CUSTOMER FOCUS


MINERALS OIL & GAS POWER & INDUSTRIAL WEIRBULLETIN | AUGUST 2011


Linatex Hoses help Barrick Gold save $700,000 a year


Located almost 700 kilometres northeast of Perth, Lawlers under-


ground mine is part of the multinational Barrick Gold’s Yilgarn South operation which also includes the Darlot and Granny Smith mines. In 2009, Yilgarn South collectively produced 352,000 ounces of gold. An ongoing concern at Lawlers, where sulphide and oxide ores are treated at the onsite mill, was the continual failure of mining hoses. At worst, the life span was as short as 10 days. Overall lifespans were unpre- dictable, resulting in the need for a reactive approach to maintenance. Lawlers’ maintenance planner, Dave Long,


decided the hoses should be replaced with Linatex Hoses with Wear Indicator Technol- ogy. The results were remarkable. The life span of the hoses, which went into service in November 2009 was an expected 12 months, but this has exceeded expectations, with no failure after 18 months. As well as their long life, the Linatex Hoses can be monitored to indicate when they will need to be changed. This has prompted improvements such as planned maintenance, fewer shutdowns, increased safety and pro- duction gains. Overall, the estimated annual minimum cost saving is $700,000. Impressed


Dave Long, Maintenance Planner at Barrick Gold’s Lawlers Mine next to the Linatex® Wear Indicator Technology that have resulted in cost savings of at least $700,000 per year


by the outcome, Barrick Australia has pre- sented Dave Long with its annual award for continuous improvement and is looking to install the Linatex Hoses with Wear Indicator Technology at other sites.


“The long life, the monitoring capability


Hoses with


and the quality of the hoses set them apart from the rest,” said Dave.


“While the initial cost is higher than the hoses we were using, that’s totally insignifi- cant because of the cost savings over the long term.”


Technical expertise and rapid response delivers excellent solution


At outage inspection in mid-April this year, a major power plant operator discovered significant delamination on three critical 24” parallel slide gate valves at its power station in the US and immediately called in Weir Power & Industrial to help identify the extent of the problem. Initial analysis by Weir’s valve experts identified both mechan- ical damage and thermal shock as contributory causes of failure, due to the particular operating conditions at the power plant. At the customer’s request, a proposal was tabled to upgrade and overhaul all three valves within the outage window and by the first week in June. The upgrade proposal utilised a hard-facing multilayer solu- tion, developed during 2010 by Weir in Canada, to address simi- lar issues seen in high cycling gas-fired cogeneration plants in Ontario. This technical solution – which builds on over 50 years of valve hard-facing expertise in power generation applications


– deployed the latest in hard-facing technology derived from aerospace developments into advanced thermal coatings. In order to apply the hard-facing solution during the overhaul, new and replacement parts had to be manufactured within a four week window. This was achieved through focused multi- site collaboration across the division: technology transfer of the original machine drawings from the UK to the US valves facility, as well as deployment of the ‘Rapid Response’ parts manufac- turing cell in Washington, USA and the hard coating facility at the Montreal Service Centre in Canada to deliver enhanced, overlaid and finished machined parts.


Following on-site installation, the work was completed on schedule. Since delivery, additional valves with the potential to exhibit similar failure modes have been identified and Weir is currently in discussions with the customer on further valve upgrades.


17


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28