If you are getting high wear with wheat & soy beans then your whole plant should be examined.

What are your belt speeds. Are your discharge trajectories OK? Thirty three belts required a competent specialist's input. Was this available. Its too late now & you will just have to live with it.

Rectification cost for a grain import terminal would be high because of the need to maintain your inbye capability. It is cheaper to live with your situation & recommend that your management improve their contractor selection procedure. ■

You should have someone take a serious look at the chute designs themselves. Many wear problems can be corrected with proper chute design through material flow analysis. Much cheaper than trial and error.

At a salt mine where I worked (9 million tons per year) we had what we thought was wear until we went with a 316 stainless steel liner or replaced the chute with 316 stainless and the problem went away. What we discovered was that we had more of a corrosion / erosion issue. Meaning the chute would start to rust and then the rust would be removed during the loading cycles. Repeating this process over and over again created loss of material over a short period of time. The higher the moisture area the greater the problem was.

We started replacing chutes with stainless steel and the problem almost completely went away as the life of the chutes increased dramatically. ■

Nothing lasts forever: I certainly hope not.

Why spend time & money to tart up an old girl who has done plenty of business. (do I sound like a real Scouser?)

Your plant is surely on its last legs but still working. If you pull things apart in old age they might collapse unexpectedly.

I am now even more convinced that it would be better to live with the wear issue. Suppose the newer, better, cleverer chutes & liners last longer but something else falls apart. Then you are left with good liners & a broken down plant. ■

Originally Posted by keironarndell

We have a plant that discharges approximately 1 million tonnes of grain, soya and wheat (UK Based). We have an ongoing issue of chuting wearing through and becoming holed.

We have tried replacing worn chutes and similarly installing liners over the chutes. Used plastic, mild steel, hardened 400 steel and now 500. They continue to wear.

Has anyone a suggestion for:

1. Better materials that can be used for this purpose? They are typically square chutes.

2. A way of catching worn liners before they become holed i.e. a preventative maintenance suggestion that can help spot significant wear. (The plant has 33 conveyors - large site to visually check them all often).

Thank you in advance.

Al2O3 ceramic liner will be a good choice.http://www.fuboon.com/alumina-cerami...omponents.html ■

Get yourself a Kallenborn Handbook, study & compare. They don't mess about. If you have the dosh they are the bees knees. Chinese tiles might be comparable but you would have problems getting an installation staff on site. ■

Originally Posted by johngateley

Get yourself a Kallenborn Handbook, study & compare. They don't mess about. If you have the dosh they are the bees knees. Chinese tiles might be comparable but you would have problems getting an installation staff on site.

Hi John, I have had a similar issue with wear in fertilizer chute where the chutes were wearing out quickly. ie:- rusting and then the rust was eroded each time the transports arrived. Back in those days, ceramics were not something that was common or available. Expensive Marine grade stainless steels were available but wear was still an issue to deal with. However, we used a system we employed in the quarrying where we made the chute base a 'Drop Down' 'Rock Box' that allowed the fertilizer to wear on it's self while in use and when the conveyor was stopped, or became blocked due to moisture packing, the feed was stopped and the 'Drop Box Floor' was flicked up using the cam lift mechanism to discharge the blockage or the end of run product retained in the 'Rock Box'. The conveyor & 'Rock Box' were still operational with just general maintenance lubrication and cleaning at close of the fertilizer plant some 30 years later. I will look at some of my drawings of similar 'Rock Box' in my hand drawings archives & scan then and post. Might take a while as I will be away due to medical conditions. ■

Get well soon Les. I can only praise the staff at Charlies in Perth for saving my life back in 2007. Take your time & listen to what they say because Ozzie medics are finest. ■

The geometry of each chute should be examined to establish if wear is due to impact or sliding friction. Then consider whether the wear surface can be shielded by a wear box or flow impediments that cause the flow to be converted to a repose flow over a static bed of product. Local impact may possibly be countered by intermediate deflector plates that absorb some energy and are easily replaced, or by local extra wear plates that are systematically replaced on a time basis. As wear is a power function of contact pressure and velocity, anything to reduce these will be beneficial. ■

We are supplier of wear protection alumina ceramics, ceramic grinding media, precision ceramic parts and inert ceramic balls (catalyst bed support media).

Please check our company web or blog for more info about our products:

www.cbcceramics.com

https://aluminaceramics.wordpress.com

If you are looking for an alternative supplier, we will be your choice.

Hope to work with you in the near future.

Best Regards,

Zhang Hongbo

Sales Manager

Qingdao CBC Co.,Ltd.

Suite 1006 Building No. 2 Celebrity International,

No. 39 Shiling Road, Laoshan Dist.,

Qingdao, China 266062

T: +86 532 8596 8596

F: +86 532 8596 8595

www.cbcceramics.com ■