The global growth of FLSmidth’s comprehensive range of screening and vibrating equipment is being reflected in Africa with a steadily increasing installed base across mineral processes and commodities in several countries on the continent.

The group’s screening capability took a major step forward in 2012 with the acquisition of Ludowici, the world’s leading provider of reflux classifiers, coal centrifuges, vibrating screens and complementary wear resistant products and services for the minerals industries. This allowed FLSmidth to complete its coal processing flow sheet and complement its copper and iron ore processing offerings with leading technologies. “Our principal screening and feeding installations in Africa are in Ghana, Zambia and Mozambique and we’re currently busy with a very large project that will showcase our capability in this arena in South Africa,” Jurgen Cneut, FLSmidth technology specialist - vibrating equipment, says. The group’s technology centre for screening and vibrating equipment is located in Brisbane Australia, where ongoing R&D work is focused on developing new designs and manufacturing processes to boost efficiencies and optimise designs, while maintaining the product quality to which the market is accustomed. 

FLSmidth South Africa is one of the few vibrating screen manufacturers to have its own in-house panel manufacturing operation under the FLSmidth Screen Media (formerly Meshcape) brand. Research into combining the company’s Ludowici and Meshcape panel designs is progressing rapidly, with the objective of boosting the durability of the end product to achieve a reduced total cost of ownership for customers. 

A major benefit to the local market is that screening and vibrating equipment is manufactured at FLSmidth’s Supercenter in Delmas, Mpumalanga, which exists as a multi-faceted hub for FLSmidth activities throughout southern Africa. “The major drivers here are cost savings and being able to provide local support, including inventory holding, to customers,” Cneut says. “Manufacturing these products locally speeds up the entire supply chain.” FLSmidth screening and vibrating equipment is differentiated in the marketplace by its robust designs that deliver a longer lifespan and incorporate unique features, such as an integral feed box as a separate component from the screen unit, which can be replaced without the need to cut or modify the screen. The unit simply unbolts from the screen frame and is replaced with a new one. FLSmidth is one of only a few companies to offer this design feature in Africa. The company is also differentiated by designing and manufacturing a range of exciter drives used on the bigger banana screens.

“In addition to the standard designs in the range, we’re also able to tailor make screens to suit individual customer applications,” Cneut adds. “For example, we’ve just completed a year-long test of a 4,8 metre wide screen designed for the coal industry, which has proved that a screen of this size can work extremely efficiently over the long term. Another recently completed large screen, destined for a customer in South America, is a double deck unit weighing 54 tons.”

FLSmidth’s Ludowici range of vibrating equipment comprises primarily linear motion, high G force, heavy duty designs suitable for all mining and mineral processing applications. Sizes range from 0,6 metres wide up to 4,8 metres wide with lengths from 1,2 metres to 11 metres. The range largely consists of heavy and medium duty vibrating screens, primary grizzly feeders and heavy and medium duty vibrating feeders. Of further interest in the product range is the FLSmidth Ludowici Jetslinger that distributes free flowing bulk materials, inaccessible by other mechanical means, to form storage piles, and the FLSmidth Ludowici stockpile discharger that facilitates a controlled outloading rate of up to 8,000 tonnes of coal per hour. The stockpile discharger effectively prevents rat-holing and bridging of the material to achieve a greater live area in the stockpile.

FLSmidth is the African market leader in the supply of centrifuges that have an unequalled track record of performance and reliability. The range includes coarse and fine coal centrifuges featuring high capacity, advanced technology, durability, value and efficiency. All centrifuges are backed by professional support and on-site service. The fine screen products range is completed by the company’s innovative Reflux Classifier technology, now accepted as the preferred fines gravity separator by the major global producers of metallurgical coal.

“Our local customers benefit greatly from our access to the global FLSmidth organisation’s process teams, enabling us to efficiently streamline all this equipment to suit individual client applications,” Cneut says. “As a Group, we’re substantially bigger than an OEM that simply manufactures screens. Drawing on this immense knowledge base, we can examine upstream and downstream processes to ensure our screening and vibrating equipment improves the efficiency of the total process. “Our corporate philosophy drives our capability to offer the majority of plant equipment from ‘One Source’ making it easier for our customers to know they are receiving integrated solutions that are optimised for maximum efficiencies. As an ISO 9001 accredited company, we build all our equipment to global quality standards.” Safety is a major driver in the organisation, driven by the desire to keep the end user safe. FLSmidth considers health and safety as a key element for sustainable business, closely integrated with engineering, quality and production.