Stock in trade bulk stockyard equipment ENGINEERING & EQUIPMENT 107 OCTOBER 2012 DCi The Aumund Group is a major manufacturer of bulk handling equipment, and has great expertise in stockyard systems. In the case study below, Aumund gives details of a whole system that it has supplied, which covers all the bulk handling equipment requirements, all the way from the mine to the cement plant. INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS FROM MINETO CEMENT PLANT The fundamental principles of surface mining have remained unchanged for hundreds of years involving the use of explosives to blast the rock from the face, mobile plant to transport the as- mined rock and a primary crusher to reduce the material size to allow transfer now by conventional belt conveyor. However, within the general parameters of the drill-blast- load-haul concept in recent years the Aumund Group has developed innovative solutions enabling operators to take maximum advantage of all available transportation modes combining the benefits of mobile plant and belt conveyor haulage to achieve the lowest cost per tonne with the smallest carbon footprint reflecting present sustainability obligations. Using traditional solutions, mining can be a highly energy intensive operation with a large carbon footprint and high operating costs requiring a huge investment in expensive mobile equipment including often multiple large haul trucks where the working bench may be several kilometres from the primary crusher. In a traditional quarrying operation the rock is blasted and hauled using large dump trucks often over 100 tonnes capacity to a central crusher within the pit itself. The primary crusher, typically of the gyratory design for example, requires a substantial installation with primary feeder, conveyor and screening equipment to generate temporary stockpiles before the sized material is transported to the cement plant. Almost invariably the crusher will be mounted in a dedicated building and often the design utilizes the relative height differential between the upper and lower quarry benches to minimize civil works costs. However, this arrangement has ongoing operating cost implications in that the as-mined rock must be hauled up to the primary feeder level and the crushed material conveyed from the lower level back up to the surface requiring a high energy input for both operations. The as-mined material may be up to 1.5-metre lumps and creates a huge impact load on the primary feeder which must not only absorb the impact load but also provide a buffer holding capacity and controlled feed rate to the crusher to optimize the crusher performance. Irish Cement has a typical primary crusher station where shale is sized using twin rotary sizers and then conveyed to Aumund Group: focusing on low cost and low carbon footprint Louise Dodds-Ely
Transcript
Stock in tradebulk stockyard equipment
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The Aumund Group is a major manufacturer of bulk handlingequipment, and has great expertise in stockyard systems.In the case study below, Aumund gives details of a whole
system that it has supplied, which covers all the bulk handlingequipment requirements, all the way from the mine to thecement plant.
INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS FROM MINE TO CEMENT PLANT
The fundamental principles of surface mining have remainedunchanged for hundreds of years involving the use of explosivesto blast the rock from the face, mobile plant to transport the as-mined rock and a primary crusher to reduce the material size toallow transfer now by conventional belt conveyor.However, within the general parameters of the drill-blast-
load-haul concept in recent years the Aumund Group hasdeveloped innovative solutions enabling operators to takemaximum advantage of all available transportation modescombining the benefits of mobile plant and belt conveyor haulageto achieve the lowest cost per tonne with the smallest carbonfootprint reflecting present sustainability obligations.Using traditional solutions, mining can be a highly energy
intensive operation with a large carbon footprint and highoperating costs requiring a huge investment in expensive mobileequipment including often multiple large haul trucks where the
working bench may be several kilometres from the primarycrusher. In a traditional quarrying operation the rock is blasted and
hauled using large dump trucks often over 100 tonnes capacityto a central crusher within the pit itself. The primary crusher,typically of the gyratory design for example, requires asubstantial installation with primary feeder, conveyor andscreening equipment to generate temporary stockpiles beforethe sized material is transported to the cement plant.Almost invariably the crusher will be mounted in a dedicated
building and often the design utilizes the relative heightdifferential between the upper and lower quarry benches tominimize civil works costs. However, this arrangement hasongoing operating cost implications in that the as-mined rockmust be hauled up to the primary feeder level and the crushedmaterial conveyed from the lower level back up to the surfacerequiring a high energy input for both operations.The as-mined material may be up to 1.5-metre lumps and
creates a huge impact load on the primary feeder which mustnot only absorb the impact load but also provide a bufferholding capacity and controlled feed rate to the crusher tooptimize the crusher performance.Irish Cement has a typical primary crusher station where
shale is sized using twin rotary sizers and then conveyed to
Aumund Group: focusing on low cost and low carbon footprint
Louise Dodds-Ely
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the screen house.In this case the rotary crushers are relatively compact but
with a gyratory or jaw design the equipment would besubstantially higher demanding an even greater height differential.This is a unique installation where the final feed rate to the
ongoing conveyors is controlled by a SamsonTM feeder acting as areservoir to absorb peaks in the flow rate.Utilizing the SamsonTM deflected chassis design reduced the
excavation depth and provided the fine feed rate controldemanded by Irish Cement.In all primary crusher operations the primary feeder is
exposed to the maximum loading and must convey these hugelump sizes generally inclined from the tipping point to thecrusher inlet.Illustrated below, the Aumund BPB Series feeder is available
with a variety of specifications and chain and apron plate designs.The BPB-SF
Series designutilizes trackedvehicle typechains andsupporting rollerswith milled apronplates up to80mm thickdesignedspecifically for thisoperation.For a cement
plant where themine is relativelyclose to the kilnthe centralprimary crusherconcept remainsthe most popularand flexiblesolution.
However, there are alternatives combining the benefits ofshort distance truck haulage with long distance belt conveying.The SamsonTM Surface Feeder can be combined with an
integral rotary sizer to receive as-mined limestone from smallarticulated dump trucks and provide a controlled flow rate andmaterial size to the ongoing overland quarry field conveyors.Whilst the limestone is not a particularly hard grade the lump
size and impact duty remains the same as for any primarymaterial feeder.The advantage of this concept is that the whole equipment
remains mobile, with the Samson feeder on rubber tyres and therotary sizer on rails the complete feeding and sizing station maybe easily moved along the field conveyor to remain close to theworking bench.To provide a stable mounting for the equipment and for the
truck access interlocking concrete blocks are employed whichmay be easily dismantled and used again when the equipment isre-positioned.In this manner the whole plant limestone demand (chalk) of
600tph (tonnes per hour) may be met using just two 35-tonne-capacity articulated trucks. Also, since the trucks operate alwaysat the same general level and there is no need to raise thematerial from the quarry floor the total energy input issignificantly reduced.The key issue in any mining system that involves explosives is
the absolute need to remove all of the plant clear of theworking face for safe blasting; a clear advantage for truck haulage.However, this is not the only solution and in many new workinglocations the mobile face crusher concept is becoming morepopular.With this system the primary crusher is mounted to a
tracked carriage complete with primary feeder and dischargeconveyor as an independent fully autonomous unit with its ownonboard diesel gen-set.B&W, part of the Aumund Group since 2002, pioneered the
development of highly mobile ‘Link Conveyors’ for this purpose.These Link Conveyors include self-propelled wheel drive and
steering units allowing the conveyor to be rapidly moved
Samson regulates shaledischarge.
Aumund primary crusher feeder.
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between working areas and away from the face for blasting. Ingeneral the complete equipment including digger, crusher andconveyors may be moved clear in 20 minutes such that the totaltime lost during the blast may be less than one hour.From the Link Conveyors the crushed rock is transferred to a
fixed in-pit conveyor system and raised to the secondary crusherand screening system before despatch.Using this concept no truck haulage is required thus reducing
the operating cost and absorbed energy enormously and in sodoing reducing the plant carbon footprint.After the crushing and screening operations at the mine or
quarry the sized material must be stored and generally blended toachieve a consistent supply for the kiln.Schade, part of the Aumund Group since 2001, has delivered
many different solutions for automated stockpiling and blending forthe cement industry based on its long-established range of chain scraper designs.Schade was formed in 1879 and entered the reclaimer market in 1949 with equipment first for the fertilizer industry and latterly
for power plants. It was in 1975 Schade supplied its first system for the cement industry at Ketton Cement in the UK, now part of
Samson feeder withintegrated sizer.
Link conveyors tomobile face crusher.
As-minedchalk intake toSamson 1600
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the Heidelberger Group.Since 1950 in total Schade has supplied over 600 installations
worldwide including recently a total of 50 vast circular storagesystems for the Chinese power industry.A recent installation at the Holcim (Sueddeutschland) GmbH
plant in Dotternhausen, Germany is perhaps more typical of thesystems supplied in the cement industry. This plant was
delivered in 2008 and has a design reclaiming rate of 200tphhour handling limestone.With the circular storage system, the complete equipment is
mounted to a central column that is extended to carry theincoming conveyor system also thus eliminating any loads fromthe enclosure structure.The stockpile is generated using the luffing radial stacker
Circular storage radialboom stacker.
Circular storage with bridge reclaimer.
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creating incremental layers using the ‘Chevcon’ stacking solutionsuch that at any point a section through the stockpile willinclude layers of every grade of material. Thus as the material isrecovered by the bridge reclaimer the final output is fullyhomogenized.Illustrated above the chain scraper reclaimer system
comprises close pitch shovels that scrape the material from thestockpile to the central outlet. Note also the outboard rollerconveyor chain which provides reduced running resistance andquiet operation plus extended chain life.The bridge reclaimer concept may be more easily seen in this
longitudinal storage facility recently commissioned in Romania atthe Holcim Campulung plant (illustrated below).Mounted to rails on the bridge structure and set to follow
the material natural repose angle the reciprocating harrow isfitted with sharpened steel tines which move through thestockpile surface dislodging material throughout the full stockpiledepth.The longitudinal bridge reclaimer is generally supplied with a
deflected conveyor to raise the discharge enabling the collectingconveyor to be set at the same level as the stockpile.To generate the stockpile, a rail-mounted travelling stacker is
Bridge reclaimerchain scraper.
Bridge reclaimer —longitudinal storage.
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included with a luffing boom allowing the stockpile to begenerated in discrete layers.To achieve this the stacker traverses the set stockpile zone
continuously moving back and forward with an incrementalincrease in discharge height after each pass generating thinlayers.This stockpiling system is known as the Chevron profile and
is similar in principle to that used for the circular storage asillustrated in Dotternhausen except with the circular storage thestockpile is wrapped around the central column.In an ideal world the stone would be transferred from the
quarry to the cement plant by belt conveyor but in somecircumstances that is not a practical option and truck haulagecannot be avoided.In this case, limestone is transferred from the local quarry to
the cement plant of Salonit Anhovo in Slovenia using
60-tonne-capacity heavy mining trucks.The trucks discharge direct to a SamsonTM 1600 Series
surface feeder with a holding capacity of 120 tonnes providing acontrolled discharge rate to the ongoing conveyor system and inthis case a travelling shuttle conveyor discharges the materialsdirect to storage bays. From the storage bays the limestone andother fuels and additives are recovered using a Schade semi-portal reclaimer.These combinations of truck and conveyor haulage are ideal
when the quarry or mine is relatively close to the cement plant.However, there are a growing number of instances where the
raw materials for cement and aggregates for concrete and otherconstruction uses must be sourced many hundreds of kilometresfrom the point of final distribution.For inland haulage barge traffic is the ideal answer with
around 15% of the cost of road haulage and similarly reduced
Semi-portal reclaimer atSalonit Anhovo.
Barge loading basalton Lake Onega.
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carbon footprint. Furthermore barges may be hauled almostsilently and safely into major urban conurbations with littledisturbance and minimum risk of protest.Illustrated on p117 on the Volga in Russia barge traffic is
commonplace...However, bulk shipment requires loading and discharge
facilities that are often either not viable as a permanentinstallation or subject to a lengthy permissioning process.In this situation the B&W (Aumund Group) Stormajor is an
attractive solution being mobile and with a cantileveredoutloading boom that can operate on a lake or river berth withthe minimum of permanent infrastructure. For the economic discharge of barges and deep sea vessels
generally grabs are the only viable option. Either used with shipsown deck mounted cranes or using mobile harbour cranes froma suitable berth there is one common problem — dust andpollution control — particularly with dry aggregates such aslimestone.At Cementos Panama, for example, a purpose-built jetty was
constructed and two Eco-Hoppers and the associated conveyorsystem supplied by the Aumund Group.The Eco-Hopper concept provides dust-controlled discharge
by grab using integral reverse jet filters combined with the ‘Flex-Flap’ one-way valve system to minimize the air extractiondemand.For maximum flexibility the Eco-Hopper may be supplied fully
mobile on pneumatic wheels with a dust-controlled truckloading chute to minimize the overall fugitive dust escape andconsequent environmental pollution for the operation as awhole.Once on wheels the raw or additions material may be
transported directly to the cement plant and in this situation forimported materials the Aumund SamsonTM has also proven verypopular.Illustrated here at a Lafarge cement plant in Morocco the
Samson receives additions material from tipping trucks anddischarges to an Aumund type BWZ central chain bucketelevator.Surface mounting eliminates the deep pits and expensive
foundations and underground hoppers and feeders associatedwith conventional truck discharge facilities. Furthermore, sincethe material free fall from the truck is greatly reduced theassociated dust generation is almost eliminated requiring a muchreduced extraction volume to maintain the installationsubstantially dust free.
