aranzu develops innovative solutions to drive efficiencies in dredging.
CASE STUDY: Dredging Product Improvement
Undersea dredging is an unforgivable process, with a knack for finding weaknesses in mining equipment as it requires large amounts of energy to liberate and transfer material from the seabed to the surface. This high energy requirement creates a high impact, high abrasive environment, where only the best machinery will survive.
One of aranzu’s key offerings is the ability to redesign equipment to better suit the dredging environment and increase service life. This redesign process encompasses making changes to the physical geometry of the equipment, as well as selecting more suitable materials from our arsenal of dredging applicable materials.
THE CHALLENGE:
A client experienced high wear in their lined pipe sections and we were tasked with redesigning the process piece to increase its life in service, whilst not significantly increasing the mass.
THE ARANZU SOLUTION:
In order to determine the location of the high wear zones, aranzu performed a 3D scan of the worn sections of the problematic pipe sections. These scans were analysed to determine the specific sections to be redesigned. Our 3D scanning identified the high wear zones, as shown below.
Existing lined elbow
3D scan of high wear zones
A solid cast piece, versus a manufactured bend, with increased wall thickness in the high wear zones. In addition, aranzu used a better suited, high abrasion, high impact material, as this process piece sees 300mm boulders at 8m/s and higher. In some cases, different materials can prolong the lifespan even further.
Once the aranzu supplied unit, had reached its end of life, we rescanned the unit to determine if the high wear zones had been correctly addressed. The new, bespoke designed aranzu unit lasted 18 months compared with the previous bend, which lasted a mere 3 months, and the remaining wall thickness was uniform throughout.
CONCLUSION:
To correctly improve product performance, it is important to completely understand the wear mechanics at play. Theoretical wear expected versus actual wear measured can often vary due to complex interactions between adjoining process equipment, that can’t be fully predicted. It is for this reason, that we take worn process pieces as our design basis.
At aranzu, we believe we can interpret the requirements through our 3D scanning and design process and our product improvement strategy also has a proven track record for a number of products, from simple pipe sections to complex feed chutes and cutter heads.
CONTACT DETAILS:
Contact us and one of our engineers will be in touch.
info@aranzu.co.za
Photo credit: Cristian Palmer