Founded in 1989, Clinton Sands is a family-owned business based in Port Clinton, Price, in South Australia. Initially established to supply its own ready-mixed concrete business, the company has grown and expanded over the years, both in terms of product offerings and throughput.
Clinton Sands now has a large customer base that includes concrete, asphalt and the civil construction industry, and it produces specialty sands for golf courses and the turf soils market.
Sand is also supplied into the civil market, which includes water main, sewer, storm water and common service trench applications (eg power, gas and Telstra).
Clinton Sands’ objective was to expand its business into the filter and dried sands market. With this in mind, the company commissioned a new Terex Washing Systems (TWS) customised bespoke solution.
“We laid out our specific requirements of the plant,” Clinton Sands’ managing director Frank Femia said. “TWS then designed and produced a machine that was exactly what we requested. The machine arrived and was installed with ease, was quickly commissioned and was immediately producing the exact specification of material we requested.”
TWS was tasked with designing a plant with the capability to produce a high grade filter sand and a building sand. The filter sand spec required varying the cut point at 400 micron, 500 micron or 600 micron. To achieve this TWS incorporated a flat bottom classifier, thus designing and developing the new FinesMaster FB classifier plant. This was in fact the first design of its kind and is a new model with the established FinesMaster family (the first model saw operation almost 20 years ago).
TWS used its heritage of industry expertise and knowledge to innovate and develop solutions to meet customer needs, and this new classifier solution exemplifies that.
The Clinton Sands plant layout consists of a free-standing feed hopper that feeds material into a sand screw. The material from the sand screw is conveyed to a twin-deck wet screen. The bottom deck unders (0–1.2mm) flow into the sump of the FM FB classifier plant, a bespoke plant with a small footprint processing a desired feed tonnage of about 40 to 50 tonnes per hour.
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Fine cut
To achieve high spec filter sand, three separate classification cuts had to be made after screening at 1.2mm micron, utilising a flat bottom classifier based on the feed gradation (see Table 1).
There were three classification cuts: 600 (Table 2a), 500 (Table 2b) and 400 micron (Table 2c).
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Summary of cuts
All cuts were based on 45 tph raw feed, eg:
• 600 micron = 14 tph coarse – 31 tph fine
• 500 micron = 21 tph coarse – 24 tph fine
• 400 micron = 30 tph coarse – 15 tph fine
Bespoke solution
The underflow from the wet sizing screen flows to the FinesMaster FB classifier sump. Slurry from the sump is then pumped to a 500 hydrocyclone positioned directly above the flat bottom classifier, to condition the flow to suit the classifier.
The underflow from the hydrocyclone discharges into the 1.5m flat bottom classifier to create the cut at 400, 500 or 600 microns. This underflow from the flat bottom classifier – 500 micron to 1.2mm – discharges onto one side of the 2.4m x 1.2m dewatering screen, producing one sand product (0.5–1.2mm).
The overflow from the classifier – 75 micron to 500 micron – flows into the sump tank and is then pumped into a separator cyclone, from which the underflow goes onto the other side of the 2.4m x 1.2m dewatering screen and produces the second 0.075–0.5mm sand product.
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See Aggflow above.
Prior to installation of the plant, the customer could not reach the desired product specification. However, with the introduction of the new bespoke designed plant by TWS, Clinton Sands can now produce new products that are effectively opening the business to new markets and enabling it to supply its high spec final product across Australia.
The ability to alter the cut points with ease and optimum efficiency creates the ideal classification unit, putting the FinesMaster FB classifier plant a “cut” above the rest.
Terex Washing Systems plant is available in Australia through Terex Jaques.
Source: Terex Washing Systems/Terex Jaques