SPECIAL FEATURE: MATERIALS
PORTABLE
POWER SOLVES CONVEYOR MAINTENANCE PROBLEM
WITH LIGHTWEIGHT HYDRAULIC BELT LIFTERS
Ideal for a wide range of
industries, such as mining, construction,
industrial, power
generation and more.
Leading mining equipment OEM Techmine
Solutions has developed an innovative solution
to a common mining problem – efficiently lifting
thousands of metres of conveyor belts for
maintenance.
Techmine has developed a new lightweight
hydraulic belt lifter that utilises an Enerpac
XC-Series cordless portable hydraulic pump to
safely and reliably provide the hydraulic pressure
(700 bar, 10,000 PSI) required to lift belt sections
up to 2,000kgs.
“The new belt lifter effortlessly raises the belt in
20 to 25 seconds without requiring complex input
from the user. An 1800mm belt lifter, comprised
three main parts, and weighs only 29.5 kilograms
once assembled. The main 13.7 kilogram lifting
beam is ergonomic and easily portable,” says
Justen Wright, principal engineer, Techmine, and
inventor of the new technology.
Western Australia based Techmine has more
than 75 years of experience working both on
Brownfield and Greenfield project across all
mining sectors and their maintenance processes.
26 July 2018
The company was founded on the principle of
bringing safe, efficient and reliable conveyor
maintenance solutions to the mining industry, to
meet the rigorous demands of modern mining
maintenance.
“The Enerpac XC-Series cordless hydraulic
pumps were the logical choice solution to power
Techmine’s belt lifters. Enerpac is the brand of
choice by our client base – their tools are high
quality, reliable, easy to use, extremely versatile
and adaptable for use with our products. The
portable XC pump fits in perfectly alongside
our lifters and when not being used for belt
maintenance, the Enerpac pump can be used
on-site for any other of its normal tasks.”
They are a much smarter way to get the job
done,” says Mr Wright.
Solving a sore point for the mining
industry
The Techmine Team identified a fundamental
safety risk in existing conveyor maintenance
practices, and used their mining and engineering
experience to develop a solution that would
be highly valuable to mining companies across
Australia.
“We discovered that when it came to conveyor
lifting, equipment that wasn’t specifically designed
for that purpose was being used simply because
it was the only thing available – but there could be
inherent safety and performance risks,” says Mr
Wright.
“Mine sites should not be lifting anything without
knowing the weight first, because if the weight is
above the lifting device’s capacity, this can cause all
sorts of problems. Our new belt lifter clearly displays
the belt’s weight as the lift progresses, meaning it
cannot be overloaded.
“Currently, it is too easy for mining operations to
perform maintenance on thousands of metres of
conveyor belts without knowing the load on their belt
lifters. All it takes is one failure resulting in an injury
or incident that may change a workers life forever
as well as significant downtime and additional repair
costs.
“So, we developed a lightweight portable system
that could be easily stored at a shift crew workshop
for example. This means that the belt lifter is charged
and ready to lift any conveyor on the mine site safely
and correctly, whether it’s for general shutdown
maintenance or an unscheduled breakdown.”
Enerpac WA territory manager David Capper is
delighted to see the belt lifter innovation come to
fruition and says that the Techmine team has allc
been working hard for many years to reach this
point.