8th of February 2016
TUNRA Bulk Solids’ was recently visited by the Hon. Anthony Roberts MP, NSW Minister for Industry, Resources and Energy along with Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter Scot MacDonald MLC. The visit was part of a wider tour of the Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources (NIER) Precinct and the University of Newcastle. During his time visiting the laboratory of TUNRA, Minister Roberts spent time discussing two innovative projects that are being driven through engagement with Industry;
(left – right) Dr Alan Broadfoot (NIER Director), Mr Scot MacDonald (Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter), Hon. Anthony Roberts (NSW Minister for Industry, Resources and Energy) and Dr Ken Williams discussing the effectiveness of the large impact wear tester (shown in the background)
Dr Ken Williams spent time discussing a new innovative test rig that is able to quantify impact wear in wall liners. The information measured with this test rig can be applied to the mining, mineral processing, agriculture, energy and process industries. The assessment and selection of effective wear resistant materials is central equipment life when handling particulate materials associated with these industries. As such, TBS have designed, built and operated innovative wear assessment equipment for use by industry to accurately assess wear liner effectiveness. When you consider that a simple transfer chute may take 1-2 days to reline with new wear liners, at modern tonnage rates of 5000 to 10000 tonnes per hour, the financial gains derived from the life cycle improvements and maintenance planning derived from these tests are obviously substantial.
(left – right) Hon. Anthony Roberts (NSW Minister for Industry, Resources and Energy) and Dr Tim Donohue discussing the 1/5th Scale Train Load-Out developed in conjunction with Schenck Process (shown in foreground)
Dr Tim Donohue spent time discussing a 1/5th scale model of a Train Load-Out. The motivation behind this scale model, which has been developed through a collaborative research partnership with Schenck Process, is to develop a real time weigh system to track the mass of product loaded into each rail wagon as it is being loaded. This new technology offers opportunities to maximise the mass in each wagon while not exceeding weight limits and represents a step change, as current systems can only weigh the loaded wagons downstream with no opportunity for mass optimisation.
