Kwatani’s objective to position itself as an expert and advisor for screening applications has seen it execute a project that successfully delivered optimised throughput performance for one of the largest coal mining companies in South Africa.

Kwatani was brought in to consult on possible solutions to assist one of the largest coal processing plants in the country, not only return its screening throughput performance to its original design parameters but to increase it further as well.

“Having evaluated the challenges on site and consulted extensively with the plant personnel, we determined that the suggestion to incorporate a bigger gearbox onto the screen would fail,” says Kwatani chief operating officer Kenny Mayhew-Ridgers.

The screen lifespan was in excess of six years and Kwatani determined that it would not be able to accommodate substantially larger gearboxes offering 50% more output than the  currently installed exciter gearboxes. “This would have resulted in irreplaceable damage to the screens,” Mayhew-Ridgers states.

Because the customer was also looking for a quick and cost effective solution, purchasing new screens with larger vibration capabilities was not an option.

Having evaluated the challenge, Kwatani realised the simplicity of the solution. “The plant was achieving 450 tph on 480 tph screens and was looking to increase this to about 525 tph. This equated to roughly a 17% increase in performance. Replacing the screen’s existing gearboxes with those that could deliver greater vibration but would not exceed  the output torque that the 37 kW drive motor could provide was the answer,” Mayhew-Ridgers outlines.

With a range of locally designed and manufactured exciters gearboxes in its portfolio, Kwatani was quickly able to provide the customer with two new exciter gearboxes which were delivered to site, installed and operational in the two week time frame the customer was looking for. “The increase in screen throughput was immediate.”

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 tph – 22% more than the original requirement. “Our success has proven our capabilities and screening knowledge and we have further secured all the screen repair work as well,” Mayhew-Ridgers adds.

“We have positioned this business to offer expertise that extends beyond the supply of screening equipment. Our product knowledge enables us to correctly specify the right equipment and components for the application – in a case-by-case scenario,” he concludes.