Dedicated To Excellence In Engineering +44 (0)1709 527 400


Metal Removal Scheme

Compass Minerals UK

A system was required to reduce down time due to tramp metals on a conveyor belt. The original system to stop metals getting into the processing equipment / plant was a metal detector, that when activated personnel would manually remove the metals from the belt.

This method created a lot of down time; waiting for a person to react then to find the metal and the stopping and starting of belts in a system. The metals the customer really wanted to stop were tungsten carbide. These were rarely picked up by magnets above the normal production belts as it is only 30% ferrous. Due to the hardness of the metal, should any of the pieces end up in the plant, they could cause a lot of damage to the processing plant.

A suitable location was selected for an automated system. The bespoke system consists of a metal detector, a diverter door to divert any contaminated material into a hopper positioned above a vibrator feeder. The feeder then trickle feeds the contaminated material over a magnetic chute, which is capable of removing semi-ferrous metals due to the strength of the magnets. A small returns conveyor then returns the processed material back to the normal conveyor system. A final metal detector is positioned on this conveyor to detect any metals not picked up by the magnets, non-ferrous metals for example. Any contaminated material is then deposited in a reject area.

The two main advantages to the customer of using the system described above are the reduced down-time and should metal not be removed, the amount of material rejected is minimal.

The system was fully integrated into the existing conveyors. An access platform was provided to give full access to all areas. As part of the project, the existing supports of a conveyor were fuller replaced, such that old redundant steelwork could be removed from the area. Also, a full delivery hood and XAR 400 lined chute was supplied due to the condition of the old one.

Services Used

Site Survey
Design & Calculations
Project Management
Fabrication and Machining
Fitting & build up works
Installation

Products and Expertise Used

Conveyor design
Material handling / chute / hopper design
Platform / access design
Delivery