Increasing Efficiency for Mining Machinery is our Priority
Mechanical stress, severe impacts, slurries, dust and dirt, corrosion, and lack of water can significantly reduce the reliability and uptime of mining equipment. Chesterton specialists help mining companies worldwide overcome these challenges with expertise and advanced solutions in sealing, lubrication and protective coatings
Boost your Mining Operation with Chesterton’s Innovative Products
Unlock the full potential of your mining operation with Chesterton’s high-quality range of products tailored specifically for the mining industry. We understand the unique challenges mining professionals face and have developed state-of-the-art solutions to maximize your productivity, efficiency and profitability.
This advanced tool offers continuous, around-the-clock monitoring of your technical equipment, even in the most challenging operational environments. Identifying and notifying you about potential issues proactively prevents expensive downtime and damage, solidifying its role as an essential asset within your predictive maintenance arsenal.
Sealing Solutions Engineered for Mining Excellence
Prevent leakage, contamination, and costly downtime with Chesterton’s advanced sealing solutions. Our mechanical seals, packing and gaskets, hydraulic and pneumatic seals, and custom-engineered sealing solutions are designed to withstand the harshest mining environments, ensuring optimal performance and reliability.
Optimize Performance with Superior Lubrication Solutions
Achieve peak performance and reliability with our wide range of industrial lubricants and maintenance products. They reduce friction, minimize wear, and extend maintenance intervals for enhanced operational efficiency.
Enhance Equipment Durability with Protective Coatings
Extend the lifespan of your mining equipment with Chesterton’s high-performance coatings. Our corrosion-resistant, abrasion-resistant, and erosion-resistant coatings provide incomparable protection and keep your machinery from wear caused by demanding mining operations.
Slurry pumps are integral to many mining operations, but their maintenance, particularly the replacement of seals, can be challenging. The abrasive nature of slurries can wear down packing or clog mechanical seal components, reducing seal life to mere weeks or even days. With downtime proving costly, choosing an efficient and easily replaceable sealing solution is crucial.
Expedite Seal Replacement with Best Practices
In this article, we will discuss some best practices that can accelerate the process of replacing packing and seals in slurry pump applications.
Packing: Overcoming the Challenges of Lantern Ring Replacement
One of the most significant hurdles during packing replacement is removing the lantern ring and the bottom rings. Lantern rings can become off-axis, bind up in the stuffing box, or get clogged with particulates, making removal difficult and time-consuming.
Why Leaving the Lantern Ring Unchanged Is Not Recommended
Despite these challenges, it’s not advisable to leave the lantern ring in place while only replacing the rings above. Here’s why:
Over time, the unreplaced bottom rings will wear, extrude, and consolidate, causing the lantern ring to move towards the bottom of the stuffing box and misalign with the lantern ring port.
This alteration prevents flush from reaching the ID of the packing, allowing solids to penetrate under the packing and dramatically reducing its lifespan.
A symptom of a misaligned lantern ring is heavy flush water leakage on the OD of the packing, indicating either misalignment or clogging due to intermittent or inadequate flush pressure, or dirty flush.
Solution: Eliminate the Lantern Ring
The solution to difficult lantern ring removal is straightforward—don’t use a lantern ring.
Our tests have shown that the first three rings of packing do the majority of the sealing, and the bottom rings mostly serve to keep solids out.
By using a throat bushing with built-in flush ports, you can eliminate the need to remove the lantern ring when you repack, and you’ll use less packing.
Since the top rings perform most of the sealing, you won’t sacrifice sealing capability.
To make the system more reliable, specifically engineered bushings are available that alter the water flow within the stuffing box to actively remove and exclude solids (e.g., SpiralTrac – Type P). This makes that the packing works in a clean environment, significantly extending it’s lifetime.
Pre-Cut Packing Rings: A Time-Saving Solution
Another method to expedite slurry pump repacking is to purchase pre-cut rings. Most packing manufacturers now offer pre-cut rings for a small fee, which can be offset by eliminating the time and scrap required when cutting them yourself. These rings ensure correct sizing and accurate cuts made with a sharp blade.
Another method to expedite slurry pump repacking is to purchase pre-cut rings. Most packing manufacturers now offer pre-cut rings for a small fee, which can be offset by eliminating the time and scrap required when cutting them yourself. These rings ensure correct sizing and accurate cuts made with a sharp blade.
Mechanical Seals in a Slurry Environment: Selection & Environment
While modern cartridge mechanical seals are significantly easier to install than component seals, their installation still requires decoupling the power end and often moving pump/motor components. This can be time-consuming, particularly with large slurry pumps.
Advanced Split Seal Design: An Efficient Alternative
Over the past decade, advanced split seals like the Chesterton 442C Seal have evolved to have fewer components, making installation a matter of minutes rather than hours. This seal design can also now achieve seal life equivalent to a non-split seal. Newer features also include fully split O-Rings and easy field-repair capabilities.
Controlling the Seal Environment
Setting up appropriate environmental controls is critical when using Mechanical Seals in a slurry pump environment: A clean flush is often required to keep control of contaminents in the stuffing box.
A bushing can be utilized to limit the amount of particulate that can get into the seal chamber. As with packing, there are engineered bushings designed to remove particulate from the seal chamber and help the seal operate in a clean fluid to improve seal life (Chesterton carries several varieties of these: the SpiralTrac Environmental Controller).
When a clean flush isn’t an option, heavy-duty slurry seals have dedicated features to withstand harsh slurry conditions. Typical Mechanical Seal features are line-on-line seal faces, non-clogging external springs, larger clearances to reduce clogging, and high-strength drives. These can often operate flushless under certain conditions, which can be improved with other environmental controls.
Other Methods of Improving Reliability and Reducing Maintenance
Aside from sealing considerations, there are many other ways to protect your assets and ease maintenance:
Reinforced coatings can extend the life of pump internals and reduce equipment costs.
Proper and automated lubrication extends bearing life along with adequate bearing seals.
High-quality bolt and nut lubrication makes disassembly much easier.
By implementing these strategies, mining operations can streamline their slurry pump maintenance, reducing downtime and increasing productivity.
You can also make a preliminary selection using our product selector. Our product consultants will gladly assist you in selecting the ideal product for your application.
Mining operations often involve working with media containing slurry particles, which can be challenging due to the harsh and abrasive nature of these mixtures. Understanding the various types of slurries and their characteristics is essential when choosing sealing solutions.
Understanding Slurries in Mining
Slurries in mining can be broadly categorized based on their settling characteristics. ‘Settling’ slurries, which settle quickly, tend to be more abrasive. In contrast, ‘non-settling’ slurries remain suspended for longer and are typically less abrasive but due to smaller particles size can have an impact on the mechanical seal faces. There’s also ‘dewatering’ slurry that consists of lighter organic materials and has a tendency to clog parts of the mechanical seal like the springs and cause inability of springs to perform as intented.
Different types of slurries are used in various applications, including alumina, nickel, and copper applications, each presenting its unique challenges. The type of slurry, particle sharpness, particle size, and slurry hardness are critical factors to consider when selecting sealing solutions.
Chesterton’s 170 Mechanical Seal : A Seal Designed for Harsh Slurry Environments
Chesterton’s 170 Slurry Cartridge Seal stands out as an innovative solution designed specifically for harsh, heavy consistency slurry environments. This seal eliminates the need for external flushes in most applications, simplifying the process, reducing potential issues and driving operational cost down.
The 170 Slurry Cartridge Seal can handle high solids content, making it ideal for dealing with the rigorous demands of mining operations. It can employ SpiralTrac™ technology, enhancing reliability and ensuring optimal performance even in challenging conditions.
Chesterton 170 Slurry Single Cartridge Seal
Designed to Extend the Life of Slurry Pumps
Designed for heavy, high-solids slurry sealing
Non-clog design enhances seal reliability
Innovative pressure plate system keeps the springs entirely outside the seal
Field repairable
Conclusion
In the demanding world of mining, choosing the right sealing solution is critical. The Chesterton 170 Slurry Cartridge Seal is helping mining operations navigate the complex challenges presented by different slurry types, improving efficiency requirements and enhancing reliability in the process.
You can also make a preliminary selection using our product selector. Our product consultants will gladly assist you in selecting the ideal product for your application.
The mining industry is a vital economic sector, driving growth and development globally. However, it is also an environment where equipment reliability is constantly tested by harsh conditions. One of the most persistent challenges in this sector is the maintenance of electric motor bearings—a crucial component in the machinery that powers mining operations.
Electric motor bearings are subjected to extreme stress due to heavy loads, high temperatures, and corrosive environments. When these bearings are not properly lubricated, the result can be premature bearing failure, leading to costly downtime and repairs.
The Importance of High-Quality Grease
Choosing the right grease for electric motor bearings is not just essential—it is critical. The wrong type of grease can lead to inadequate lubrication, increased friction, overheating, and ultimately, bearing failure. This is where Chesterton 638 Electric Motor Grease (EMG) comes into play.
Chesterton 638 Electric Motor Grease (EMG)
Designed specifically to combat the challenging conditions that electric motor bearings encounter, Chesterton 638 EMG is a high-performance grease that ensures optimal lubrication under demanding conditions.
This advanced grease is formulated to outperform traditional Polyurea-based greases and older Lithium technology. With its superior resistance to water, corrosion, and high temperatures, Chesterton 638 EMG provides reliable protection to bearings, significantly reducing the risk of failure and extending the life of your motors.
Addressing Electric Motors in Wet & Corrosive Areas
Did you know that up to 75% of energy usage in the mining industry is due to electric motors? Moreover, a significant portion of annual expenses goes towards maintenance and replacement due to bearing and winding failures.
Electric motors operating in wet and corrosive areas are particularly prone to these issues. However, with Chesterton 638 EMG, you can protect your motors from the toughest environmental challenges.
The Power of Automation: Lubri-Cup EM
To further enhance the effectiveness of our solution, we offer the Lubri-Cup EM—an automatic grease dispenser that ensures continuous, precise lubrication. This innovative device eliminates the guesswork from manual lubrication and helps extend the life of your bearings.
The Lubri-Cup EM paired with Chesterton 638 EMG offers a powerful combination that can reduce the annual motor replacement rate in the mining industry, which currently stands at over 15% of installed motors.
In Conclusion: The Chesterton Advantage
By choosing Chesterton solutions, you are not just selecting a product—you are investing in reliability, durability, and efficiency. Our high-performance grease and innovative automatic dispenser provide a comprehensive solution to prevent bearing failures and keep your mining operations running smoothly. Trust Chesterton—because your equipment deserves nothing less.
Talk to us! We will be happy to offer you the optimum lubrication solution. Please ask ourExpert Desk for further information.
You can also make a preliminary selection using our product selector. Our product consultants will gladly assist you in selecting the ideal product for your application.
In the mining business, your operation must meet critical demands and anticipate the unexpected every day to help reduce the costs of downtime. Challenging environments and destructive loads take their toll on your equipment.
Chesterton’s industry-proven hydraulic sealing solutions provide maximum value by extending the hours of operation between maintenance intervals of your equipment and increasing overall asset life. Our custom and turnkey cylinder repair kits combine proprietary polymer technologies with unique seal geometries to increase reliability and improve productivity.
Mega-Machines have to run constantly
Nowadays, gigantic hydraulic excavators shovel the valuable raw materials out of the ground and continuously load huge dump trucks. The mega machines are crucial for high mine production, but they have to run reliably. Any breakdown has a significant impact on production and means financial losses for mine operators.
The hydraulic systems on these vehicles do amazing work: they dig, lift, lower and move extremely heavy loads in dusty environments. The performance, life and reliability of a hydraulic system is determined by several factors. In addition to the design of the components themselves and the choice of a high-quality hydraulic oil, it is the seals that ensure that the cylinders operate efficiently for a long time.
Our hydraulic sealing solutions effectively help to increase the productivity and service life of large machinery
Choosing high-quality polymer seals from Chesterton allows miners to:
Increase equipment service life
Increase operating hours between maintenance intervals
Reduce breakdowns and costly downtime
Reduce hydraulic fluid consumption
Extend leak-free operating time
The quality of the selected sealing system determines the reliability and performance of the cylinders
The various hydraulic systems and their different functions, such as lift cylinders, stick cylinders, steering cylinders or bucket cylinders, also differentiate in the demands placed on the sealing system. This can be, for example, higher speed, higher pressure or excessive radial load.
Our sealing kit for heavy-duty hydraulic cylinders consisting of Wear Ring, Piston Seal, Rod Seal, Static Seal and wiper can efficiently improve the performance of the cylinder and the machine.
What does Chesterton provide?
We use high-performance, thermoset or even wear-resistant polyurethane material combinations that withstand high speeds, pressures and operating temperatures, have low friction, are highly elastic and have excellent tear and abrasion resistance.
Our custom-built sealing systems allow customization to meet existing performance requirements. “Mobile Mining Kits,” individual high-performance cylinder repair kits have been proven to achieve longer off-highway machine uptime between maintenance intervals. These kits help companies control costs and maintain your profit margins by optimizing the value of equipment investments.
Chesterton’s proprietary thermoset polymer technologies provide high abrasion and wear resistance. Our unique seal geometries are specifically designed to offset known sealing issues related to pressure spikes, side loading, contamination, and low pressure leakage.
Please get more information about the mining applications of our sealing technology:
If you would like assistance selecting the best hydraulic seal solutions for your specific cylinder application, feel free to contact our Ask the Expert desk.
You can also make a preliminary selection using our product selector. Our product consultants will gladly assist you in selecting the ideal product for your application.
Welcome to the future of mining equipment management. Chesterton Connect is a state-of-the-art tool that provides 24/7 monitoring of your machinery, regardless of the harsh conditions these machines operate under. It detects and alerts you to potential problems before they cause costly downtime or damage, making it an indispensable component in your predictive maintenance toolkit.
Discover the Power of 24/7 Equipment Monitoring and Data Analysis
In the high-stakes world of mining, every second counts. That’s where Chesterton Connect comes in. Designed to monitor your pumps, motors, and other rotating machinery all day, every day, this advanced system sends alerts when pre-set conditions are detected. This allows you to carry out crucial maintenance or repair tasks in a timely manner, helping prevent unexpected downtime and boosting overall efficiency.
But Chesterton Connect is more than just a monitoring tool – it’s a gateway to operational efficiency. By collecting valuable data about your process and equipment’s operating conditions, it provides insights that can be used to predict potential issues and optimize performance. With Chesterton Connect, you’re not just reacting to problems — you’re proactively managing them.
Reliable Monitoring for Equipment in Harsh Environments
Mining operations often take place in some of the world’s harshest environments. This is where the reliability of Chesterton Connect really shines. It consistently delivers accurate data and effectively monitors your machinery no matter how tough the conditions. It’s like having a dedicated team of experts watching over your equipment, ensuring everything runs smoothly even under extreme conditions.
User-friendly and Cost-effective Solution
Chesterton Connect is designed to deliver powerful solutions in an accessible format. The system is easy to install and communicates with a user-friendly app, allowing you to connect multiple sensors for a comprehensive view of the health of your equipment.
Moreover, Chesterton Connect is a cost-effective solution for an industry under constant pressure. By continuously and automatically measuring pressure and temperature, it reduces the need for manual checks and can help prevent costly damage. It’s not just about saving money — it’s about optimizing resources and maximizing productivity.
Extend the Life of Your Seals
Seal failure can lead to expensive repairs and crippling downtime. That’s where Chesterton Connect comes in. Used in conjunction with Chesterton’s proven sealing solutions, it can significantly extend the life of seals. This reduces costs associated with frequent replacements and helps maintain the smooth operation of your equipment.
Ready to experience the difference that predictive maintenance can make? Connect with Chesterton today.
You can also make a preliminary selection using our product selector. Our product consultants will gladly assist you in selecting the ideal product for your application.
It is well known that all mining operations have one main issue that not only affects the plant´s operation but most importantly the bottom line, and this is abrasion. From the moment that the mineral ore begins to be moved by some method to the processing plant, to where the end product is handled there is critical equipment that is affected by abrasion. In some areas operating equipment may require repair or replacement in as little as one week, due to the aggressive operating environment in mining plants.
Before we can decide how to protect equipment from abrasive wear it is important to first identify the different types of abrasive mechanisms, all of which result in equipment surfaces being affected and worn away:
High Stress Grinding
This is typically seen where there are two opposing surfaces in relative motion with particles between them. If there is a force applied on the particles, this results in a reduction of size but also a loss to the surface of one or both opposing surfaces.
This type of abrasion is typically seen in equipment such as crushers and grinding mills. Loss of metal to this vital plant equipment directly affects production yield and output.
Low Stress Sliding Abrasion
In this type of abrasion, there is usually a static surface with particles sliding parallel to it. This process affects the surface by “scratching” the surface that affects its thickness.
This type of wear mechanism typically affects equipment handling the movement of slurries and other equipment where particles move across the surface. Equipment affected includes slurry pumps, chutes, agitators and cyclones.
Gouging Impact Abrasion
This type of abrasion is seen when a flow of particles is not sliding parallel to a surface, but at a high angle and therefore the particles impact the surface forming “pits” due to the gouging effect of the particles on the surface.
Over time metal substrates can become plastically deformed and may result in a fatigue type of failure. This mechanism is commonly seen affecting equipment such as drag line buckets, excavators and crushers.
The aggressiveness and severity of an abrasion process in the previously described situations are influenced by the following factors
Particle hardness: the harder the particle the more severe the abrasion mechanism.
Particle shape: irregular shaped particles result in more aggressive abrasion than rounded particles.
Particle density: affects especially impact abrasion: the higher the density the more energy it will impact into a surface.
Particle size and weight: larger or heavier particles will result in higher rates of metal loss.
Particle velocity: higher velocities of particles increase the abrasion rate.
Hardness difference between particles and wearing surfaces: harder particles yield more abrasion.
Impact force: usually directly proportional to the height of falling particles onto a wearing surface.
Percentage of solid particles in slurry: the higher the percentage of solids the more abrasive the slurry.
Mass flow rate: with higher flow rates the abrasion level is increased.
Customer Benefits When Using Ceramic Reinforced Coatings
In the past 30-35 years, ceramic reinforced coatings technologies have been introduced to the industrial market; with the mining and ore processing industries increasingly recognizing the potential benefits of using these technologies for abrasion protection of critical operating equipment.
What exactly are those benefits and what advantages do they pose compared to traditional materials and even newer abrasion protection technologies? Let’s analyze:
As previously stated, abrasion is one of the biggest influences on production in mining operations. The amount of investment spent daily to repair/replace worn equipment is a large part of any mining operation’s total maintenance budget.
Production downtime is another extremely key factor. Unscheduled shutdowns of certain production equipment in large mines can mean production related losses of $50,000 per hour or even more.
Equipment availability: this point relates directly to the downtime costs where every time a piece of equipment requires repair it must be stopped; therefore, the industry is always looking for longer lasting solutions.
Ease of solution also affects the equipment’s downtime, since the longer it takes to implement an abrasion resistant solution, the greater the production loss.
Taking into consideration the key factors described, we can relate them to the advantages that ceramic coatings offer to this industry:
They are the most cost-effective solution to resist abrasion conditions, when it comes to the cost of the coating compared to the equipment downtime and duration of the solution.
Easy to apply and can be applied in a workshop or directly where the equipment is located, which also results in less downtime losses.
They can easily be conformed to any surface shape and equipment geometry.
They can be used to patch repair traditional and new abrasion protection technologies, such as rubber liners or ceramic tiles, which saves time compared to removing large areas of existing installed coatings/linings.
Have shown proven performance lasting longer than rubber, specialty alloys and ceramic tiles, even when impact is present.
Can be easily patch repaired, which means that the remaining coating after a period of operation, does not have to be removed but only cleaned to accept the new coating on top.
They can bond very well to different types of substrates, such as all types of metals, rubber, ceramic tiles and similar ceramic reinforced coatings, after proper surface preparation.
They can lower the replacement parts inventory, since now many parts can be repaired once and again, as long as they are structurally sound.
They are applied without the need for any hot work, which improves safety but also means that any metal substrate does not become fatigued due to heat activated stress.
Common Applications
These ceramic reinforced coatings are used mainly to protect equipment subjected to two-body sliding abrasion or where there is equipment deterioration due to impact. They can also be used to protect equipment where there is also chemical corrosion and at elevated temperatures.
Some of the most common equipment in mining sites where ceramic reinforced coatings are used are:
Loading & discharge chutes
Conveyor belt wear plates
Hoppers
Cyclones
Secondary, tertiary and quaternary cone crusher feed distribution plates
Ball mill spout feeder
Ball and SAG (Semi Autogenous) mill discharge trunnion and spiral liners
Mill discharge junction boxes
Hydrocyclones distribution chamber, interiors, apex and discharge channels
Ore and tailings thickener rakes, discharge cones and elbows
Tailings pumps, pipes and elbows
Flotation cell floors, overflow and launders
Agglomeration drums feed chute and shell
Pipe sections and elbows
Valve bodies, seats and sealing element
Slurry tanks agitators and floors
Screw conveyors and trough
As a conclusion, we can state that the use of ceramic reinforced coatings in equipment subject to abrasion, has positively affected the maintenance practices in the mining and ore processing industry worldwide, due to the ease of use, reliability, cost efficiency and performance of these materials. With the development of newer technologies, we can see that the use and need for these types of coatings are only going to grow and the necessity to develop more types of coatings will be decided by the market needs in the future.
Talk to us! We will be happy to offer you the optimum coating solution. Please ask ourExpert Desk for further information.
You can also make a preliminary selection using our product selector. Our product consultants will gladly assist you in selecting the ideal product for your application.
You are currently viewing a placeholder content from Hubspot Embedded Content. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
You are currently viewing a placeholder content from HubSpot. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
You are currently viewing a placeholder content from Hubspot Meetings. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
