Kinder Australia’s K-Slip Low Friction Liner provides a uniform surface for almost any complicated shape to improve flow.
To help secure Australia’s energy future, a Brisbane-based company builds and operates sustainable shale-to-liquid energy plants.
At one of its sites, it needed to install a mass flow cone for an internal feed bin in the retort. The best half angle for the bulk solid to promote mass flow was 70 degrees for mild steel.
The company knew that at 60° the flow was within the transition area of mass flow and funnel flow and due to constraints within the retort. As such, the maximum half angle that could be achieved was 64.3°.
Charles Pratt, Operations Manager at Kinder Australia, says the K-Slip Low Friction Liner was implemented as it suited the company’s need for a liner that could be used on any complicated shaper, including bins, hoppers and chutes.
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“The flow of very fine particles, although not a high wear problem, does present a new challenge in the way in which it flows, or importantly, not flows,” Pratt says.
“Lining with a conventional low friction material can be difficult to install in these complicated transition and confined points. Round corners and acute angles do not fix well with fasteners. In fact, they often provide another point on which the material can bridge.
“When handling mineral concentrates especially, these material types tend to hang up on any surface and at any angle. Kinder Australia’s K-Slip Low Friction Liner has been used successfully to overcome many of these flow problems.”
The K-Slip Low Friction Liner is a low co-efficient of friction thin polyethylene lining material, with a synthetic rubber backing. It uses an ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene press with a coefficient of friction of 0.09.
This means the liner is very slippery and can allow for shallower angles of chute to be used, which is especially important for secondary scraper dribble chutes, where the carry back material scraped off the belt needs to be directed into the downstream transfer chute. Material can be fine, dry, sticky, abrasive or wet, but particles must be less than five millimetres in size.
The addition of the K-Slip Low Friction Liners reduced the half angle requirement for mass flow below 64°, meaning the hopper was capable of achieving targets to meet effective mass flow levels.
To fit the pieces of K-Slip in through the door, it was cut into three sections. The steel faces were cleaned, and the K-Slip glued into position with industrial adhesive.
Pratt says that having K-Slip on a rubber backing makes it easy to glue into position.
“Runner backing eliminates buckling or warping of the surface, leaving it flat to promote even wear and enhanced flow,” he says.
“It also means that fastener heads or caps aren’t in the material path, which can create hang up points.
“The K-Slip has a range of thicknesses available, with the smallest being just two millimetres in total, meaning it can be cut using a Stanley type knife. For thicker or larger quantities of cutting, a CNC water jet machine is used to make life easy.”
The customer’s Lead Mechanical Engineer had used K-Slip in the past on similar problems and found it had improved flow effectively. Kinder also offers supervision of installation by qualified engineers, and the option to supply installation services. This can often involve Kinder designing a complete lining package that may be pre-cut and ready for installation.