KWH Pipe: New Pipe Design, More Effective Selection

Engineering and Mining Journal, Nov 2006

Vaasa, Finland-based KWH Pipe has specialized in polyethylene pipe solutions for more than 50 years. Some of the more demanding projects have been carried out with the mining industry and the company's flexible, abrasion and corrosion resistant pipes and welded joints have proven their durability at mines in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa. As well as introducing the mobile pipe production system (E&MJ, April 2006, p. 50), KWH Pipe has continued to invest in product development to meet the needs of mine operators and, as a result, can now offer new pipe designs and a testing service for establishing the best pipe product for handling customers' slurry samples.

As well as standard solid-wall PE-HD pipe, KWH Pipe now offers multi-layer alternatives in which greater abrasion resistance can be provided by an inner material layer. The additional materials used for the additional layer makes the multilayer pipe only slightly more expensive than the standard product. But using a customized pipe can considerably prolong pipeline life, resulting in lower total spending on installation and maintenance labor costs as well as providing greater availability over a given period, KWH points out.

The new multilayer pipes are currently available in sizes DN 63-400 mm, but KWH Pipe plans to produce them in sizes up to 1,600 mm in the near future. KWH's mobile production plant system will also soon be available for the new multilayer slurry pipes.

The testing equipment comprises a model slurry pipeline allowing simulation of the abrasion caused in the pipeline by a slurry sample. Three different types of pipe can be tested simultaneously or one pipe can be tested for various pressures, temperatures or flow velocities, Slurry is pumped round a loop, the pipe wear examined and the parameters monitored. It is also possible to test the pipes for the optimum bend radius and jointing methods.

Immersive Technologies, Komatsu Collaborate on Simulator Development

Simulator supplier Immersive Technologies announced in October that it has formed a technical alliance with Komatsu Ltd. in which Komatsu will provide restricted technical data to Immersive for development of AE Conversion Kits that will allow accurate, up-to-date simulation of Komatsu mining equipment controls, systems and operating protocols.

According to an Immersive Technologies press release, Komatsu spent more than a year identifying and evaluating available earthmoving simulator technology before deciding the Immersive Technologies offering would best fulfill its customer requirements for advanced simulator training. "The Immersive Technologies training system will, we believe, assist us to promote a safer training option," said Mamoru Hironaka, product support division president of Komatsu. "By using an advanced simulator for training, customers do not have to remove machines from the production cycle for training purposes or suffer reduced equipment productivity during training time. The simulator is also the safest training option for new operators."

Immersive Technologies CEO Peter Salfinger said the technical agreement with Komatsu was a further significant milestone for the company, which was established in 1993. "It provides further validation of our positioning as the preferred global platform for simulator training in the mining industry," he said. Immersive Technologies has been working with Komatsu on the development of simulator conversion kits for their different machines since 1998. "Without such a high level of technical data exchange this would not be possible," Salfinger said.

Prior to the Komatsu agreement, Immersive Technologies had struck similar Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) alliances with Caterpillar, P&H Mining Equipment, Bucyrus International and Liebherr Mining Equipment. Immersive Technologies said more than 85 of its simulators are now being used by mine operators, contractors, equipment suppliers and training bodies in 17 countries worldwide.

Teck's Trail Operation Upgrades Its Automation

Teck Cominco Metals Ltd. selected Invensys Process Systems to implement a new mesh network-based Foxboro I/A Series automation system for the electrolytic and melting plant processes at Teck Cominco's metallurgical operations at Trail, in southeast British Columbia, Canada.

The Trail complex is one of the world's largest fully-integrated zinc and lead smelting and refining complexes. Total production capacity is approximately 290,000 mt/y of zinc and 120,000 mt/y of lead. The complex manufactures a wide variety of zinc and lead alloys to meet customer specifications worldwide, and also produces 20 additional metal and chemical products.

The implementation replaced legacy control equipment, utilizing "tune-up" modules that migrate the control, human machine interface and data acquisition functionalities to the I/A Series system, while retaining the existing field wiring, I/O terminations and system cabinets. This method typically saves 40% to 50% off the cost of a complete system replacement, according to Invensys. Approximately 1,200 I/O points in the electrolytic and melting processes will be controlled and monitored by the new system.