Company insight Supermaterial solutions
Part of the De Beers Group, Element Six designs, develops and produces world-leading synthetic diamond and tungsten carbide solutions. The company’s supermaterials are used in applications such as cutting, grinding, drilling, shearing and polishing, while the extreme properties of synthetic diamond have opened up new opportunities in a wide array of industries including mining, optics, power transmission, water treatment, semiconductors and sensors. Markus Bening, global sales director for road, mining and wear parts, explains how using the right materials makes all the difference for drilling and mining equipment.
What are the main threats to the lifetime and efficiency of mining equipment? Markus Bening: There are numerous factors that can impact the efficiency of mining equipment. One important factor is the longevity of drilling and cutting tools – the longer the tool’s lifetime, the less machine downtime required. Additionally, if a tool’s stump, drilling and cutting forces are increased, the machine will use more energy and the tools will need to be changed more frequently. Carbide breakages can also shorten the life-cycle of drilling and mining equipment as they reduce operation times and, therefore, affect overall output and efficiency.
What solutions do you offer to improve wear resistance, and what benefits do they provide? At Element Six, we are proud to offer customised carbide solutions that
combine the most suitable carbide grade and product design for the required application. Alongside our carbide range, we also supply polycrystalline diamond (PCD) for drilling and cutting applications. The benefit offered by PCD tips is that they retain sharpness more than ten times longer than their carbide counterparts, which significantly increases efficiency levels. As a result, PCD-tipped cutting tools have been successfully introduced as a game- changing solution in road milling applications, enabling the machine to last 35 times longer than when using conventional carbide bits.
How do you decide which solution best fits each customer? We foster an open and collaborative environment with our customers and, for us to deliver the best support and service, we initially request as many details as
possible. This includes mining conditions, machine types, currently used carbide or PCD solutions and their related lifetime, supporting visual evidence of worn parts, and drawings of currently used parts. The essential question that then informs our approach and related technical and commercial proposal is: what does the customer want to achieve? For example, this might be a performance increase from 8,000 to 10,000 hours. With a clear objective in mind, we can develop the best solution to suit each customer.
What assets and experience does Element Six possess to make it an ideal provider of mining operational efficiency solutions? Leveraging decades of world-leading expertise in supermaterials, Element Six’s success is underpinned by a global network of centres of excellence for synthetic diamond and carbide production, an international team of research and development specialists, and more than 70 years of experience in the commercialisation of market-leading solutions. Our main production hub for carbide was established in Germany in 1952 and plays a vital role in ensuring we can deliver the quality and scale required by our customers. This is supported by a range of state-of-the-art equipment necessary to perform key processes such as forming, grinding, EDM cutting, welding, brazing, steel machining and gluing. For synthetic diamond production, we also have hubs in Ireland and South Africa, in addition to our UK-based Global Innovation Centre – the world’s largest facility for synthetic diamond and tungsten carbide research and development. ●
Element Six provides customised solutions to ensure that the most suitable material is used for the required application.
World Mining Frontiers /
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www.e6.com 35
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