WRC is easy to install, accord-ing to the manufacturer, requiring just an electricity supply, a water supply and drain connections. AAF adds that the WRC provides continuous operation, with no downtime required for bag or cartridge change-outs.

The machine takes up a small footprint, being about the same size as a centrifugal fan, and is versatile; AAF says it can handle hot, moist gas streams and sticky dusts, along with normal dry dust.

AAF delivers dust control to Disney supplierIndustrial air cleaning specialist AAF International says it has installed six of its Type W RotoClone (WRC) wet scrubbing dust collectors for a food industry company which supplies to movie theatres and amusement parks, including Disney World.

Contacts: www.aafapcasia.com Email: [email protected]

Figure 1: a cross section of AAF’s Type W RotoClone combination dust collector and fan.

Contact: Proof Engineers on (07) 5522-0855

Aiming to take the guess work and subjectivity out of the dust measuring process, Proof Engineers designed and developed

a mobile dust-monitoring system in 2013.The firm says it instantaneously calculates dust levels, gen-

erates quantitative data regarding optimum watering times and highlights areas onsite that require immediate attention.

According to Proof, the dust monitor can be fitted to any mine site light vehicle to continually record data during the mine’s regular operational routine.

When in use, Proof Engineers’ general manager Fiorella Ig-nacio said the dust passes through the monitor and as a result of 3G web and GPS integration, quantitative data regarding current levels are accessed via internet databases.

“Using this data, a graphic representation of the dust levels is attained and dust control strategies can then be implemented where necessary,” Mrs Ignacio said.

“An in-built fan system produces a constant intake velocity to ensure dust can pass through the monitor while the vehicle is in operation.”

The parent company of Proof is Reynolds Soil Technologies (RST). The company’s operations and technical director, David Handel said the development of the new mobile system allowed RST to provide validated and unbiased testing of its dust control products at mine sites.

“The development of the dust monitor is of huge benefit to us, as we are now able to accurately identify exactly when and where treatment needs to be applied and provide a quantifiable assessment of our products’ success,” Handel said.

Mobile dust monitoring system

Australian engineering company Proof Engineers says its new mobile dust monitor is being used to monitor dust levels at mine sites both in Australia and overseas.

Proof Engineers’ mobile dust monitoring system.

www.polymertechnologies.com.au

DUST CONTROL


Though a dust collector is a vital component in the safety of any bulk processing plant, it is usually a reluctant purchase.

Few processing professionals get excited about buying a dust col-lection system and as a result, they will often select the lowest-cost equipment available for the job. Sadly, the cheapest solution can prove to be the most costly in terms of worker safety, produc-tion downtime, regulatory compliance and other problems that plague companies when dust collectors do not perform properly.

While the most basic function of a dust collector is to keep workers and workplaces safer, not all collectors are created equal from a safety standpoint. Consider following all these guidelines if you are selecting new equipment. Even if you are only looking to improve an existing system, many of these tips will still prove useful.

1. Look for a dust collector with a higher pressure ratingWhenever a collector is equipped with an explosion venting or suppression system, as is now required in many industries, vessel strength is an important factor in sizing the explosion protection equipment.

A heavy-duty collector, constructed of thicker gauge metal and with a higher pressure rating, will stand up better in the event of a combustible dust explosion. It will also enable you to use a simpler and less costly explosion protection system to com-ply with explosion protection standards.

2. Don’t overlook the ductworkEven if a collector has rugged construction and a properly sized explosion vent, you still need to protect the ductwork that serves the dust collector. Ducting should be equipped with dampers and valves designed to minimise the risk of explosion within these com-ponents. This is a task that is overlooked with surprising frequency.

3. Never store dust in the hopperMake sure your dust collector’s hopper is equipped with a device that discharges the dust into a separate drum or storage contain-er after it is pulsed off the filters during the cleaning process.

Equally important, this storage container must be emptied regularly, or dust can back up into the hopper. Dust sitting in a hopper creates a potential fire or explosion risk and may also affect performance adversely by clogging up the system and pre-venting the pulse-cleaning system from doing its job.

4. Don’t use a programmable logic controller (PLC) to control pulse-cleaning of filtersThough PLCs are popular for use with a variety of processes, they are not well-suited to controlling pulse-cleaning of dust collector filter cartridges. Pulse-cleaning relies on very brief (i.e. 150-mil-lisecond), high-energy bursts of compressed air to blow dirt off the filter surfaces.

With a PLC, the valve typically opens too slowly for proper puls-ing to occur. To optimise cleaning and ensure reliable dust collector operation, use a timer board designed specifically for filter pulsing. The timer board can be used independently or tied into your PLC.

5. Don’t rely on filter percentage efficiencies or MERV ratings to predict complianceBulk processors today must deal with an increasingly complex alphabet soup of regulations as air quality requirements are tight-ened. How do you know if your dust collector complies with emission thresholds?

Sometimes equipment suppliers talk about ‘removing 99.9% of contaminants’ of a certain particle size, or they state filter effi-ciency as a MERV rating. Percentage efficiency claims don’t really

10 tips for making your dust collector as safe as possibleBy David Higgins, Camfil Australia air pollution control general manager

COVER STORY

This cartridge dust collector has many features that enhance safety: heavy-duty construction, easy filter change-out without entry into the collector, extended-life filters for longer intervals between service, and a safety platform for access to the system.

The secondary filter bank at the top of the collector prevents collected dust from re-entering the workspace if there should be a leak in the cartridge filtration system.


mean much: What’s important is to ensure that emissions will be at or below required thresholds.

Ask the filtration manufacturer for a written guarantee of emissions performance stated as grams per cubic metre.

6. Consider ease and safety of filter change-outThe first goal should be no confined space entry, ie. workers should ideally never have to enter the dust collector to change the filters. Many cartridge-style dust collectors offer this feature, but the giant old-style baghouses still require entry during ser-vice, putting workers at risk and requiring companies to file con-fined space entry permits and monitor for gas.

Ease of filter change-out should be explored. Are the filters positioned for ease of access? Do they slide in and out of the housing readily? Pulling out a dirty overhead filter that weighs 100 pounds can result in neck, back and foot injuries.

Threaded connections on the filter access doors or hoppers are also to be avoided, because dust tends to build up in the threads and cause connections to stick. Camlock-style devices are not subject to this problem and make for easier service.

7. Reduce change-out frequency with long-life filtersNo matter how maintenance-friendly a collector may be, the less ser-vice needed, the better – especially in hazardous dust applications.

Extended-life cartridge filters available in today’s market can re-duce replacement frequency, minimizing worker exposure to dust, saving on maintenance and disposal costs, and reducing landfill im-pact. Some filter suppliers even offer written guarantees on filter life.

8. Optimise fire preventionFor spark-generating applications, a range of features and tech-nologies are available, from flame-retardant filter media to spark arrestors in the form of drop-out boxes, perforated screens or cyclone device installed at the collector inlet. Fire sprinkler sys-tems may also be required with some installations.

Dust collectors that use vertically-mounted cartridges also re-duce fire and explosion risks. With horizontally-mounted systems,

dust becomes entrained at the top of the filters and there is no pre-separation of heavy or abrasive particles from the air stream.

This situation can shorten filter life and provide a dusty sur-face for sparks to ignite. Vertical mounting reduces the load on the filters and helps eliminate these problems.

9. Evaluate needs for additional safety accessoriesRailed safety platforms and caged ladders can prevent slips and falls when workers access the collector for service. Lock-out/tag-out doors prevent injury caused by inadvertent opening of doors during a pulsing cycle and/or exposure to hazardous dust. Where highly toxic dust is being handled, a bag-in/bag-out (BIBO) con-tainment system may be required to isolate workers from used filters during change-out.

10. Consider a safety monitoring filterYou might also want to equip your collector with a safety monitor-ing filter. This is a secondary bank of high efficiency air filters that prevent collected dust from re-entering the workspace if there should be a leak in the dust collector’s primary filtering system.

A safety monitoring filter is a required component in a recir-culating dust collection system that recycles air downstream of the collector. By recirculating heated or cooled air back through the plant, the cost to replace that conditioned air is eliminated, with rapid paybacks in energy savings.

Contacts: Email: [email protected]; Web: www.camfilapc.com/australia.

COVER STORY

Example of a long-life dust collector filter. The open-pleat design of the filter causes dust to release more readily during pulse cleaning, extending filter life and reducing energy costs.

Camfil adds QLD business development manager

Christian Sanguineti has joined dust control specialist Camfil Australia as its new Queensland business development manager.

Sanguineti will be re-sponsible for build-

ing the market for Cam-fil APC dust and fume collection equipment in Queensland, the com-pany said in a statement.

Key applications for that equipment include mines throughout the state as well as general industrial dust control.

“To help acquaint customers with the company’s line of Farr Gold Sold Se-ries dust collectors, Sanguineti has a mobile trailer that can be used to visit facilities throughout Queensland to conduct training, education and onsite product demon-strations,” the company said.

Sanguineti, who will be based in the Camfil Rich-lands office, has more than eight years of dust control experience.

Prior to joining Camfil Australia, he worked with MARC Technologies, a distributor of dust collection equip-ment. In his new post he reports to David Higgins, air pol-lution control general manager of Camfil Australia.

Sanguineti with his mobile trailer unit.



DUST CONTROL

The issue of fugitive dust emissions is an ongoing

one for the mining industry and one that doesn’t seem to go away. Unfortunately, dust generation is an intrinsic but undesirable outcome from op-erations in the entire mining value chain. Dust can be gen-erated from the mined prod-uct and from the surrounding earth. The fugitive emissions are commonly a result of three main factors.1. Materials processing and

handling. Any time a bulk material is processed or handled, it has the potential to generate dust.

2. Vehicle and equipment movements especially on roads and unsealed areas.

3. Weather. Wind erosion is responsible for generating dust from stockpiles, roads, open and un-vege-tated areas. Wind is also responsible for dispersing any dust generated over large distances. High temperatures and low humidity exacerbate the problem.

Most reasonable people would not ex-pect zero dust emissions. However, it is excessive levels that are contentious. This is where the first major issue lies. While there are emission standards set out by the regulatory authorities, the issue of what is excessive is subjective and changing. Peo-ple at different times have different views about what is excessive. Evolving expec-tations mean that emission standards are being set higher and higher.

The second issue is around the con-trol, or, as I prefer, the prevention of dust emissions. On the surface, it seems like a relatively simple problem to manage. But why is it such an ongoing issue? The an-swer is because the solution is not solely a technological one.

There are two critical elements to the solution: technological and human. Despite the scientific and technologi-cal developments in materials handling

equipment, dust collection and dust sup-pression, I have found in most cases that the limiting factor is not the technology, equipment or products (for simplicity, I will refer to all these as the solutions) be-ing used, but the people that use them. People are often the weakest link, the most unpredictable and error prone ele-ment in the system. So, when it comes to good dust management, these are my dozen main tips.

1. Prevention, prevention, prevention. Prevention is the single most impor-tant factor. Once fine particles get airborne, you will find it extremely difficult to deal with and impossible to recapture 100% of them. Be proac-tive, minimise the generation of fine particles and prevent them from get-ting airborne in an open environment in the first place and it will save you time, money and a lot of pain in the long run.

2. Get back to basics. Understand the properties of the material you are deal-ing with and the conditions that can lead to dust generation. Yes, mining

has been around for a long time but a lot of people in the industry don’t know the basics about the materials they are handling, especially in rela-tion to dust. It is surprising that infor-mation on properties like dustiness, friability, dust extinction moisture level, dust lift off and wind speeds is not freely available or known by many. Also, it is not just the material

12 dust control tips for the mining industry

By Dr Leong Mar,* Red Planet Innovations

Dr Leong Mar.

you are mining but the dirt around it that is an issue. Dust from roads, overburden and un-vegetated earth can be the major contributor to dust emissions.

3. Take a holistic and integrated approach. Because dust can be generated from most parts of the value chain at any stage, se-rious consideration should be given to it right from the design and planning stage in every operation. When in operation, every part of the value chain should understand its contribu-tion to dust emissions and work together to prevent it. Simple measures taken upstream can minimise problems later.

4. Aim for the next best practice. Many operations just do the bare minimum and wonder why they have a problem. Mining-based operations generally have long lifespans and evolve, so aim high, aim for the next best practice, not just the current best practice. In that way, there’s a chance that the solution will be effective for longer.

5. Use advancing science and technology to your advantage. There are new developments occurring all the time. Keep up to date with these. The other important aspect is: look out-side your industry. Good ideas and solutions can come from anywhere. No point reinventing the wheel.

6. Don’t underestimate the impact of weather or be defeated by it and say – ‘but we can’t control the weather’. Yes, you can-not control the weather but you can take steps to minimise the impact. Just like you can take proactive steps to safeguard your property against bushfires, you can take proactive steps to minimise fugitive dust emissions in all conditions. Be pro-active, understand the impact that weather can have, have a good strategy and implement it to prevent the dust getting airborne.

7. There is no silver bullet and, by the way, there is no universal solution or one-size-fits-all either. If someone tells you there is, they are either lying or don’t know what they are talking about. In either case, you should avoid dealing with them. There are many solutions and these have to be tailored to suit the situation. Some people are so keen to find a solution to their problems that they place unrealistic expectations on the solution and get disappointed when it doesn’t totally solve their problem. This leads on to the next tip.

8. Don’t be so quick to blame the solution that you have cho-sen for not working; maybe it’s how you use, misuse or don’t use it. Many times I have heard that a particular solution is bad or doesn’t work. In some cases, where the company has purchased an inferior solution or just the wrong solution, it is true. However, in many cases it is because it hasn’t been used properly or, to my next tip, it hasn’t been maintained properly.

9. Service and maintain your plant and equipment. I have seen this time and time again. It is pointless having the best equip-ment but not maintaining it properly. You are wasting time and money and workers will lose confidence in the equip-ment and stop using it, or worse, start looking for other solu-tions. Mining operations can be like graveyards of good but disused and discarded equipment.

10. Build the right culture where everyone is accountable. The attitude and behaviour of people is critical. Dust should not just be the responsibility of the environment or operations team. Everyone that works on the site should be accountable for their actions. Once the particles are airborne and disperse

beyond your site, it does not matter to the community which part of the operation the dust originated from. The culture should start from the highest levels for it to be effective.

11. Experience is not always a good thing, especially if it blinkers your view or prevents you from looking at new possibilities. I have heard many times on site ‘but we tried that years ago and it didn’t work’. Learn from your experiences but be aware that your knowledge has a shelf life and situations can change. In the fast pace of today’s economy, things can change rapidly. This leads to my final tip.

12. Ensure that your people have the right training. Unfortunate-ly, during the last boom, production was the prime objective and skilled labour was in short supply. As a result, people were placed in positions for which they weren’t trained. Proper and regular training is the key to understanding dust problems and how they can be prevented.

About the Author*Dr Leong Mar is director of Red Planet Innovations, a con-sulting firm that advises the mining industry on dust man-agement. Dr Mar has been actively involved in scientific re-search, development and commercialisation of products and technologies for dust management. He has won five industry awards in recent years for his dust management efforts and initiatives.

Contact: [email protected] www.redplanetinnovations.com.au


DUST CONTROL

®


ABHR: What are the major threats to coal workers in terms of dust?Dr David Meredith (DM): The two main dust issues we’re concerned about for coal workers are exposure to coal dust and crystalline silica. They’re the major concerns; they’re the reason we do our dust surveillance.

There’s also an irritating component to dust. That’s inhalable dust which doesn’t necessarily cause you any perma-nent health problem, but it’s just unpleas-ant, and that’s more of a lifestyle or com-fort issue, rather than a health issue.

ABHR: What kinds of dust cause those issues?DM: Dust can be broadly divided into or-ganic dusts and inorganic dusts, and the ones we’re concerned with in coal min-ing are inorganic dusts.

Inorganic dusts can be inert if they’re inhaled; a good example is iron ore dust. If you inhale that, it stains your lungs red, but it just sits there. It doesn’t cause any major problem.

When you inhale, you’ve got shelving in the nose that’s there to warm and hu-midify the air, but it also creates a bit of turbulence, so particles if they’re larger will get trapped by the mucus there. Tur-bulance and branching that happens all the way down the airways means that normally, only particles that are starting to get down to a size of about five microns are small enough to get to the alveoli and cause harm. That’s respirable dust.

Respirable means they’re tiny enough so that your airway’s natural defences won’t trap them before they get down to your alveoli, or air sacs.

Those particles are mostly caused by blasting or drilling.

ABHR: What happens when the dust gets right down to the bottom of the lungs?DM: If coal particles or silica particles from rock such as quartz get inhaled right down into the deepest parts of the lungs, the lung is unable to get rid of it, and it sets up a smouldering, chronic inflamma-tion, which ultimately damages the lungs.

Silica particles are jagged – they’re just tiny particles of fractured rock – and

they can’t be dissolved. If that gets right down into the air sac, cells called mac-rophages will envelop it, and try to digest it and get rid of it. But the sharp edg-es often cause the cells to rupture and die, and that at-tracts further macrophages and inflammatory cells and this process keeps repeat-ing. This sets up a smoul-dering reaction which can lead to a clinical condition called silicosis.

Coal dust is a little bit different. It doesn’t tend to rupture those cells, but the lungs can’t get rid of it nonetheless, so they tend to choke up and attract in-flammatory cells, and the end result of this is that the body tries to wall it off with scar tissue.

Scar tissue, if there’s not a lot of it, is not a problem. But if it keeps accumulat-ing, scar tissue tends to contract, as it matures, and this can gradually restrict the lungs from expanding properly, and can eventu-ally totally destroy them.

These diseases are known as coal workers’ pneumoconio-sis (also known as black lung) and sili-cosis. Both are both quite serious lung conditions.

ABHR: How does coal mining cause both the black lung and silicosis?DM: Coal is the most common cause of dust disease in coalminers leading to black lung. But in coal seams you’ll sometimes have some quartz, or other rock seams. Or the coal may be between rock layers that may contain quartz. And quartz, when you crush it up, releases the silica.

So sometimes in the process of ex-tracting coal, you will release potentially hazardous amounts of silica dust, and that’s the reason you can get both forms of disease in coal mining.

Tunnellers in sandstone don’t have the black lung risk, but are at far more risk of silicosis. Coal miners can suffer from both of those.

It can vary greatly from coalfield to coalfield, because some just geologically don’t have much quartz in them, some seams are easier to extract … so it can vary quite a lot. There’s not the same degree of silica risk in each mine, or in each seam.

ABHR: In basic terms, how can silicosis and the black lung be dealt with?DM: Well they are serious diseases, but they’re both entirely dose-dependent.

Last century there was a huge amount of work done on English coal miners, as there were tens of thousands of them with the black lung, and silicosis. Gradually,

The threat of dust in modern coal mining: ABHR goes to the doctor’s office

ABHR’s Oliver Probert spoke with Dr David Meredith, senior medical officer for Coal Services, an occupational health service for businesses operating in NSW’s coal mining sector.

DUST CONTROL

A miner at the Black Lung Laboratory in the Appalacian Regional Hospital in West Virginia, USA, whose lung capacity is being tested as part of early testing for the

disease, in June 1974. Photo: Environmental Protection Agency, USA


standards were formed such that if you kept the exposure be-low particular levels over the course of a working lifetime, you wouldn’t see any significantly advanced stages of the dust disease.

Since then we’ve tightened the protocols a little further, and we’ve put in a safety margin. So we expect, really, if you can keep coal miners’ exposure to dust below legislated exposures, you shouldn’t see silicosis or black lung in the workforce.

ABHR: And how do you limit the dosage?DM: Essentially it comes down to trying to prevent the coal and silica particles from becoming airborne, because they’re only a risk if you can actually inhale them.

If you’re working in an underground mine, the first thing you look for is the proper use of a water spray. If you’re cutting coal there should be water sprays on your continuous miner or your longwall shears, so effectively you’re stopping the dust cloud from even getting out.

Your second thing is to have appropriate ventilation. You should have air flowing in your mine so it’s dragging the dust away from the workers and the work surface, and venting it out so it’s not going to cause a problem.

So where the miners position themselves when they’re working can also be important. You should make sure they’re in areas where they’re upwind, so to speak, of the dust production.

They are two of the main control measures.In the open cut, the same thing applies; the use of water to

dampen road surfaces and drill sites. Then you’ve also got the final line of defence which is your personal protective equipment.

Essentially you’re trying to stop the dust being released in the first place, and what is released can be handled by a ventilating system, and last resort is using protective masks.

ABHR: Even with these strategies in place, is there a certain amount of dust inhalation that can’t be avoided?DM: You will get some inhalation. You won’t get zero. There will be some. The critical thing is if you can keep that below these levels, you can be confident that you’re not going to see develop-ment of a dust disease over a working lifetime.

That’s in contrast to asbestos (it’s often bandied around; ‘there’s no safe levels of asbestos’). If you inhale enough asbestos it will cause a scarring of the lungs, like these other dusts. The dif-ference with asbestos is it has cancer associated with it. That can

DUST CONTROL

A diagram of the human lungs. The lining of the lungs include alveoli, or air sacs. Respirable, inorganic dust like coal dust and silica can get into the alveoli and create inflammations and scar tissue.

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occur even without advanced scarring-up of the lungs. So that’s the worry with the asbestos, but you don’t get that same con-cern with coal dust or silicosis. With those two, it’s really a dose-based response.

If you can stop the person developing a particular level of disease – if you can catch them before they’ve gone past a cer-tain level of disease – you can be happy it shouldn’t affect their life or life quality. But once it goes past a certain point, it can’t be stopped, so the important thing is stopping it from even getting a toe-hold.

But there’s going to be some inhalation.

ABHR: How do you monitor the level of dust inhalation a worker is experiencing?DM: The other side of control is to get the workers in and examine them. You look for damage. We examine our coal miners – they get a medical on com-mencement and another every three years.

Part of that examination is looking specifically for evidence of dust disease or lung disease. We have been assessing NSW coal miners for over 60 years and now Work Health and Safety Regulations, and Safe Work Australia, all require that certain testing be done.

We question them on their symptoms, we measure their respiratory function … and we do a chest x-ray on them every five to six years.

So that is the other side of workplace safety. If the control measures are failing, then we’ll start seeing dust disease ap-pearing in the workforce. If their control is up to scratch, then we shouldn’t see it.

ABHR: What more do you think can and should be done from here to further pro-tect personnel from dust?DM: NSW is one area where we’ve seen a steady and dramatic improvement over the last six decades, to the point now where we’re not seeing any of the seri-ous dust disease come to the fore. So what we’re doing appears to be working effectively.

There’s an interesting point here. When I looked into this years ago, and I was becoming familiar with the indus-try, I noticed that our exposure limits are higher than in the United States, but we’re not seeing dust disease, and yet the United States is seeing an increasing vol-ume of black lung in their coal miners.

I approached our chief hygienist to discuss it with him, and he said that in-deed their limits are stricter than ours, but it comes down to enforcement.

He said when we measure coal dust or silica exposures, one of our technicians

goes out to the mine and actually goes down with the crew, underground, for the shift. They fit the guys with the ma-chines, accompany them, make notes about what’s going on, where they’re working and how they’re working, and we measure when they’re at work.

We’re also quite independent from the mines – our recorders aren’t reliant on their pay from the mine manager, so they don’t have any influence over them to give a good result, they just tend to give what they find.

In contrast, in a lot of areas in the States, the recording gear is put on the miners on the surface, there’s no-one go-ing down with them to see what they’re doing, you don’t know if they’re wearing it or what the heck’s happening to it.

You also have a system of fines, there, for transgressions, whereas we have stop-work orders.

Also, there seems to be a really good culture now in the coal industry from both the employers and the unions, who are both very concerned that none of their guys are being exposed to hazard-ous levels.

DUST CONTROL

Common reasons for high dust levels: • Inadequate ventilation• Inadequate water or dust control• Poor operator positioning• Damaged equipment• Poor work practices

Strategies to remedy high dust levels:Isolation or capture of dust at source via sealing of transfer points, BSL, crushers

Operating water sprays at appropriate locations and as near as possible to the point of breakage with sufficient water volumes, pres-sure and correct sizing of water jets/droplets• Ventilation of the correct quantities and at the right location• Advance ventilation ducting/brattice to mine ventilation standard• Regular maintenance of dust suppression equipment• Operator positioning, job rotation and automation• Control of dust levels along travelling roads• Respiratory protection by personal protective equipment (PPE)

Further recommendationsSite specific safe work procedures need to be developed in consulta-tion with all relevant persons. Work needs to be planned to identify and control risks. It is possible to hose down pipes, ventilation duct-ing or belt structure prior to removal and transport. If eliminating the risk is not possible then the remaining hierarchy of controls needs to be applied. This can include improved ventilation, dust suppression, maintaining equipment and closer supervision. Deputies are not im-mune from a failed result and are expected to lead by example and implement the control strategies for each activity. Finally, and not as a substitute for the other controls, personal protective equipment can be worn.

Contact: www.coalservices.com.au

A slice of a human lung affected with silicosis.

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Hotspot 1: Discharge onto conveyors, and conveyor transfer points“Anything to do with conveyors is a particularly bad area,” Coop-er began.

Areas in the facility where a dusty substance like coal is fed onto a conveyor often promote dust generation. This can be caused by the aeration of the dust as it falls to the conveyor, and is also exacerbated by the fast pace of the landing surface (the belt itself).

Cooper said that this was particularly the case when coal was being fed onto a conveyor by a crusher, as this creates excess agi-tation which can also promote the generation of dust.

“Wherever you’ve got crushing involved, there’s normally a fair amount of fugitive dust,” he explained, which led him to de-scribe the next hotspot.

Hotspot 2: At the face“Down at the face where you’ve got the longwall machines, or general mining machinery, they’re actually cutting the coal. You can get a huge amount of dust there,” Cooper explained.

Dust generated by a longwall machine is especially trouble-some because, by the nature of how a longwall works under-ground, the amount of aeration is limited, and therefore the dust is confined to a smaller space, making it more hazardous to workers.

This has become more of an issue in recent decades, Cooper explained.

“[In the past] people didn’t really think much about dust, people just came out [from underground] with black faces and didn’t think much of it. Now they’ve realised, and they’ve got to do something about it.”

Dust generation at the face used to be a problem to mining companies in a different way: equipment would encounter issues with dust in key components.

“In the past they’ve had open gearing and things like that, so that was more of a factor,” Cooper said. “But a lot of the equip-ment designed in dusty environments these days has been de-signed to be more dust proof.”

Hotspot 3: Discharge onto stockpilesPoints in the handling chain where material is released onto a stockpile are especially bad in terms of the amount of dust gener-ated. Cooper described one instance with a client of his who was handling brown coal.

Four hotspots for dust around mines

Graeme Cooper, co-owner of dust suppression technology supplier Tecpro, gave ABHR his top four areas for potential dust problems around minesites and other mineral handling facilities. In an interview with ABHR’s Oliver Probert, he also discussed his time in the industry, how dust suppression has evolved and Tecpro’s growth over that span.

DUST CONTROL


DUST CONTROL

“It was just horrendous,” he said. “The amount of dust that was just blowing away [from the stockpile] led to complaints from the nearby town, and I’ve never seen so much dust.”

Complaints from local communities pre-sent another motivator for mining compa-nies to control dust emissions.

“The Environmental Protection Agen-cy,” Cooper said, “they’re a lot more ac-tive now. They’ve got a Dust Stop Program which they started last year, where the mines have to restrict the amount of dust they’re responsible for.”

In the particular stockpile case he de-scribed, Cooper said the coal was going on too dry, and this was promoting dust generation.

“The solution was a combination of get-ting the dust’s moisture content up, in the coal itself,” he said. “So you add a certain amount of moisture to the coal to start with, reducing the tendency for it to give off dust. It was a combination of that and having a set of sprays and fog cannons around.”

Hotspot 4: Discharge into storage binsSpots where minerals are transferred into large bins can produce a large amount of dust, especially when the material is dropped from a significant height into that bin.

“I’ve been standing above a bin where a coal train was discharging into it, and you could just feel the dust going down the back of your shirt,” Cooper described. “As the air’s displaced by the coal, the dust rises up and just goes all over you.”

He said the solution in this case was a complete spray sys-tem that captured and stopped the dust from escaping the stor-age bin.

Some common misconceptionsCooper said many of his clients start off by telling him that they’ve tried dust suppressive fog and sprays before, and that they simply do not work.

“Sometimes they are a bit sceptical that nozzles are going to do any good, because they’ve tried nozzles in the past, which is a common comment I hear,” he said. “But the selection of the nozzles, their location, the pressure that they’re operating at … there’s so many different nozzles you can use for any application.

“People specialise in their field, so they know all they need to know about their specific field. We know about nozzles. We don’t know how to do their job; our job is nozzles, and we know all about nozzles. A lot of people think it’s just a nozzle, but it’s not like that, it’s not that easy.”

Cooper believes that no two dust control jobs are the same. “There are so many variables,” he explained.

“We ask them about where is the dust being generated – where is it coming from – what’s the size of the dust particles (is it extremely fine dust, is it extremely coarse dust), what’s the air movement around the area, what type of dust is it, is it hydrophobic, is it hydroscopic, what’s the water like that we’ve got available.

“Every application is different, it really is.”Another common mistake, he said, is when people just

throw water at a dust problem, haphazardly, and expect results.

“When I first started in about 1990, there was a concrete batch-ing plant nearby, and it was my first exposure to how people can be wasting water … they were just flooding the place, as their thinking was, ‘To knock down the dust just use more water.’”

Tecpro installed a number of the nozzle spray units it sup-plied to counteract the batching plant’s dust problems.

“We reduced their water consumption by about 20%, using different nozzles, and we knocked their dust down that way. From that point on we did a lot of batching plants.”

Cooper and Tecpro: a brief historyCooper’s first job out of high school was as a trainee (and then full time) mechanical engineer with Coal & Allied. It was there he learned firsthand the impact dust can have on mining personnel.

He spent 12 years away from resources, working as an in-dustrial design teacher at schools in Liverpool, in Sydney’s south-west.

Then in 1989, a friend of his had a nozzle distribution busi-ness working from home, and asked him to join.

“The company was formed in 1982 by a friend of mine who was a design engineer for a nozzle supply company that closed down, and he started up from home,” Cooper recalled. “I had been teaching for about 12 years, and I just felt like a bit of a change, and he asked me to come and work with him for a while because things were getting busy.

“So I started working with him 1989 and then in 1990 we moved into a factory unit. It was at the stage where the business was ready to go to the next level, so we moved into a factory unit and we’ve gone from there.”

Cooper’s friend retired in the mid-90s, and in 2000 Cooper and his wife bought Tecpro, which now has 15 employees, in-cluding five dedicated sales staff.

Contact: www.tecpro.com.au

Graeme Cooper of Tecpro (left) and Dr Ting Ren of the University of Wollongong accepting their award for Dust Control Technology, Application or Practice at the 2012 Australian Bulk Handling Awards. Tecpro and the university devised a dust

control solution for the Mandalong mine near Morisset in NSW.


CRUSHING & SCREENING

The LT1213S is a mobile impactor with onboard screen and is designed

to be more productive and economical than Metso’s past Lokotrack efforts. The machine is equally suited, according to Metso, to the processing of both new ag-gregates and recycled material, and can be configured with the screen as a closed loop machine, or the return conveyor can be slewed to build a stockpile.

The screen is also readily detached, allowing the machine to be used as a straight crusher, the manufacturer adds.

Metso says a number of elements have been combined to deliver a 15% reduction in fuel consumption when compared to previous models. These elements include direct belt drive to the crusher, optimisation of the engine speed via a newly designed and more ef-ficient hydraulic system, the use of an independent demand-driven hydraulic drive fan, and a new idle mode, which is activated when the feeder and crusher are empty and de-activated when mate-rial is placed in the feeder.

The LT1213S is also more productive than past models, Metso says, citing mod-est improvements in crushing through-put via better flow, and more significant improvements in screening capacity.

The machine’s 3600mm x 1600mm dual slope screen is 40% larger than the previous model, and this achieves a 20-30% greater throughput of finished product.

“By addressing what is the limiting factor in a crusher/screen circuit, the practical output of the Lokotrack 1213S is significantly greater than that of its predecessor, setting it apart in its class,” Metso tells ABHR.

The new machine is also designed to be more compact and self-contained. It is designed to set-up, change config-uration and pack up without the need for any assisting equipment, such as a crane, or for heavy manual handling. This, especially in rural areas, is target-ed at saving costs associated with crew and machinery hire.

All conveyors are stowed onboard the machine for transport. The radial slide conveyor can be slewed 90 de-grees from the closed circuit position

against the side of the machine to the stockpiling position in under two min-utes, the manufacturer says.

A polycarbonate cover over the crusher drive belts is lighter than the previous steel cover, making the LT1213S easier to service, Metso ex-plains. The rotor cover has power opening, and the rotor can be rotated hydraulically for replacing wear parts.

Jim Blaker, chief operating officer of Australian distributor Tutt Bryant Equipment, talked at the launch about the “winning partnership” between the distributor and Metso.

“Our network of 14 branches around the country compliments Metso’s global support network and gives us the ‘on-the-ground’ presence to provide exceptional support for Metso mobile crushing and screening equipment,” he said.

“This is backed by the extensive train-ing that our people have received, in-cluding crushing and screening process, performing site analysis as well as under-standing the intrinsic benefits the equip-ment provides.”

Fuel efficient mobile crusher debuts Down Under

The latest addition to Metso’s Lokotrack mobile screening and crushing range, the LT1213S, is now being distributed in Australia by Tutt Bryant Equipment.

Contacts: www.tuttbryantequipment.com.au Phone: 1300 658 888

The new Metso Lokotrack LT1213S unveiled at Tutt Bryant Equipment’s facility in Rocklea during the Queensland launch.

Metso’s sales support manager, John Reilly (right), at the launch.


NEWS

SAL Heavy Lift first transported the shiploader from Abbot Point to New Port shipyard at Mokpo, South Korea, in Janu-

ary 2013, for refurbishment and upgrading. It was transported by SAL’s heavy lift vessel Lone.

The shipper returned the loader to Abbot Point in March 2014, where it is operated by the Adani Mining Company. For the return trip, SAL used another of its heavy lift vessels, Svenja.

Both vessels are in SAL’s Type 183 range, which features 2,000 tonne crane lift capacity and a service speed of up to 20kts (37 km/h).

“A key point in this project was the difficulty of loading the shiploader from the jetty in open water at Abbot Point and re-turning it to the same position,” explained Justin Archard, SAL’s managing director in Singapore and Australia.

“This was made complex by the big difference in height of the jetty above the water line and the height of the ship’s deck. It meant lifting the shiploader very high to achieve sufficient clear-ance. Issues of tidal range and vessel stability were instrumental in the planning stage.”

Prior to upgrading, the shiploader had been in service for

Adani coal loader delivered to Abbot Point

Project cargo shipping specialist SAL Heavy Lift has delivered a 1250 tonne coal shiploader to the port of Abbot Point in Queensland, marking the conclusion of a 12-month project.

The tricky process of loading the shiploader from the jetty in open water at Abbot Point. The refurbishment of the shiploader has lifted its capacity from 5,000tphr to 7,000tphr.

Contact: www.sal-heavylift.com

20 years. On the outward voyage to South Korea, the ship-loader weighed 1,050 tonnes. Following its upgrade, its return weight was 1,250 tonnes due to steel and other material additions.

Previously it was capable of loading bulk carriers at 5,000tph. It can now load at 7,000tph.


NEWS

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... If so, you can now expand your capabilities by joining the Australian Society for Bulk Solids Handling.The Society has a mission to enhance the discipline of bulk solids handling through research, education and sound engineering practice.Further information on the Society’s activities, its Constitution and registration procedures are available from the :

Australian Society for Bulk Solids Handling Centre for Bulk Solids and Particulate Technologies The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308 Phone: (02) 4033 9055 Fax: (02) 4033 9044 email: [email protected] Website: www.engineersaustralia.org.au/Australian-Society-Bulk-Solids-Handling

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1. Mathematical modelsThe aim of mathematical modelling [1, 4] is to predict the be-haviour of bulk solids flow within a complex chute system. This can be achieved by breaking down the system into simpler chute elements and then applying simplified mathematical model formulation.It is assumed that the mathematical modelling represents the flow equations of bulk solids through components of the system. The basic assumptions made are as follows:a. the model is discrete, where continuous loads are replaced by

concentrated loads;b. bulk solids characteristics remain invariable in time;c. air resistance has minor influence on the bulk solid’s velocity;d. deflections of the system elements are not taken into account;e. stochastic processes are replaced by deterministic processes,

e.g. variation of flow intensity.

The flow equations for components are based on the principles of flow dynamics and conservation of energy.

A. The mathematical model of the bulk solid flow is shown in Figure 1. The bulk solid stream will exert forces and reactions on the surroundings. The resulting force is acting in the direction of motion.

Figure 1: Bulk solid flow model

Mathematical analysis of the bulk solids flow model leads to the following equation:

B. Where there is no transfer of energy from or to another sys-tem, the principle of energy conservation requires the following condition to be satisfied within the system:

The discrete model of the system, the chute, is created by means of dividing the chute into finite elements, with each having a de-termined geometrical shape, material characteristics and chute wall properties.

2. Sloped and vertical chutesA straight flow down chute - shown in Figure 2 - is analysed. The only forces acting on the bulk solid are gravitational and the wall friction between the bulk solid and the wall surface.

Figure 2: Flow down straight chute

The dynamic equilibrium (1a) leads to the differential equation:

3. Flow round curved plateA particle, or collection of particles forming a bulk solid moving over a circular plate, see Figure 3, is subject to a gravitational force, peripheral force and resistance to motion. [2]

74

Chute design modelling considerationsby Kazimierz Golka*, Australia

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Figure 3: Flow over concave chute

The flow (1a) of a given particle is defined by the following equations:

4. Flow over convex chuteA particle, or a bulk solid moving over a convex chute surface, see Figure 4, is subject to gravitational force, peripheral force and resistance to motion [1].

Figure 4: Flow over convex chute

The motion of a given particle, based on Equation (1a) is defined by the following equations:

5. Helical chutesBulk solids moving over a helical chute (see Figure 5) are sub-ject to gravitational force and resistances to motion. An inflow case is considered, when the bulk solid is directed from a straight chute. This case is analysed in terms of bulk solids ve-locity determination. [1]

Figure 5: Flow over helical chute

The conservation of momentum (energy) law (2a) leads to the following equations:

6. Model of a twisted stream cross-sectionA collection of particles forming a bulk solid stream moving through a part of the chute, where the stream is changing the shape of its cross-section, is subject to a gravitational force and internal resistance to displacement of particles within the stream.

Figure 6: Model of the changed stream cross-section

Figure 6 represents a mathematical model used to predict the behaviour of bulk solids stream flow through a section of the chute, where the material stream changes its shape. [3] The con-servation of energy principle - equation (2a) - in a case when the bulk solid stream changes its cross-sectional shape leads to the equation (9), which can be written in the form of (9a) as follows:


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8. RemarksThe solution of equations (3a), (4a), (5a), (6a), (7a), (8a) and (9a) give the exit velocity of the bulk solid flow along the selected chute components and can be found in [1].

References1. Golka, K., Bolliger, G. Vasili, C.: Transfer chutes. Principles for

calculation and design. Ligare Pty Ltd Sydney, Australia 20132. Golka, K.: Dynamics of a Physical Body over a Circular Path.

1993 National Conference on Bulk Materials Handling, 22-25 September 1993, Capricorn International Resort, Yeppoon, Queensland, Australia

3. Golka, K.: Flow resistance of a twisted bulk solid stream.

Australian Bulk Handling Review. Volume 18 No 1, 20124. Korzen Z.: The Dynamics of Bulk Solids Flow on Impact Plates

of Belt Conveyor Systems. Bulk Solids Handling Volume 8, No 6, December 1988

About the authorKazimierz Golka has worked as a design engineer and consult-ant on numerous materials handling projects for over 40 years in Europe, Asia and Australia. He gained his internationally recognised mechanical engineering qualifications of BE, Master and PhD at the Wroclaw University of Technology.


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ContiTech says its manual is used worldwide as a standard ref-erence work for conveyor belt design.

“Not only has it firmly established itself for use in colleges and universities, it has also become indispensable in the day-to-day work of engineering companies and plant manufacturers and operators,” the supplier writes.

ContiTech cites decades of manufacturing experience as the basis for the manual.

The revised edition includes information on tube conveyor

belts, as well as numerous new and further developments within the materials sector.

“The manual also takes into account the design of conveyor belts in accordance with the latest version of DIN 22101,” the supplier adds. “This standard is used throughout the world in the design of belt conveyors.”

The manual can be requested via ContiTech’s website, and is currently produced in English and German. ContiTech says it will soon also be available in Spanish and Portuguese.

ContiTech expands conveyor design manualNEWS


The NJ series integrates traditional PLC control with both mo-tion (precise servo control) and electrical safety systems, cer-

tified to PLe and SIL3. “It combines the speed of an Intel Atom processor (also used in Netbooks) with the Real time Operation System,” said Mulder.

The new series offers two ethernet ports for networking. The first, ethernet/IP, is for connecting to HMIs, other control-lers and the internet. The second, EtherCAT, Mulder describes as “a high performance remote I/O network.” Both are open vendor protocols, meaning any vendor can create devices to reside on these networks.

“Nearly all vendors support at least one of these protocols, allowing the end user to select the ‘best of technology’ when selecting devices,” explained Mulder. The NJ also supports all the commonly used industrial protocols, like DeviceNet, Mod-bus and Profibus.

Omron Electronics has been a supplier of industrial systems and components since 1933. Based in Japan, the company has been building PLCs since the early 1980s. These are extensively used to control machines, but also on the factory floor to auto-mate processes.

Apart from controllers, Omron says it also manufactures a wide range of electrical components. Many are discrete but some are networkable and can therefore link into control-lers. “Most notably, we promote two ranges of variable speed drives,” said Mulder. “The MX2 series are highly functional sen-sorless vector drives, featuring on-board programming, inte-grated safety and a dual torque rating. But the SX series are the real work horses of industry, rated up to 1Mw. Using standard V/f or flux methods to control the motor, the SX series provide smooth operation for large motors by featuring direct torque control and a vector brake function.”

77

Omron’s new controller platformAutomation and industrial system company, Omron, has introduced a controller platform, called the NJ series. The firm’s engineering manager, Harry Mulder, describes it as “a high performance and very robust control system.”

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Omron says its latest fully integrated control platform, the NJ series, can

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The SX series is suitable for larger induction motor applications.

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NEWS

The proposed Project Iron Boomer-ang (PIB) involves the construction

of a 3,300km east-to-west rail line, con-necting WA’s iron ore rich Pilbara region with the coal mining region of Central Queensland, to facilitate the production and export of steel slabs from both Port Hedland and Abbot Point.

As part of the project, steelworks will be built at either end of the rail line, so that iron ore can be moved from west to east, and coal can be moved on the return leg; thus both can be combined at either end, in the steel manufacturing process.

East West Line Parks, the company proposing PIB, is ignoring much of the public scepticism for the visionary pro-ject, which some have said will be too expensive and too hard to build.

The company was one of the first to make a submission to the Australian government’s Joint Select Committee on Northern Australia, which in December launched an inquiry into the develop-ment of Australia above the tropic of Cap-ricorn, spanning WA, the Northern Terri-tory and much of Queensland.

The committee is looking into the potential of the region’s mineral, energy, agricultural, tourism, defence and other industries. It will provide recommenda-tions to enhance trade and investment links with the Asia-Pacific, establish a conducive regulatory, taxation and eco-nomic environment, address impedi-ments to growth, and set conditions for private investment and innovation.

Perhaps most important to those goals, the committee will also look to identify the critical infrastructure needs for the region, and will look into ways to support planning and invest-ment in that infrastructure.

And East West Line Parks thinks that PIB falls right into that wheelhouse.

“Committee chairman the Hon War-ren Entsch has made it very clear the Fed-eral Government is making the economic development of Northern Australia a top priority,” East West Lane Parks chief ex-ecutive and founder Shane Condon said.

“We are confident PIB will be a major catalyst which will help define and drive the future of Australia’s north.”

Under the PIB model, 33mt of iron ore would be moved from west to east each year, and 20mt of coal would be moved

from east to west each year. A pair of smelters – one in Abbot Point, Queens-land, and one in Newman, WA – would then use 33mt of iron ore and 20mt of coal to produce 22mt of steel slabs each year, for export.

3,300km steelmaking railway submitted to national inquiry

One of Australia’s most ambitious infrastructure proposals, Project Iron Boomerang, will be considered by a Joint Select Committee in Canberra, after the project’s proprietors submitted it to the committee’s inquiry into the development of Northern Australia, Oliver Probert writes.

A model of one of the planned steel parks, which will combine Australian coal and iron ore under Project Iron Boomerang.

PIB’s chief executive, Shane Condon, examining 40 tonne wagons in China. East West Line Parks plans on using 40 tonne wagons on the PIB rail line.

Despite East West Line Parks’ confidence in that model, several commentators have been critical, including expert metals consult-ant Peter Strachan, who in 2011 told the ABC: “Australia with its high wage, high dollar environment, I mean it’s not the ideal place to be doing manufacturing… if you’re taking a 20 or 30 year view it may well be that the world changes completely, and a project like this would be viable, but in the current environment it’s hard to find a business case.”

Nonetheless, Condon remains determined in the viability of his project, and believes his company won’t need financial help from the government to get it up and running.

“First and foremost PIB is a steelmakers’ project and is wholly private sector driven,” he said. “We will not be seeking any pub-lic monies to further advance or build this legacy project – fi-nance will come from the steelmakers.”

Condon and PIB’s marketing manager for Asia Pacific, Nick Meng, say there is growing interest and backing for the pro-ject from China. Both Condon and Meng have recently visited China, where they say they engaged in ‘top echelon talks’ with the National Development and Reform Commission.

“This is the body at the top level of government which for-mulates and implements strategies of national economic impor-tance,” Condon said following the trip. “There is also substantial and ongoing support for PIB among China’s leading steel makers. This has been evident since the project was first mooted.”

East West Line Parks’ submission to the Joint Committee on Northern Australia is the latest development for PIB. Condon says the submission will convince the select committee that PIB has the potential to revolutionise global steel manufacturing with sizeable downstream spin-offs for Australian manufacturing, and will be a major job generator.

“The slab steel will be produced from two state-of-the-art steel parks in WA and Queensland,” he explained.

“Australia needs a new productive direction and PIB offers just that. East West Line Parks is applying to the Department of Infrastructure for Major Project Facilitation status. Since its in-ception PIB has enjoyed in principle support from the world’s largest Asian steelmakers, and they consider PIB’s economic case beyond question. That was evident again during talks in China [recently].”

Condon says his business is now involved with steelmakers who account for at least 43% of the world’s steel output, and is confident that his ambitious project will go ahead, if it gets the regulatory support it needs from government.

Public submissions to the joint committee ended on May 30, 2014. The joint committee will hand down its report no later than July 6.

Contact: www.EWLP.com.au

NEWS

Project Iron Boomerang proposes to transport iron ore from WA to Queensland, and coal from Queensland to WA, so that the two can be used at steel parks in each state, to create steel slabs for export.

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VALUE ENGINEERING

Stevens is the general manager for pro-ject optimisation at Parsons Brincker-

hoff, meaning he works across multiple different sectors. But, he says, “I would say the majority of my clients come from the mining sector.”

Project optimisation hinges upon making key engineering and financial decisions to make a major development more efficient or economic. But what makes Stevens’ approach unique is how he looks into the psychology of project development.

Stevens, a qualified psychologist and registered organisational and environ-mental psychologist, has put together a suite of workshop interventions,

designed to take place throughout the life of a project.

“These workshop interventions can start right at the very front-end of a project, where we have what’s called alignment or start-up sessions, and they go through the entire life of the project. The project phase will determine what kind of workshop we use.”

Workshop topics include risk man-agement, value management and value engineering. Stevens says he has about 15 different workshops, all intended for different stages within the life of an in-frastructure project.

“We even go so far as to do post-completion review workshops,” he says,

“where we can reflect on [the project] and see which things we want to repeat in future projects, and what things we don’t want to repeat.”

The workshops are based on a col-laborative decision making model and a consensus-driven approach, centred around fast-tracked, structured thinking.

“To extend the amount of time that you have to make a decision doesn’t nec-essarily mean that it’s going to be, qualita-tively, a better decision,” Stevens opines. “In fact, there’s a lot of empirical evi-dence to suggest that the reverse is true.”

Perhaps the most valuable aspect of his workshops, Stevens says, is value engineering.

“Value engineering, to me, is the most robust and the most productive of the meth-odologies that I can impose, as long as it’s done at the right time in the life of the project. It’s the one that demonstrates dramatic capital expenditure reduction.”

Value engineering is about delivering a project at the low-est possible cost without com-promising stakeholder values.

“What it means – particu-larly in a mining context – is that you don’t need to build or construct an iconic building on a mining site; you just want one that is fit-for-purpose. But a lot of designers, and a lot of mining engineers, gold plate the situation and you don’t know that until fairly late in the piece. Sometimes at that point, it’s too late to change the brief.

“The value engineering takes place when you’re just fil-ing your detailed design plan, and that is when you want to

Understanding the psychology of project optimisation

Dr David Stevens from Parsons Brinckerhoff combines value engineering, group thinking and psychology into his own unique brand of project optimisation consulting. Through his workshops, he says, major mining project developers can save millions of dollars in unnecessary costs.

Dr David Stevens says his workshops can save big money on major projects.Photo: Shutterstock.

Dr David Stevens.


VALUE ENGINEERING

try and lock in any design solutions that you can think of that will keep that capi-tal expenditure under control.”

Value engineering can be applied to any major project. It has an Australian, a European and an American standard.

“There is an established and pre-scribed methodology that anyone who uses value engineering is expected to follow. It’s a very user-friendly method-ology, and some people are very experi-enced in delivering it.”

Stevens stresses the potential of value engineering for not only keeping costs under budget, but for bringing costs in significantly below budget.

“When it’s boom time, people will just say ‘if it costs another 10, 20, 50 million dollars to do that, we’ll make the money back eventually’, but it’s not like that right now. People really are concerned and quite conservative in the way they approach things. Value engi-neering is very much the silver bullet for a lot of these projects.”

Finding ways to save money on projects isn’t necessarily an easy task, however.

“Unless it’s a dramatic compromise on design,” Stevens continues, “you don’t just suddenly stumble upon this

huge sum of money that can just be taken out.” Instead, he says, methods of finding cost savings vary from project to project, and industry to industry.

“If I were working on a hotel, and the hotel had to be a five star standard, I probably couldn’t alter the aesthetics and try and trim out money there, be-cause the aesthetics are an inherent part of what the stakeholder requires. But aesthetics don’t really matter on a min-ing project.”

One common error made by civil en-gineers working on resources projects, he says, is when railways and roads are built to last for 50 to 100 years, when the mine itself is set to last for only 30.

“The key in value engineering is get-ting people to challenge design assump-tions, and that’s where the psychology part comes in. It’s about the linguistics of challenging those assumptions, so you can do so without alienating people, and you can get them to buy into the method.”

Stevens has worked with most of Aus-tralia’s big miners, and says his workshops have helped save many unnecessary costs.

“We would have saved a few billion dollars, if you aggregate it across those companies,” he says.

Stevens has also worked on a Mozam-bican project, and has also performed a series of workshops for one of Eike Ba-tista’s former coal mining projects in Co-lumbia, where he helped Batista’s team come up with the most risk-free and cost-effective design for the pit-to-port project.

“My job there was to objectively ar-rive at minimum design in terms of deliv-ering maximum output,” he says.

“I can’t think of an instance where a value engineering workshop didn’t de-liver a 100 to 1 return – meaning if you give me a dollar I’ll give you a hundred back – and that means taking into ac-count all the time of all the people in-volved in the workshop, and ancillary workshop expenses including catering and travel.

“It’s a pretty safe bet that you’ll de-rive those sorts of returns if you conduct a value engineering workshop, and it’s executed properly. There are some peo-ple who purport to do value engineer-ing, and they don’t; they just do a fairly superficial design review, and that’s not value engineering.”


With the reliability of concrete batch plants critical to commercial suc-

cess in the competitive concrete sector, Aussie Pumps is spruiking the credentials of its Tsurumi submersibles, which it bills as “agitator pumps designed for the rig-ours of the concrete industry.”

Tsurumi’s new KTV series slurry pumps, distributed by Aussie Pumps, com-bine a semi-vortex impeller with an inbuilt agitator which allows sand laden liquid to pass smoothly through the pump.

According to Aussie Pumps: “The 2 inch and 3 inch submersible pumps have flows up to 720 litres per minute and heads as high as 22.5 metres. The pumps are powered by heavy duty 3 phase, 2 pole motors with D.O.L. starters. The mo-tors are 415 volt, 50 hertz.”

“The high chrome semi-vortex impel-ler is designed to be durable and corro-sion resistant even in heavy duty batch

plant applications,” said Aussie Pumps’ Craig Bridgement. “The spiral design of the agitator aids the smooth suction of sand and silt,” he said.

The pump’s through-flow housing design enables the motor to stay cool so it can operate even at a low water level, says Aussie Pumps. A rubber suction cover for abrasion resistance is standard equipment. The top-mounted discharge enables easy installation in confined spaces.

“Tsurumi’s huge volume means these high-tech slurry pumps are available at reasonable prices. They’re reliable, will cut maintenance costs and improve effi-ciency in batch plants, pre-fab concrete product plants and everywhere concrete products are manufactured,” said Bridge-ment. “Tsurumi Pump is regarded as being the world’s leading designer and manufacturer of submersible pumps with

a manufacturing capability of up to 1.4 million units per year,” he added.

Pumps under scrutiny as cement market set to go ballistic

With $40 billion of government infrastructure spending in the offing, Aussie Pumps believes the demand for concrete is about to explode.

Aussie Pumps reports that Tsurumi’s agitator slurry submersibles deliver on reliability.

Contact: www.aussiepumps.com.au

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