Well-known for its mechanical conveyor belt fastening systems, Multotec company Mato Products is now also leading the charge in innovative belt cleaning systems.
Mato Products has long been a household name in clip fasteners for conveyor belts, especially in the underground coal sector. The company operates one of only three high production Mato machines in the world, and significantly the only one outside of Germany. After over 30 years of operation, the unit was overhauled in 2016 in an intense six month refurbishment. It was upgraded from 180 tonne to 360 tonne capacity, speeding up production and ensuring both ongoing cost-effectiveness and reliability of supply for customers.
The company’s exciting line of belt cleaning equipment has for some time now been gathering momentum. Its popularity has extended well beyond the coal sector into other materials handling and mineral processing applications, even in diamond mining. According to Benjamin Sibanda, managing director of Mato Products, over-feeds at transfer points often lead to material build-up on the inside of a belt.
“As mines and other industrial facilities raise their environmental standards, they want to avoid problems like duff heaps under conveyors, which can cause pollution,” says Sibanda.
The Mato MCP3-S primary cleaner, installed at the head pulley is designed to be an aggressive head pulley cleaner, yet friendly to the conveyor belt surface and suitable for use with mechanical fasteners. It offers a high level of cleaning due to its blade profile, and the spring tensioning system ensures the blade is in constant contact with the belt for the life of the blade while achieving up-to a maximum of 75% cleaning.
“The secondary Mato MUS2 belt cleaner is one of our latest design belt cleaners and offers a M-TRAK slide on cushion and blade for easy installation and maintenance” Sibanda says.
The unique M-TRAK is designed to eliminate lengthy maintenance downtime and ensures blade alignment is 100% true across the entire conveyor belt width. Blade replacement is also very simple with the design of the slide-on and slide-off principle, eliminating the need for special tools or training when maintenance is performed.
“The unique design of our MUS2 cushion is based on the principle of a parallelogram whereby the cushion also stays true to the conveyor belts surface ensuring the angle of attack is maintained,” he says. “This cleaner’s primary duty is to remove fines and duff, to almost zero carry-back.”
Blades on the cleaners come in a range of materials suited to different applications, including polyurethane and tungsten.
While the application in South Africa was initially mainly underground, equipment variations for surface have now also been developed and introduced to market. The plant tail-end cleaner is based on the same concept but is mounted on channels rather than on stringer pipes.
“This product includes innovative blade stoppers,” Sibanda explains. “When the blade is worn to a certain level, the mounted flat plate does not touch the belt, for better protection.”
Leveraging its technical expertise and experience in the market, Mato Products has also engineered closer integration between its fastener clips and the belt cleaners.
“For instance, we have added a profile to the clip which optimises the life of both the clip and the tungsten tip on our secondary belt cleaner,” he says. “The skiving process embeds the clip slightly into the belt ensuring the mechanical splice is on the same surface as the conveyor belt thereby minimising the impact on the tungsten tip as well as lowering noise levels. Longer life of both means less downtime for the customer and greater reliability.”
Sibanda highlights that all the offerings in Mato Product’s conveyor belt systems range helps to improve the lifespan of equipment at loading points. The energy of ore transfer is absorbed, and wear resistance is increased by Multolag ceramic products.