New product development a breakthrough in dewatered tailings solutions

hello and welcome I'm Dom hail for Mining Journal mining magazine and Australia mining monthly's 2024 tailings report I'm here today with Ken R director of tailing Solutions at FL smid Ken's come on to talk about a new product development seeks to transform tailings management namely the AFP 2500 pressure fil can welcome it's great to have you here thank you D I appreciate the time Kent I want to start by asking you what the key Innovations are that have been incorporated into the AFP 2500 pressure filter that make it such a significant product development one that FL Smith describes as a breakthrough in dewatered tailing Solutions no less sure um probably one of the bigger ones is the new plate design um this new plate design extend the media life uh and the media life is unfortunately one of the larger portions of the the operating cost uh of a filter pressure filter so we went through several years of testing and iteration to to develop you know determine where the wear was coming from where the mechanical failure also some related to blinding of the media but the plate design was modified to to remove any kind of um points where we cause mechanical failure that would due to bending or or sharp edges of the you know Peak you know basically breaking into the cake or sorry breaking into the um the media itself uh so we smoothed out the transition edges as well as um we relocated and optimize the location of the filtrate ports um secondly is around the Wash U systems that are designed for the filter itself so there is a we redesigned the the high volume was system for the cloth uh so this is retargeted the system to better the nozzles so that they better wash the area but they also stay better aligned with the actual chamber you know chamber between the plates through the life um of the the filter itself so this this has improved the the the the operation in terms of the you know the every cycle if there's a a need for high pressure washing we've we had the system that's been designed to do this offline uh and the reason we we designed this to be offline is is these things you know high pressure washing of the media inside of the filter I've seen it take up to about an hour and a half uh each day so that kind of downtime uh really does impact the availability of the filter um and therefore you can you know lower if you get the availability goes low enough you end up needing more filters so we've tried to to keep in mind how do we improve the system um to improve the the total cost of ownership as well as the availability and speaking then of that total cost of ownership how do those Innovations serve to reduce that and and and improve availability so probably one of the the bigger impacts on on total cost of ownership um is part of the capex um the capital cost of the equipment we've we've changed the design of the largest metal Parts the The Head and the you know and the tail end uh Chang them from fabricated Parts where they were you know you manually assembling them a lot of welding a lot of hours go into that and we've changed them to being cast parts so there's two things that this is has improved it is you know by casting you create a mold you can put the metal really only where you need it um when you're fabricating it you end up having to you're using straight edges you know plates and your Prim of molded together and you're kind of you're more restricted as to where the metal can be put inside the these end plate big end Chambers um so that by reducing the steel amount as well as reducing the we'll say the manufacturing process the cost of that been able to to reduce the cost of the filter quite a bit um additionally we've simplified the cloth Shaker system um that has brought down the the cost a little bit in terms of the capital side but what it has done is it simplified a lot of the maintenance needed around the Shaker bars um and and so that improves your your through the life of of the operation you're not having to do as much maintenance um another point that we found there was causing some cost through the life as as the plates are moving and opening and closing you know moving when the the filter opens and closes they wear out the bar that they were they were mounted on uh as they travel back and forth so what we've done is put a strip a wearable strip um on top of the the main sidebar and so that is you know relatively inexpensive and and relatively quick to replace so through the life of of of the filter you know that brings down again maintenance time and cost associated with having to replace the you know the large sidebars um those that's no longer necessary you know the biggest impacts on on availability really is as I mentioned the extension of media life through through better plate design and the wash system um and then by doing the high pressure wash offline for um you know this AFP 2500 which is itself designed specifically for tailings um and fast U relatively quick filtration times there are applications that um have very long cycle times you know Merl Crow some really clay heavy applications Wastewater these have such long we're talking hour hour and a half 2 hours cycle times that doing the high press wash within the filter um that's feasible on those and we do have a design of a filter for that but the the purpose of the AFP 2500 really is to because it's the application is tailings and you don't want to spend you know as little money as possible uh on a waste what's considered a waist stream you want this cycle time to be as fast as possible so that's the purpose of having you know the high press wash offline for these types of applications where you would be using the AFP 2500 understood so the AFP 2500 pressure filter offers up the prospect of easy media change out a new cloth shaking mechanism cast Parts flexible plate designs longer media life and more efficient cloth wash systems there's a lot there for the mining industry to get excited about but which of these enhancements do you think will be met with the the greatest enthusiasm and why is that well while we're obviously excited about all of them you know we we used feedback from customers to to kind of gauge what was you know we'll say the the problem points for them and the customers that already have you know operating tailings filters um a lot of it came down to the the the plate and cloth maintenance so that's where we we redesigned those systems um you know extending the cloth life you know that again it it's not it it serves as like a dual benefit in terms of you're you're spending less money on purchasing of the media um but you're also spending less labor hours taking them in and taking them out uh cleaning them you know the offline high pressure system can be used to rejuvenate the media um so if you're in an application where your your primary source of failure is is blinding you take the media out you rejuvenate it offline while the filter is still running and then you can put it back in um so we we've done research with with universities for that um but I I do think based upon the you know the feedback we got from customers that are already using tailing filters the extension the redesigns of the systems related to extending that media life will have a a significant impact we've seen Minds sites go from 1500 Cycles um upwards of 4,500 Cycles so you're talking three times you know the demine you know the media life and again that that reduces significantly your your maintenance cost both Capital side of it you know as well as the hours related to maintaining the machine all right so moving on then the AFP 2500 is marked by datadriven control and decision making that allows for optimized proactive maintenance but with this enhanced data Le approach to tailings management does this product demand knowhow as yet unavailable at scale to reap the benefits or would you describe its operation as compatible with existing skill sets I I believe it's it wouldn't require very little additional training um and then really the additional training is is more about a change of way it's done so we've simplified some of the maintenance so it's should be easier training um but the digital aspects that we've been working on such as the the intell plate that we have that uses a turbidity sensor to detect when mechanical failure of the media happens and you're getting slurry going behind the media which not only blinds the plate but also can act as a a a sand blasting we'll say when you're you're doing the air blow through it and then thus damaging the plate um that isn't of itself it's it's providing additional data so it's not um you know there would be a little bit of additional training just on that particular sensor but in terms of the control you know your operator in the control room it's providing additional information that hey there's a hole in you know the media and it not only says there's a hole it tells you which chamber so you don't have to spend time trying to figure it out with the you know while the taking the the filter offline you just walk by there'll be a red light telling you exactly which one of the chambers is has failed or needs to the media needs to be replaced and the plate taken out and cleaned um so that's that's adding you know a beneficial um observation or additional data one of the the issues we've had historically with with tailings filters and to some lesser degree concentrate filters is knowing what what cake moisture you're producing you know most mines um they basically had the operator goes out they take one sample of shift send it over to the lab to to get a wet weight and dry weight so they they they can tell you what the the cake what moisture cake was produced once a shift now know the moisture sensor that we've got that we've developed um it'll basically give you a reading every 10 to 30 minutes depending upon the material you're you're you're you're filtering so that again it's it's providing an additional data point uh from a control standing so not only is the operator able to see much closer to real time than once a shift they can do it you know couple two to three times an hour to make sure the filter is performing okay or maybe media is starting to blind and you're just not getting the performance so now you need to go change some you know that's again it's an additional feature um for the operator to view but you can also then now that it become available you can start integrating it into a control philosophy like where our approaches to be done you know where you can make Minor Adjustments to the the filter operation itself based upon that um you know that that moisture sensor that you're getting you know typical control philosophy do you have it trending up do is it fine or is it just random noise are your is your average too high within your your acceptable limit so all of that you know is pretty standard within Control Systems it's just those have been it's been data that's not been available in the past and so that additional data is really there to help the operators and and really would require minimal training and so at a strategic level how does the AFP 2500 act to dovetail with FL Smith's Mission zero sustainability program yeah so our our mission zero goals really are zero emissions um Zero Energy waste and Zero Water waste so obviously the Zero Water waste you know the AFP if you're doing filtered tailings you're recycling as much water as as possible um but our mission zero approach really is not just looking at the dewatering side of of it it's looking at a more holistic approach to the entire uh process all the way from you know conveying you know from the Run of mine to your comminution circuit so it's looking at how to incorporate newer Technologies Upstream in the in the comminution and processing side and those impacts on your your dewatering uh you know within the flow sheet so we we've got a couple different you know newer Technologies in the separations area such as our reflux flotation cell and our course air um course flotation both of these are kind of targeted to to improve the grinding operation and that it will be able to recover some coarser material and so you can push to a forer grind forer the grind the better typically your dewatering is uh performance which you know improves both your you know reduces the cost in both your sedimentation and the thickeners as well as in your y Filtration plant you know a positive we'll say side effect or byproduct of that course of grind is that it the the what we've seen in our studies where geotechnical Consultants were involved you know that course of grind also improved the geotechnical characteristics of that tailings which improved its deposition strength uh so there's it really is just part of you know our our mission zero objectives it adds into you know if we can reduce the the grinding grinding is obviously where a lot of the power consumption is so if you can go to a corser grind you're again reducing energy waste you know and kind of the zero emissions if we can reduce the energy waste which is where a lot of the emissions is going to come from We're reducing fabrication uh cost which again from a a supply chain not just the Adaptive energy used in the um actual mining operation but if you're reducing the carbon footprint through your supply chain you know then you're obviously having a beneficial impact and that that heavily supports our emission zero objectives interesting and finally then Ken let us know why does the market need a product like the AFP 2500 now more than ever would you say so you know filter tailings has been done um for decades but it's always been at at small throughputs you know typically in the 10 to maximum 20,000 tons per day um and it really was restricted um by the size of the filters in the past you know so it was just far too many filters needed if you wanted to get to larger and larger tonnages so what this did is it caused the oems you know fls included over the last you know you know five to 10 years to really look at going bigger on the filters because the the goal at first was to reduce the number of filters um but what we we found through our development Cycles uh and looking and feedback from from customers operating filters that bigger didn't necessarily mean more efficient you know so there was that's where the bigger can reduce your your Capital cost but it doesn't always have the same impact the same level of impact on your operating cost and that's why over the last five six years uh we started really focusing in on that total cost of ownership how do we not only go bigger but how do we make it the operation of the filter you know better more efficient so that over the whole entire life of mine the costs come down so I mean when you're looking at a project justification you know many customers will look at Net Present values and they're going so they're going to look at over not just the capital cost is significant but you still need to look at the entire operation it'll cost over you know 20 30 sometimes these mines are are 50 more years so that the operating costs can add up over time U but we also wanted to simplify the the you know the maintenance you know an operation itself of the filter by adding and digitalization so it's easier to control um and there's less guess work so you know I I think the the innovations that we've incorporated into it really with that focus of of controllability as well as total cost of ownership will hopefully Help U more of our customers to be able to truly Implement filter tailings even at those larger tonnages um which will help then support their own sustainability uh goals and their mission statements and trying to become better you know Community Partners well look thank you very much Ken it's been enlightening I've been speaking with Ken r at FL Smith I'm Dom ha thanks for watching

Channel: Mining Journal

Views: 9,996

Keywords:

Id: RblxGplir5E

Length: 17min 43sec (1063 seconds)

Published: Tue May 21 2024