‘MAGNIFICENT’ SERVICE ATTRACTS LOYAL CLIENTS

‘MAGNIFICENT’ SERVICE

ATTRACTS CUSTOMERS – AND METALS

Magnetic separation keeps product clean and prevents tramp metals from causing damage and breakdowns in crushers and screens. As Eriez Australia’s Ezio Viti explains, quarry operations have numerous options to combat unwanted tramp metals, contaminants and downtime.

Eriez Magnetics has developed a global presence in removing unwanted contaminants from valuable materials conveyed across the extractive industries.

Since 1942, Eriez has perfected the science of magnetic separation for a loyal customer base. Part of this has involved the provision of honest on-site feedback about how quarried aggregates, for example, can be beneficiated with electromagnetic and permanent magnets.

Of course, no one quarry site is the same, and in understanding this Eriez treats each application on its merit.

Eriez Australia sales director Ezio Viti explained the approach taken to ensure each customer gets the most out of their magnets.

“There are a lot of factors to consider, including the size and shape of the contaminant in the conveyed material, to ultimately determine the magnet size and type,” Viti told Quarry. “The rule of thumb is the smaller the contaminant, the larger the magnet.

“The next criteria are the dimensions of the belt and the size and shape of the conveyed material. We also assess whether the customer wants a manual or self-cleaning magnet. And the greatest factor in terms of magnet strength is its location.”

Location, size, shape, power consumption, self-cleaning – all considerations which could easily fly over the head of plenty of quarry managers. Therefore, Eriez takes pride in meeting in-person (taking into account COVID-19 risks) to catch any missed information and provide a clear explanation.

Viti said an open dialogue between Eriez technicians and their customers is key to successful and effective magnet ownership.

“The most important thing about the Eriez service is the feedback, going both ways,” Viti said. “Nothing’s more impressive than gaining loyalty from customers. Loyalty spawns from our performance and if we can’t perform then we don’t deserve any support. We’ve won customers based on that loyalty and continue to do so.”

With strong rapport and expertise, there’s scarcely been an issue of separation and filtration that Eriez couldn’t accommodate.

On a project in Tasmania that purifies silica down to about 100 parts per million, Eriez was able to supply its magnetic filters and rare earth grates to clean fine silica sand before it is shipped overseas to be milled into silica flour for use in various high quality touch screens.

“Our grates are basically a permanent magnet grate with a number of stainlesssteel tubes which encase a combination of mild steel poles and rare earth magnets,” Viti explained. “The design concentrates the magnetic field to attract and retain the finest of contaminants in the product flow.

“This is equally useful in applications like clay operations where the final products are used as additives in paints, cosmetics or toothpaste where the occurrence of iron contaminants render them unusable.”

OLD FOR NEW Aside from adding value to operations through product beneficiation, Eriez can also add value in its aftersales service too.

Viti recounted a time where this service was of value to an Australian household name.

“A major construction materials company had one of our magnets which was superseded due to an upgrade in application,” he said. “We offered them a deal where instead of simply removing the old magnet from their operation and having it potentially discarded, we offered to buy the old product back for repurposing.”

Viti was proud of Eriez’s ability to provide service support from end to end, adding value all along the customer’s process chain.

“We can look further down the track and if a customer’s plant, product or process has

Suspended magnets in a mobile circuit.

An SE magnet before and after refurbishment. Ezio Viti says it is entirely plausible for an old magnet to be reused on a smaller application elsewhere in an operation.

changed, we can move with these changes and cater for any evolutionary needs,” he said.

“In some cases, a seemingly old magnet destined for the scrap heap can be reused as a scavenger or smaller application elsewhere in the process.”

Eriez understands the customer’s greatest fear in operation is downtime – time and money spent getting nothing in return. To avoid this, the company provides a solution to maximise any operation’s profitability.

“If they have a breakdown, we can ship and swap them a temporary second-hand magnet while we refurbish their main unit back to as-new condition,” Viti said. “And while the second-hand magnet may not fulfil the complete duty, it will remove the need for their plant to stay down for longer than necessary, allowing the operator to keep producing.”

LONG-TERM AMBITION With the short-term covered by proficient service support, Eriez continues to look at the long-term evolution of magnetic separation.

The 7000 series electromagnetic model was introduced into Australia four years ago after more than 20 years of service in North America to replace the 700 series. But now, a new generation of Eriez electromagnet will be creeping into the market and Viti said Eriez is right on top of these new developments.

“By replacing the 700 series, the 7000 series globalised and standardised our product range while also bringing with it a streamlined manufacturing process to allow for more reliable lead times and regulated pricing,” Viti said. “But the mainstream 7000 is reaching the end of its design evolution and will need to be superseded. We have listened to our customers and will focus on enhancements to performance improvements, efficient use of energy and with the aim delivering sensible pricing outcomes as well.

“We’re looking forward to the next 25 years and I can tell you that it looks absolutely brilliant.”•

For further information about Eriez Australia’s magnetic separators and services, visit eriez.com.au

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MOBILE CIRCUIT BOOSTS

OUTPUT OF BAROSSA VALLEY QUARRY

In the past 12 months, a trio of modern mobile crushing and screening units have helped a site improve its productivity and deliver vital materials to its parent company’s operations.

Seelander Quarry is located in Penrice, in the heart of South Australia’s famous Barossa Valley. The exclusive 14-hectare quarry has been operating since 1950 and officially was branded as Seelander Quarries when operator Mick Seelander bought the site in 2002.

The site was acquired in 2016 by the Femia family group, which has considerable quarrying and concrete interests in South Australia. These include Premix Concrete SA (comprising three plants, a fleet of 30 concrete trucks, a cement tanker, three tipper trucks, and a laboratory), Clinton Sands on the Yorke Peninsula, Adelaide Industrial Sands (AIS, whose sands are extracted from Clinton Sands), and Cast-A-Pebble, a subsidiary of AIS which sells decorative pebbles and white quartz for landscaping supplies.

Seelander Quarry, which has a crew of seven on-site, including a quarry manager and three in production, is extracting aggregates from a deposit of a combination of white and blue marble, a hard mica bluestone and a marble limestone.

“One of the products is a Seelander blend of the white and the blue, which goes into concrete mixes, and the blue tends to be diving under the white in some places,” explained quarry manager Lance Sorson, a 40-year quarry veteran who has only been in charge of the site since September this year. “We do traditional quarry methods, including drill and blast, and we chase both the white and the blue. A lot of it goes into concrete mixes and style crete as well.”

In fact, Seelander Quarries predominantly produces its materials for Premix Concrete SA and the stone is very specific for its concrete batch plant requirements.

“We produce traditional sizes, including 20/10, 10mm, 7mm concrete aggregates, sand as a by-product, and some of it goes to landscape yards, in terms of colours, but mainly we operate to support our premix business,” Sorson added. “We’re not a large operation. We’re comfortable with an output of about 150,000 tonnes per annum.” DEFINED MOBILE PLANT One of the major changes that the Femia family implemented upon acquiring Seelander Quarry was dispensing with an ageing fixed crushing plant and introducing modern mobile crushers and screens and a fleet of the latest model front end loaders to undertake processing of aggregates on the site.

In the past five years crushing and screening has been undertaken by a relatively simple arrangement of a mobile impact crusher feeding a portable screen. This became unsustainable for the quarry to meet its sister company’s needs, so the decision was made by Seelander Quarries and Premix Concrete SA’s managing director Frank Femia to upgrade its inventory.

Enter Tim Sharrad, the territory manager for Porter Equipment Australia, based in Adelaide. “I first met Frank Femia in December 2019 and we got talking from there,” he recalled. “In late May, early June of 2020, Frank purchased a Hyundai loader from us for Adelaide Industrial Sands and from there our discussions turned to Seelander and its requirements. Frank had some plant that was due to be replaced, and wanted more quantity and reliability.”

To determine the right type of plant for the deposit, Porter arranged for some of Seelander Quarry’s blasted rock samples to be forwarded to Sandvik HQ’s laboratory in Svedala, Sweden. This enabled Porter to input the material samples into Sandvik’s plant design and compare against thousands of material samples to better predict capacity and wear rates within the crushing chamber. Once the data was collated, Porter and Seelander Quarries collaborated on accurate portable plant designs.

The plant that touched down at Seelander Quarries after August 2020 were two Sandvik mobile machines: a QA451 Doublescreen and a QI442DDHS impact crusher. “Historically, we were replacing an impact crusher so they wanted to maintain

some rock shape,” Sharrad said. “Shape is extremely important to them.”

The QA451 sizing screen is fitted with Sandvik’s Doublescreen system which utilises two 3m x 1.5m, triple-deck high velocity screenboxes (1200mm rotations per minute shaft speed) in the one machine. The primary screenbox acts as a fines extractor and the secondary box as a grader. The Doublescreen system can produce up to 30 per cent more volumes of in-spec material than conventional incline screens working in the same footprint. The QA451 also has the benefit of a 6.15 g-force which effectively moves and separates the material.

The 68-tonne QI442DDHS impact crusher can operate in both primary and secondary applications. It is equipped with the fourblowbar CI621 Prisec horizontal shaft impact crusher, with a feed opening of 1360mm x 800mm, a maximum feed size of 800mm, and a 328kW Caterpillar C13 engine. Other features include a hydraulic raise/ lower product conveyor to prevent rebar obstruction, a double-deck pre-screen for accurate fines removal, a new rotor position and locking device, new hammer locking wedges for quicker removal and fitting, and a wedge removal tool for safer installation and detachment. There is also the optional detachable double-deck hanging screen able to recirculate oversize and/or provide up to three stockpiles.

More recently, Seelander Quarries acquired its third Sandvik mobile unit: a QJ341. “Frank always had plans to use the jaw crusher as a primary before the impactor because you can break the material down better with the jaw in front,” Sharrad added.

The QJ341 primary jaw crusher incorporates a 1200mm x 750mm single toggle jaw crusher with hydraulic adjustable closed side setting (CSS) that can accept up to 650mm into the chamber. Its hydrostatic drive enables reverse function for safe unblocking and the ability to restart with a full chamber, and a jaw level sensor regulates material flow into the chamber.

Sharrad said all three Sandvik mobiles can crush and screen separately or be used in a train. “The jaw feeds the impactor feeds the screen,” he said. “But if you just want to clean crushed fines, you can run them through the screen. You can run them individually.

“The use of the impactor is to get a specific shape. It’s a great all-round machine, , often used in other applications like recycling. The hanging screen enables you to recirculate material or stockpile as you can also run the conveyor at 90 degrees.”

INCREASED RELIABILITY Sorson said the addition of the QJ341 to the crushing and screening mix had significantly improved Seelander Quarry’s output in recent months. “The addition of the jaw and the conversion of the impactor to a secondary has helped the reliability tenfold. It’s smoothed out the humps. The impact crusher was the primary and secondary crusher all in one, and while it worked well, I would say it’s a far better circuit now with the jaw in there.

“Further, going back even 12 months, all three Sandvik machines have certainly outperformed the old ones. They are each pulling 20 to 30 tonnes per hour more than the previous models. I also shouldn’t forget my own small crew, who have done an excellent job of pushing out the tonnes.”

Sorson also praised the programmable logic controller (PLC) and other automation features of the mobile units. “The feeder has a remote the operator can use if he needs it and we’ve just ordered a communications cable between the two crushers to facilitate smoother processing. The PLC has enough brains behind it to know when to stop taking more rocks and the feeder works off load amps. It’s a fairly straightforward, user-friendly system. All information and diagnostics are available on a screen. It’s really a ‘set and forget’ system. The only time you really need to inspect the system is if it stops, so it’s very clever from an electronics point of view.”

Seelander Quarries selected Sandvik’s Security Plus program, which provides additional warranty cover on some of the equipment. The company opted for the silver and gold service agreements, with coverage of two years/3000 hours and three years/6000 hours respectively. It also took out a sevenyear MyFleet telematics fleet subscription to monitor key metrics and schedule servicing.

The QI442DDHS is equipped with the Prisec horizontal shaft impact crusher and a 328kW Cat C13 engine.

COMPLIMENTS AND CAFFEINE Sorson said he was pleased with Porter’s service and support, and had kind words for Tim Sharrad. “Tim’s really good, a good listener and he’s open-minded. Porter is relatively new in Adelaide, but they’ve been excellent, particularly in terms of support. At this stage of the purchase, I’d happily recommend Porter and Sandvik gear to other quarries or contractors. If there’s a complaint I have about Tim,” he joked, “it’s that he never brings me coffee each time he visits the site!”

Sharrad said that feedback from Seelander Quarries had also been positive. “From a production point of view, they’ve certainly increased their productivity with the QJ341 and at the same time they’ve maintained their rock shape, which is paramount for them. We’ve had some great upside. Lance hasn’t been there long but he has been a pleasure to work with. He determined that the jaw was the right tool for the job.

“For me on a personal level, dealing with Lance, and Frank and his team across all of the divisions has been a pleasure. We’ve worked well together on some service issues. We are delivering a screen for the Clinton Sands Quarry at the moment – a Sandvik QA441 double-deck screen, which is the same as the QA451 at Seelander but with a double-deck Doublescreen, not a triple-deck.”

And Sharrad acknowledged he had been remiss on the coffee. “I’ll have to take one out to Lance next time!” he laughed. •

For more information about Seelander Quarries and the other divisions of the Femia family group of companies, visit seelanderquarries.com.au For more information about Sandvik mobile crushers and screens available through Porter Equipment, visit porterce.com.au