Mechanical Technology — February 2014
7
⎪
On the cover
⎪
We install modular ducting systems from each piece of equipment to extract to
the Donaldson filter unit located outside the mobile lab.
“For shipping, we place the Torit DFT and the ducting inside the container. At
the time of installation at the mine, the filter is removed from the container, placed
outside and then coupled to the ducting system. So one can quickly establish a
working sampling laboratory almost anywhere,” says Knight adding that these
mobile labs are used in remote mines all over Africa.
New Torit PowerCore
The second exciting innovation is Donaldson’s PowerCore technology. “We have
already installed one of these at a laboratory in Mauritania, with the PowerCore
system replacing the traditional Downflo system,” Knight reveals, PowerCore,
mostly because of the new cartridge design, has a 50% smaller footprint than the
traditional baghouse and cartridge collectors.
PowerCore has a much larger filter area per cartridge compared to Downflo
or any other cartridge- or bag-based filter system – achieved by making use of
the honeycomb effect to maximise media area. “The dust
laden air comes into the bottom of the collector and enters
rows of triangular flutes in the filter cartridges. Every second
row of flutes is blocked to the outlet, while alternate rows
are blocked to the inlet. The air is therefore forced to pass
though the nanofibre filter media walls that separate inlet
and outlet flutes. This gives a higher filter area and lower
differential pressure.
Along with the fluted design innovation, PowerCore tech-
nology uses Donaldson’s Ultra-Web nanofibre technology,
which maximises surface loading capacities, and a new
proprietary compact pulse cleaning system. The combina-
tion of these technologies offers lower operational pressure
drops and, therefore, more efficient energy use. “One 7-inch
PowerCore filter cartridge pack can be used to replace six
8-ft bag filters,” Knight claims. “PowerCore is ideally suited
to our mobile lab solutions because of its smaller size, and
on the plenum solutions, with their higher filter speed, an
even smaller solution can be used by adopting the new
technology,” he adds.
The smaller size and footprint of Torit PowerCore filter
systems means lower installation costs, while “maintenance
downtime is halved, because you have fewer filters to replace
and these are easily accessible and easily handled from the
clean side of the system”. Currently being widely adopted in
the mature markets of the US and Europe, Donaldson’s Torit
PowerCore solution will be released into the African and South
African markets during 2014.
“Donaldson Filtration Systems has solutions for ore sam-
pling and onsite laboratories for platinum, gold, copper, and
coal mining operations, and with the addition of PowerCore
later this year, we will be in a position to offer the smartest and
most cost-effective solutions available,” Knight suggests.
q
PowerCore: every second row of flutes is blocked to
the outlet, while alternate rows are blocked to the
inlet.
The fine fibres of Ultra-Web nanofibre technology enables surface loading, while with traditional media (right) dust is collected
throughout the thickness of the media. Surface loading enables more efficient removal of the dust by a reverse pulse system.
