As part of the concluding proceedings of the Ballarat Gold Symposium held earlier that week, Steinert Australia hosted around 40 guests at an open day at its Bayswater HQ at the beginning of June.
{{image2-a:r-w:200}}The day comprised information sessions from Steinert Australia’s managing director Johan van Zyl and process engineer Gideon van Wyk who presented on the Steinert KSS sorting system. The Steinert KSS (combination sorter) can sort coarse composite mineral ores from waste materials using a range of sensors. The unit’s sensitivity can also be fine-tuned for high upgrade ratios or maximum recoveries.
On the factory tour, van Wyk demonstrated the Steinert KSS machine in full flight on quartz and waste materials.
Anthony Grisancich, a Steinert Australia sales engineer with responsibility for quarries, explained that the quarry samples consisted of white coloured rocks (“the good product”) and darker iron oxide rocks that the quarry wanted to eliminate from its feed.
“There is such a [differentiation] between the two rock colours that our sorter can use colour sensor and a separate laser to measure and eject the targeted rock into the ‘accept’ pile and eject the darker rocks as waste,” Grisancich said. “That can be done quite efficiently through the sorter.”
“I’ve also been seeing a lot of black plastics on-site,” he added. “We have a sorter called the UniSort Black that can separate plastics from rubble, and also timber and other foreign objects that are not capable of [being processed]. Instead of using traditional handpicking we can run the aggregate at tonnes per hour through the machine using this technology instead. That can be an occupational health and safety hazard as well, as there could be toxins in the tramp products. The machine is much safer for workers and companies in the long run.”
MAGNETS
Steinert Australia also displayed in the factory its range of magnetic separators for quarries, including mains power (MP) and permanent, self-cleaning overhead suspension magnets and wet and dry drum separators.
{{image3-a:r-w:200}}Grisancich said the MP magnet (230 volts) can be run directly from any three-phase socket within the work site and is suitable for belts of up to 1200mm in width.
“The MP magnet is a self-contained, all-in-one magnet,” he explained. “All you have to do is put three-phase power into the magnet. For a quarry site, you can have a manual cleaner, which is a simple metal box with the lead, or you can have a self-cleaner with the continually running belt. The MP magnet has a little control cabinet the size of a shoebox to run the magnet on-site, so you’re eliminating the whole purpose of having a control cabinet and running DC cables, which are eliminating costs for commissioning and putting a control cabinet somewhere.
“Traditionally, quarries have had self-cleaning permanent magnets,” he said. “Now with the efficiency and cost-benefits of having an all-in-one magnet, we have proven results that it is taking a lot more metal off the belt and it’s also available to go into any site possible.
“For the quarry industry, the mains power is quite viable because there’s a limited amount of room. Mobile crushers are required to be moved around quite a bit, so the MP magnet can be moved around on the crusher or be permanently on-site.”
Grisancich said the self-cleaning permanent belt magnet has long been a popular choice with quarries that have higher processing capacities and higher output. They are suitable for belts between 1800mm and 2200mm in length, and can be installed on both fixed and mobile plant. He mentioned a customer who “will run the self-cleaning belt magnet on their mobile plant, and we have a lot commonly in fixed plants as well. You can put the magnet anywhere and everywhere where there’s three-phase power available”.
“Steinert Australia’s inventory also includes a range of magnetic separators for the automated recovery and separation of ferrous and non-ferrous products such as steel, aluminum, copper and brass from construction and demolition waste,” Grisancich said.
AFTERMARKET SERVICE
{{image4-a:r-w:200}}Steinert Australia counts large-scale quarrying and recycled aggregates businesses amongst its customers and it supplies numerous smaller quarrying businesses throughout Australia. Grisancich is also in charge of Steinert’s aftermarket business for the quarrying sector that includes repairing, rebuilding and replacing old magnets. “A lot of quarries in Victoria and New South Wales have magnets that have been running for 30 years and the coils can sometimes fail due
to age,” he explained. “Steinert can offer repair, refurbishment and even exchange services on any brand of magnet, not only Steinert products.
“We do everything in-house,” Grisancich added. “It’s an all-in-one shop for magnet after sales needs. We are also able to do on-site auditing of magnets, whereby we can check and confirm the magnet’s installation position, Gauss strength and cooling oil quality amongst other things. A lot of our customers find real value in this as it means that their magnets are performing optimally and protecting their plant from having less damaging tramp metal in their system.”
In addition to producing magnetic separators and sensor technologies, Steinert Australia is also the distributor for Hazemag equipment and allmineral sand washing solutions in Australia.
Damian Christie was a guest at the Steinert Australia Open Day at its Bayswater headquarters on 2 June, 2017.