Product Handling - Phosphate Ore

Application

Feed conveyor belt to rolling scrubber

Objective

• Reduce plugging
• Reduce wear
• Easy Maintenance for Liners

Transfer Detail

This 1-on-1 is fed by a 82.3m/min, 107cm-wide feed belt. This feeds a rotating scrubber that has an inlet diameter of 78.7cm The total drop height for this transfer point is 2.6m. The phosphate ore size is 20.3cm minus size lumps.

Challenge

The facility’s main goal with the upgrade was to reduce wear and plugging.
Given the large material size and the poor transfer point geometry, impacts were high, causing a large amount of wear. Additionally, these liners we not easily replaceable, which increased maintenance time for the client.
Plugging was largely caused by the poor geometry of the chute. As the transfer fed into the scrubber, the spout of chute work was mostly flat, causing material to slow down and build up. Additionally the inlet of the scrubber was 80cm, but after adding transfer point platework, the opening became significantly smaller. This meant that if three large size lumps of material ran through the transfer, they could potentially bridge inside the chute, plugging it.
Additionally, while there was a cleaner installed at the bottom point of the head pulley, its scrapings were not properly captured in the transfer and fell to the ground below.

Tasman Warajay Solution

The new transfer point utilized the FlowFirst™ transfer point solution designed with Tasman Warajay® Technology. Using this approach, Tasman Warajay provided the facility a system that accepted material as it trajected and fell vertically from the feed conveyor belt. The transfer point’s highly-engineered shape then kept material moving throughout until it reached the scrubber’s inlet. The new design kept impacts low and reduced flat hang-up points in the chute to keep material moving.
A new cleaner was also installed and a fines section was incorporated into the chutework to collect the belt scrapings.
Finally, the Tasman Warajay FlowFirst™ solution provided liners that were bolt off, making replacement and maintenance easier and requiring less downtime.

Result

After installation of the transfer point was fully completed, the client was extremely impressed with the upgrade. Plugging and wear were significantly reduced. The client was also satisfied with their new solution’s ability to replace wear liners and have been ordering replacements since the installation of the transfer.
Spillage below the transfer point was essentially eliminated with the addition of the cleaner and fines chute section.