Modern Mining May 2017

CRUSHING, SCREENING AND MILLING

formations, which substantially increases the amount of data being collected. Leveraging perfor- mance data is likely to become an excit- i ng f i e l d f eed i ng into technological advancement, espe- cially in the light of

spread the material as evenly as possible across the deck, so that the cut points are even across the surface and the wear rates are more or less uniform to allow for predictive failure patterns and to facilitate longer replacement intervals. Multotec’s panel options also include pur- pose-built deflectors that can be strategically deployed in the deck map design to assist with this spreading function. “Downtime is a primary concern for all our clients,” says Faba. “So our composite deck designs must ensure that wear patterns are as even as possible, so that we can extend the mean time between failures (MTBF) and con- duct scheduled maintenance as infrequently as we can. Typically we want to ensure that customers can run these screens for six to eight months at least before they have to schedule maintenance downtime.” This is where Multotec’s Hawkeye is push- ing the boundaries, by systematically managing and analysing the data from the deck maps, creating a powerful planning system for on- going application improvement. By tracking the performance over time of the various panel types on each deck in operation, the screening requirements in each part of the deck can be constantly refined. “The composite deck concept opens the door to almost infinite combinations in the placement of particular panel types, and the sheer bulk and complexity of the data from each screen on each operational site needs to be carefully managed and analysed to make it useful,” says Roche. He emphasises that Multotec’s screen pan- els are also commonly used in double-deck

the process guarantees that bind every player in the supply chain to their commitments, says Faba. “The scientific use of this data can help us respond positively to the mining operation’s changing ore characteristics, through our com- prehensive feedback loop,” he says. “This extends from our technicians on site, back through our design facilities, to sales engineers, and into our manufacturing processes. We can assess how well the existing deck map design is meeting the client requirement, while pick- ing up guides and pointers from the data about how best to adapt to changing ore conditions.” Underpinning the interchangeability of panels on composite screen panel decks is the modular format of Multotec’s two common panel sizes – 1' x 1' or 2' x 1'. “This modular design allows for the different types of panels to be placed in specific areas of the screen as part of the overall goal of achiev- ing metallurgical efficiency on the screening media surface,” Roche concludes. “Our experi- ence is that modular panels can cut operating costs on screen decks by up to 30 % plus, when using iterative improvement techniques.” 

An example of a composite deck layout.

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May 2017  MODERN MINING  49