MBE Minerals SA has opened a dedicated service centre in Kathu, Northern Cape, the company’s largest market in terms of projects and aftersales services. The 600 m2 facility, located at 23 Ian Fleming Street, Kathu, incorporates offices, a warehouse and a workshop for assembly, repairs and inspection of certain components.

“With such a large installed base of equipment at several mines in this area, it makes sense to support our customers from a local setting,” Heinz Mittermaier, engineering manager at MBE Minerals SA, says. “We’re now able to provide a rapid response technical assistance and maintenance service. We’re also in the process of talking to our customers about setting up a local stockholding of certain parts, as well as management of the necessary inventory levels based on their operational profiles. From an OEM perspective, we will ensure that the correct parts and equipment are installed in our machines, keeping them to specification and ensuring they operate within their design limits. Our commitment is to support the equipment we supply through its complete lifecycle.

“A big advantage of having a local presence in this area is being able to develop first-hand knowledge of how our equipment is operating within the various plants, enabling application-specific design improvements to improve the operational life of the equipment.”

Once such design enhancement recently introduced to MBE Minerals SA’s oscillating resonance type screens is now being made available throughout the world. Oscillating resonance type screens compare favourably with conventional screens, as they harness low power consumption to move large masses. Several of these units have been operating at a major iron ore mine in the Kathu area since the 1970s and at other longstanding installations in the local and international mining industry. 

“When we were approached by one of our international customers, an Australian iron ore mine, to supply them with a new oscillating resonance type screen based on the old design, we obtained the customer’s permission to develop an improved screen box,” says Mittermaier. “This innovation was designed at our offices in South Africa using the latest 3D CAD operating software and incorporates fundamental design principles for this type of screen. During the test phase, the no load test showed significant operational improvement. The new screen box conforms to OEM design specifications in all regards, maintaining the mass ratio between the counter vibrating frame and the screen box intact.”

While the footprint, or static mass, of the machine stays the same, the screen box has been optimised using the latest design, fabrication and production technologies, coupled with operational data from customer plants. The new design improves the maintainability of the screen, eliminating the conventional complex screen deck arrangement and replacing it with state-of-the-art screen panel and polyurethane fastening system. The introduction of tubular cross members, also PU coated for increased wear life, simplifies and speeds up the manufacturing process and reduces the wear surface.

Mittermaier comments that all these design improvements have resulted in a more efficient screen box that is able to achieve and maintain the required stroke for longer periods. Existing machines can be easily upgraded by simply replacing the old screen box with the new version.

“The overall benefits of this design enhancement are ease of installation, replacement and maintenance of screen panels and significantly increased operating life,” he concludes. “In terms of cost, there’s definitely a reduction in both capital and operational expenditure between the old and the new, based on the new screen’s durability.”

KATHU SERVICE CENTRE PIC 01 : 3D model of design RS screen.
KATHU SERVICE CENTRE PIC 02 : RS screen assembled and ready for shipment.