According to an article in Mining Review Africa, Vibramech has received its largest order to date, to supply over 30 units of vibrating equipment to the latest state-of-the-art marine diamond processing vessel. Vibramech has been supplying its vibrating equipment to the diamond processing industry for more than 30 years.

The equipment ranges from heavy duty / high capacity primary scalping screens to diamond recovery feeders. The large primary scalping screens (the largest operational on sea going processing plants) have been meticulously designed and tailor-made for this specific application and have been designed using the latest finite element and strain gauge techniques.

Outside of this significant order, Vibramech also recently added to its processing equipment footprint in Lesotho with the commissioning of heavy-duty front end, dual DMS, XRT and recovery vibrating processing equipment.

The supply of vibrating equipment dedicated to the diamond processing industry has continued worldwide during 2019, with supply into counties such as Zimbabwe, Sierre Leone, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola and Canada.

Vibramech’s range of vibrating equipment especially suited to the diamond industry comprises, amongst others: plant grizzly feeders, plant screens and feeders, scrubber and crusher screens, coarse and fine dense media separation (DMS) screens, recrush DMS, recovery plant feeders and screens, tube feeders and grease tables.

The company understands the harsh operating conditions which vibrating screens, grizzlies and feeders are subjected to in the mining industry. As such, the company is cognizant that its designs need to cater for both abrasive and corrosive environments.

“Our equipment needs to withstand the high wear associated with the screening of abrasive ores. We also have a range of specialty liner materials, paint specifications and wear prevention compounds which are used to combat the effects of corrosion in the marine and refinery applications. Vibramech even offers the option to install a screen in stainless steel,” Vibramech’s David Massey told Mining Review Africa.

The Vibramech design makes extensive use of rubber lining to reduce the effect of wear and impact on screen components. A range of steel, ceramic and polyurethane liners are available to protect screen and grizzly side plates, as well as feeder pans. An abrasion resistant / anti-corrosion epoxy resin system is used to minimize wear associated with fines in wet applications.

“It is imperative that stresses induced by welding are minimized to prevent crack formation in vibrating equipment,” Massey says.

Vibramech therefore makes use of heat treatment to stress relieve all welded screen components. The overall design philosophy is to minimize welding and maximize the use of swaged fasteners. As sound dynamic behavior is essential to ensure vibrating equipment reliability, all equipment is built to perform within strict dynamic parameters. All internal mating surfaces are machined in order to maintain stringent dimensional tolerances.

In addition, the company’s quality assurance program makes provision for a full 3D vibration analysis to be conducted on all equipment prior to release. This is used as a benchmark for the life of the equipment. In addition to continued new projects, Vibramech has constantly strived to provide clients with augmentations to its existing vibrating equipment. This enables the company to retrofit custom-made design enhancements to improve on the existing mechanical, wear and process related characteristics of any componentry which may need replacement. Issues such as drive type preference (geared exciters / vibrator motors), increased throughput, improved efficiency, reduced panel pegging and optimized spray configurations are all addressed during the retrofitting process.

Presently the company consistently produces in excess of 500 vibrating units per annum and is \the foremost supplier of vibrating equipment to the coal, diamond (land and marine) and platinum mines mainly in Southern Africa.

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