Taking Wear Liners From a 13 Week Replacement Cycle to >104+ Weeks — What Changed?
Most chute maintenance problems don’t begin with failure. They begin with wear patterns, material flow issues and maintenance constraints that slowly compound over time.
At one high-volume lithium operation, frequent liner replacements, material hang-up, hot work and tight 48-hour shutdown windows had become the norm.
- Frequent material hang-up and build-up, requiring regular washdowns
- Short liner service life (~13 weeks) leading to high replacement frequency
- Restricted shutdown windows (48 hours) limiting maintenance scope
- Labour-intensive liner replacement, involving gas axe cutting of corroded studs and manual punching and removal
- Dependence on scaffolding and hot work, increasing safety risks and complexity
These factors combined create high maintenance costs, operational inefficiencies and safety exposure.
The Solution
The site chose to trial Magnefast™ in the top section of one of the screen underpan chutes with a change in wear liner material. With Magnefast™ magnetic installation technology, the operation achieved:
- >104+ weeks service life
- Zero material hang-up
- No hot work or scaffolding
- 80% reduction in wear liner change time
Following the success of the trial, the site is now rolling the solution out across all four screen underpan chutes.
When shutdown windows are shrinking, wear issues are reducing production and doing maintenance the same way does not produce improvements, a smarter, reliability-driven design approach is needed to increase production.
Following the success of the trial, the site is now rolling the solution out across all four screen underpan chutes.
When shutdown windows are shrinking, wear issues are reducing production and doing maintenance the same way does not produce improvements, a smarter, reliability-driven design approach is needed to increase production.
Experiencing frequent liner changeouts or ongoing chute maintenance challenges? Contact Elastotec to explore engineered wear solutions designed to improve reliability, extend service life and increase production.
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