Background  

Arrium Mining had been experiencing excessive wear in their cyclone spigots.  The traditional rubber spigots had a service life of only 3-4 weeks. Ceramic spigots would certainly extend the service life by up to 8 times, however, due to large scats and the odd stray mill ball, ceramic was not an option.  The metallurgists were looking for an alternate material that would improve the service life of the spigots and...

Background

Phu Bia Gold Mine had been experiencing excessive wear in a cyclone overflow pipe elbow and contacted Keramos for a solution.  The traditional rubber lined pipe lasted around 4 weeks before replacement from excessive wear.  A trail of an alumina ceramic tiled option had been conducted with another company and had lasted about 3 months and this was initially deemed a satisfactory result.  However, they asked Keramos i...

Background

St Ives Gold Mine in Western Australia had experienced major wear issues with Falcon concentrator lids to the point where the 25mm thick rubber lining required replacing every 6-8 weeks.  Keramos were asked to provide a better solution.

Investigation

The main wear area was located in one zone.  The slurry causing the wear was a very abrasive sulphide ore with a particle size less than 1mm.  Some previous attempts at...

Background

Keramos were asked by a copper/zinc producer to investigate the excessive wear in the mill linings and agitator arms of their Metso Detritor Mills. The mills were using an alumina ceramic grinding media and achieving satisfactory grinding performance, but the wear rate of the mill linings was intolerable. The mills required complete relining EVERY 6 WEEKS.

Investigation

The mills had originally been running a poor...

Keramos were supplied the ceramic lined pipe spool in the photograph by a customer to investigate its premature failure. The ceramic lined pipe (supplied by a competitor company) was manufactured such that the ceramic lining was comprised of three pieces (two straights and one elbow) with join lines between the ceramic sections.

It was clear that the failure was due to erosion and abrasion about the join in the ceramic.

In this...