A batch of Kwatani manufactured gearboxes
A project that successfully delivered optimised throughput performance for one of the largest coal mining companies in South Africa, has recently been completed.
Kwatani was contracted to assist one of the largest coal processing plants in the country to return its screening throughput performance to its original design parameters and to increase it further as well.
The existing screen lifespan was in excess of six years and it was determined that it would not be able to accommodate substantially larger gearboxes offering 50% more output than the currently installed exciter gearboxes and could have resulted in potentially irreparable damage to the screens.
In addition, the customer required a quick and cost-effective solution and thus purchasing new screens with larger vibration capabilities would not have fulfilled this condition.
Kwatani explains that the plant was achieving 450 t/h on 480 t/h screens and was looking to increase this to about 525 t/h. This equated to about a 17% increase in performance, which could be achieved by replacing the screen’s existing gearboxes with those that could deliver greater vibration but would not exceed the output torque of the 37 kW drive motor.
The company provided the customer with two new exciter gearboxes which were delivered to site, installed and operational within a two-week time frame.
The success of the retrofit saw Kwatani secure the order to replace the customer’s three additional screens with new exciter gearboxes which are now currently operating at 550 t/h, 22% more than the original requirement.