Feeder Shutdown a Thing of the Past with Better Wear Parts

December 06, 2018

Tough and long-lasting mining wear parts for feeders, like apron feeder pans and wobble feeder bars, are necessary to prevent downtime that costs operations money.

For mining and quarrying operations, feeders are a critical part of the process: they allow sites to get increased production if they’re available and reliable for longer, so it’s necessary to keep them in good working order. Multiple original equipment manufacturers have made their apron feeders and wobble feeders, as well as their wear parts, stronger to handle a site’s toughest material. And at Unicast, we make ultra-long-lasting mining wear parts for multiple types of feeders.

FLSmidth offers both horizontal and inclined apron feeders, and its AFD series use “sealed for life” maintenance-free tractor components that are available from 900 mm to 4,000 mm widths and can handle more than 12,000 tons of material per hour. FLSmidth says its carrying pans are constructed of welded steel plates to make them able to handle “high impact and severe wear.”

Meanwhile, Metso has been upping its game as a maker of replacement apron feeder parts. The company offers parts, upgrades, repairs and refurbishments for its own Metso parts, and has detailed drawings and information on original specs of other OEM parts that are no longer on the market, such as Stephens Adamson and Nico parts.

In 2008, Metso was asked to help Kinross Gold deal with insufficient capacity and excessive shutdown issues at its Minas Gerais gold mine in Brazil. In 2014, Metso replaced Kinross’s apron feeder pans on the processing line’s main feeder with better parts designed specifically for Kinross, which increased the feed’s capacity 20 percent.

Unicast’s feeder parts are designed to reduce downtime at mining and quarrying operations and keep your material handling process moving smoothly.

Our apron feeder pans are cast for a perfect fit using the V-Process molding technique, which creates accurate dimensions and a good surface finish. Because the pan is cast as one piece, there is no risk of failure due to weld cracks — a common challenge of the traditional fabrication process — and the bolting surfaces are machined to ensure 100 percent contact when they’re assembled to the feeder’s drive chains. Our austenitic manganese steel hardens under use, so your feeder pans will actually get stronger the more you work them. We offer replacements for Allis Chalmers parts, Telsmith parts and Pioneer parts.

We also make grizzly parts, including removable titanium carbide (TiC) tips that, when bolted onto high-wear zones of a Utah limestone quarry’s grizzly panel, reduced parts costs by 89 percent over ten months.

For other parts of the mining process, Unicast has you covered — we also offer replacement jaw crusher wear parts, roll crusher parts, and sag mill parts, among others.

Stop losing time on unplanned downtime caused by insufficient wear parts. Unicast’s industrial wear parts can withstand extreme temperatures and tough working conditions longer than other products. Contact us at 1-866-728-3557 or visit our website to learn more.