Modern Mining September 2015

PRODUCT News

The growing need to reduce costs without impacting on operational efficiencies or reliability has reportedly seen a marked trend in the mining sector towards the use of submersible pumps instead of vertical spindle pumps. Submersible dewatering pumps report- edly offer major advantages over vertical spindle pumps with one of themost impor- tant being that the submersible pump will Trend towards submersible pumps in mining operate directly in the slurry removing the need for costly infrastructure construction. Klint Bawden, General Manager: Sales & Marketing at Integrated Pump Technology, explains that this ease of installation allows customers to begin pumping operations virtually immediately.“And the cost savings achieved are extended to the actual opera- tion as submersible pumps are known to be more efficient when compared to verti- cal spindle units,” he adds.

and fluids with a high content of abrasive solids and with particle sizes up to 50 mm. The range offers reliable pumping perfor- mance and the pumps are fitted with a cooling jacket and an agitator for effective slurry handling, eliminating the issue of silt build-up. The Grindex Bravo pumps are engi- neered to operate over the complete pump curve, not just on specific duty, and can han- dle from 30 litres per second up to 130 litres per second at a maximum head of 45 m. Bawden says that lower operating costs are achieved due to the designwith an inte- grated pump starter which protects the unit from dry run conditions and allows opti- mum control of the pumping operation. “Our most recent installations where a Grindex submersible pump has replaced a vertical spindle pump are in a gold mine dewatering application and in a sand aggregate operation. Both customers needed to increase the reliability of their dewatering application while reducing the associated costs in terms of unplanned downtime and nuisance issues such as silt build-up,” Bawden says. Integrated Pump Technology, tel (+27 76) 840-6527 plants, steel works and the chemical and food and beverage industries, as well as food processing plants,”says TheresaWalton, General Manager: Service, Joest Kwatani. “The Aviteq range of electromagnetic drives is particularly suited to standard volumes where a high dosing accuracy is required,”Walton adds. Joest Kwatani has been appointed the exclusive distributor for Aviteq, formerly AEG, products in Africa, including electro- magnetic drives and controllers. Joest Kwatani, tel (+27 11) 923-9000

“Slurry handling is considered one of the most demanding pumping applica- tions and where an inappropriate pump selection has been made there is often insufficient agitation in the sump. This leads to a build-up of solids which then settle out and a vertical spindle pump is not capable of dealing with this as it will then only pump out the water component in the sump,” Bawden explains. “Removing excess sediment or silt from a sump can become labour intensive and costly, and this situation is easily avoided by using a submersible pump in the first place.” The range of Grindex Bravo submers- ible pumps is engineered to pump slurry tions which reduce downtime are provided. The SFH range of electromagnetic vibrating drives is designed for feeding bulk materials at a controlled rate from stockpiles and hoppers to bulk materials handling equipment such as belt conveyors, crush- ers and screens. Joest Kwatani acquired this product range through its purchase of Lockers Engineers over two years ago. “These are designed for use in medium to heavy applications such as quarries, coal

Submersible dewatering pumps offer major advan- tages over vertical spindle pumps with one of the most important being that the submersible pump will operate directly in the slurry removing the need for costly infra- structure construction.

Aviteq electromagnetic drives available locally In addition to importing a range of elec- tromagnetic drives exclusively from Aviteq of Germany, vibrating equipment supplier Joest Kwatani also supports its own range of locally, in-house manufactured SFH elec- tromagnetic super feeder drives.

Kim Schoepflin, MD of Joest Kwatani, says the company has built its reputation on developing an in-depth understanding of its customers’ specific application needs, and this has ensured that customised solu-

54  MODERN MINING  September 2015