Liner wear is unavoidable.
The best an operator can do is to choose a standard wear plate that gives them overall chute coverage.
However, standard wear plates currently do not lend themselves to effective wear resistance management.
Wear tracking of abrasive product down the vertical joints between liners which have a standard brick pattern can lead to excessive and unnecessary wear of the liners at the joints themselves and of the liners directly below that joint.
This wear can cause the liners to fail much earlier then they should, impacting upon productivity and causing unnecessary downtimes for chute repair.
To obviate this avoidable liner failure Bradken has developed its Versa-Tile range.
The range is a combination of all its different wear resistance products, such as NiHard, Duratrap and Duraceramic, which have been now been designed in an hexagonal shape.
“By manufacturing the tiles in a hexagonal shape, you can completely change the wear pattern, reducing excessive wear in the joints and allowing a longer liner life,” Bradken’s general manager wear plate and block Craig Lee told Australian Mining.
As there are no vertical joints there is significantly less wear tracking on the plates.
This alternative liner system allows the user to choose a liner pattern that best suits their operational needs.
As the tiles can “be mixed and matched”, it allows for the modification of the liners, so that a heavy duty option is not used where there is only light impact from abrasive product and vice versa.
“As you can customise your liner, you now have the ability to customise your wear patterns.
“Another upside is that an operator can now choose a liner material, knowing that they are not committed to only that material for the entire liner,” Lee told Australian Mining.
On top of this, as the tiles have a hexagonal design they can easily be interchanged individually, reducing the need for large scale change outs and downtimes.
It is suitable for use in a range of abrasive environments, due to the capacity for varying the liner thickness.
The tiles have standardised 152mm stud/hole centres, and 35mm thick liners with minimised ledges or raised edges.
The system can be retrofitted to existing chute walls and can be incorporated into new chute designs.