The mining and materials processing industry uses various tools and equipment to extract, process, and handle mined materials. These machines can carry from a hundred to over a thousand tons of material in one load. It speeds up the process—but also has risks.
Any equipment malfunction or abnormal change in speed could cause a material spill. Workers could get injured, and the material pile-up would take days to clean up. That’s why it’s important for mining equipment to have alarms or sensors to detect a problem even before it breaks down.
In this article, we’ll look at the common mining tools and equipment, and what you can do to prevent malfunctions and material spills.
Types of mining equipment
- Excavators. These are used to extract minerals and ores from the earth. They are equipped with buckets or hydraulic attachments to remove overburden or dig into the ground.
- Bulldozers. These push large amounts of soil, rock, or other materials to prepare the site for mining operations.
- Conveyors. These transport bulk materials like minerals or ores within mining and processing facilities.
- Crushers. These break down large rocks or ores into smaller, more manageable sizes. It includes jaw crushers, cone crushers, and impact crushers.
- Grinding mills. These grind or pulverize mined materials to achieve the desired particle size or extract valuable minerals from ores.
- Agitators and mixers. These are used for blending and mixing substances in tanks or vessels.
- Vibrating screens. These are used to separate particles, or sort and classify materials according to size.
- Concentrators. These separate valuable minerals from the mined ore through processes like flotation, gravity separation, or magnetic separation.
- Pumps. These help with transporting slurries (mixtures of water and solid) during mineral extraction and processing, removing excess water from a site, transferring fuels or other chemicals from storage vessels to different parts of the mine, or transferring tailings and other waste material.
- Fans and blowers. These are used for ventilation, dust control, or material movement.
The role of speed switches in mining operations
DAZIC zero speed switches can be attached to mining equipment to improve efficiency and safety.
A speed switch monitors the speed of rotating machinery or equipment. When it detects that equipment is running outside of normal speed parameters, it sends an alarm so the operator can stop operations or adjust equipment settings.
This has numerous benefits and applications in the mining process:
- Prevent material spills and downtime
- Prevent equipment damage and repairs
- Protect worker safety
- Synchronize multiple machines used in complex processes
- Identify bottlenecks or issues caused by variations in speed to adjust and optimize the process
- Comply with safety regulations that may be mandated for certain types of mining equipment
Common mining equipment that uses zero speed switches
DAZIC zero speed switches can be attached to any equipment that has a rotating shaft. This includes:
- Conveyor systems. DAZIC can be installed on conveyor drives or tail pulleys to monitor the belt’s rotational speed. It helps detect belt slippage, jams, or unexpected stops.
- Crushers and Grinders. DAZIC quickly flags speed deviations that could indicate overloading or equipment failure.
- Agitators and Mixers. DAZIC can be installed on the shafts to monitor the rotational speed.
- Fans and Blowers. DAZIC can indicate issues such as motor failure, belt slippage, or obstructions in the airflow system.
- Pumps. DAZIC detects speed changes caused by impeller damage, cavitation, blockages, or motor failure.
Get the right speed switch for your equipment and process
DAZIC has a full range of zero speed switches for different process requirements such as shaft input speeds, mounting styles and housing material, and more. Tell us about your project and we can recommend the best DAZIC zero speed switch.
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