Conveyors, Transfers, Chutes

Fenner Dunlop’s holistic approach paying off

With more than 600 conveyor technicians in the field, Fenner Dunlop is picking up major contracts around the country using a unique approach, writes Paula Wallace.


The company has been on a 15-year journey to perfect its offering to customers, one that addresses the overall performance of their conveyor systems.

The company’s chief operating officer, Steve Abbott, told ABHR, “Our key focus is to continue to drive towards total conveyor performance, our business model continues to evolve away from component supply and towards an engineering and reliability focus.

“That means having access to engineering in-house and having the ability to install and service all components,” he said.

The history of conveyors is different from other kinds of equipment in that customers have been required to buy components from different manufacturers and them put them together to form a conveyor system.

As Mr Abbott explains, there are several disadvantages to this approach. “No one is responsible for the performance of the conveyor. We are getting more success with customers with the total engineering and supply model as the accountability is with one party”.

The mining industry accounts for around 80 per cent of Fenner Dunlop’s business in Australia, split almost evenly between three groups: iron ore, coal and other commodities.

“It’s part of our strategy not to have all our eggs in one basket,” said Mr Abbott, adding that the business is spread across the country from the Pilbara region in Western Australia, to Whyalla in South Australia, to Gladstone in Queensland.

The company recently announced a permanent contract with Rio Tinto to provide conveyor maintenance services at the Cape Lambert and Dampier Ports in Western Australia.

The long-term agreement is expected to create more than 40 full-time jobs. It will see Fenner Dunlop service all of the conveyors at the Pilbara ports.

Rio Tinto’s port facilities include four independent shipping terminals at Cape Lambert and Dampier, which are managed by a single system. The terminals have a combined 360 million tonne-per-year capacity.

Fenner Dunlop opened a new branch in Karratha last month, to form stronger business ties with the region.

“We’d expect to have 13-14 permanent employees there in addition to the permanent people on site [at Rio Tinto],” said Mr Abbott. “With the view that over a three year period this would build up to around 60 locally-based people”.

While Fenner Dunlop aims to source more work in the region, it has also opened the office in order to have a locally-based workforce.

“Like most other operators we rely on FIFO workers but successful, long-term businesses generally require a more sustainable employee base.”

The contract with Rio Tinto, which commenced on 1 September will require more personnel during scheduled shut down periods.

“We’d work on a number of fronts at the same time working on conveyor belt replacement or repair, condition monitoring, cleaner adjustment, replacement of idlers as required, generally everything required to maintain ongoing operation of those conveyors,” said Mr Abbott.

There were a number of factors that gave Fenner Dunlop the edge in securing the Rio Tinto contract, according to Mr Abbott.

“We offered a total conveyor performance model which looked at how we would help improve overall conveyor life, minimising shutdowns.

“We had a strong leadership offer around our safety performance and a well established training program,” he said.

Fenner Dunlop has been a registered training organisation for the past 13 years and has a dedicated team of people providing training programs that are recognised at a federal government level.

“We have around 40 new entrants to the business each year that go through that practical training facility,” said Mr Abbott. “We fly people in from whatever business they work in, fly them into Kwinana they spend a total of 12 weeks in that program.”

Full service in action

Fenner Dunlop was also able to provide a holistic approach in restoring a conveyor system at Liberty OneSteel in Whyalla in just 38 days, following a devastating fire.

The conveyor spans over a length of approximately 340 meters from feed to discharge end. It was critical to get it operational again as the company was incurring additional costs from having to use trucks to move the product.

The project involved the manufacture and delivery of equipment to the site including 120 trough idler frames, 400 trough idlers, 50 return idlers, 100 return idler brackets, nine return tracking frames and nine trough tracking frames. Furthermore, five pulleys were removed and completely overhauled which included new lagging, bearings and housings.

With the new conveyor structure in place, 672m of Duracon conveyor belt (1200mm wide) was installed.

The work was completed ahead of schedule with no incidents, and the product line was fully operational the day after the conveyor recovery was completed.

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