Wear components manufacturer Davies Wear Plate Systems Australia is attempting to solve the problems of maintenance and down time from worn components.
Managing director Brian Davies used his engineering skills and experience within the mining industry to develop patented designs that combines a fastening system with a manufacturing method.
Having owned and operated a general engineering business, Davies Engineering, for more than 25 years, Davies found a need to develop a niche within the industry.
Since wear management is often treated as simply a troublesome and costly problem by both mine site operators and engineering companies, this was seen as an ideal opportunity for development.
Rather than trying to compete with larger engineering companies by offering the same products and services, Davies set about delivering smarter alternatives to those currently in the market.
Davies wanted to offer short and long term benefits to mine site managers and operators.
Davies Wear Plate Systems Australia general manager Michelle Davies says fastening systems and manufacturing methods are inseparably linked in the performance of wear components.
“One cannot exist without the other, and both of these elements make wear systems effective and adaptable,” she said.
“Looking into the wear plate manufacturing and supply process there were fundamental problems with the current methods of plate processing and fastening systems.
“The plate hardness and type of wear plates was always limited by the processing method, which was determined by the conventional fixing systems, particularly the countersunk bolt.
“To use countersunk bolts, holes need to be drilled in the plate, and the harder the plate, the more difficult it is to drill.”
The company’s solution was to redesign the bolt to suit bolt holes that could be high definition plasma cut instead of drilled.
“This led to the development of the fully tapered head bolt design,” Michelle said.
With this design and production concept Davies Wear Plate Systems now supplies quench and tempered wear plates said to be manufactured faster than traditional wear plate systems.
“These designs are not limited to quench and tempered plate and can be used on a range of plate types,” Michelle said.
“The bolt design has surprising advantages besides the manufacturing benefit: this includes the ability to fix the plate until it is worn to its minimal structural thickness due to the fully tapered bolt head design.
“Premature or uneven wear is also eliminated due to the face of the bolt head being flush with the plate surface.”
Michelle says these features have the benefit of increasing plate life and making wear plate change-outs much easier and less frequent.
The company has recently introduced a nut-less variation of the bolt and are incorporating electronic wear monitoring technology to their range.
“The nut-less bolt can be fixed easily from the plate side of a structure and allows quicker installation and removal of plates with fewer personnel,” Michelle said.
“Davies’ wear monitoring technology has several levels of development which ranges from a manual indicator incorporated into the bolt shaft, to an electronic sensor which will allow remote monitoring.”
“Monitoring wear without production shutdown has huge operational and economic benefits.”
*Michelle Davies is the general manager of Davies Wear Plate Systems Australia. The company is based in Esperance, Western Australia.
Michelle Davies
General
Davies Wear Plate Systems
08 9071 2153
enquiries@davieswpsa.com.au
www.davieswpsa.com.au