Case Studies

Project Scope

Bulk material: Grain - wheat and barley

Equipment: Telescopic ship loading spout/chute

Challenge: High dust levels and non-standard operating procedure

Project scope

Bulk material: Iron ore fines

Equipment: 42,000 cubic metre conical stockpile with two reclaim hoppers for train loading

Challenge: Insufficient live capacity due to rathole formation above reclaim hoppers

Project scope

Bulk material: Coal

Equipment: Central transfer on a slewing/luffing stacker operating at 8000t/h and speeds over 5.6m/s

Challenge: Development of a favourable concept design in view of tight structural constraints

Project scope

Bulk material: Nickel ore

Equipment: Road receival hopper

Challenge: Arching and ratholing due to difficult nature of material resulting in blockage and downtime

Project scope

Bulk material: Aluminium hydrate, known to be a very abrasive material

Equipment: Existing metering valve used to discharge alumina into a pneumatic conveying system at a rate of 1 to 20 t/h. The valve operates via a onical plug moving up or down, thus changing the annular opening size and controlling the material discharge.

Challenge: Feeding into the conveying system is unreliable, leading to process interruptions. This problem has existed for 20 years.

Project scope

Bulk material: Coal

Equipment: Reclaiming system with bifurcated surge bin feeding yard belt conveyor via two belt feeders

Challenge: Belt wear and tracking issues required replacement of the feeder belts after only 12 months of service

Project Scope

Bulk material: Potash

Equipment: Chute at the end of long, fast-moving feeder operating at 6000t/h

Challenge: Limited head height, wide and slow-moving stream, steep outgoing belt inclination

Project scope

System performance analysis: Is it achieving design capacity?

System performance analysis: Is there opportunity to improve capacity using existing system components?

Project scope

Aim: Predicting and optimising fertiliser dispersion patterns for agricultural rotary spreaders

Challenge: Are the fertilisers evenly spread using the current rotary spreader?

Project Scope

Bulk material: Marine sediments

Equipment: Twin screw feeder, twin screw mixer, swing tube cylinder positive displacement pump and 100 meters of 1.6 MPa 90mm plastic pipe

Challenge: Recovering and pumping marine sediment to a shore landfill

Project Scope

Bulk material: Grain (wheat, durum, barley)

Equipment: Telescopic ship loading spout/chute

Challenge: High dust levels during loading and limited reach leading to increased loading time

Project Scope

Bulk Material: Mineral Sand

Equipment: Surge Bin

Challenge: Inconsistent slurry density at discharge, slumping and blockages

Project Scope

Bulk Material: Coal, Iron Ore

Equipment: Load-Out Station (Bin, Choke Flow Chute, Wagon)

Challenge: Accurate prediction of resultant loads exerted on the structure and load-out chute due to both the central flow channel and slumping; frequencies and loads associated with quaking.