product news
54
06.13
Barely seven months have elapsed since
Pilot Crushtec International announced its
appointment as distributor for Sandvik’s
construction range of mobile crushing and
screening equipment.
Within this relatively short space of time, a
dramatic increase in the presence of Sand-
vik equipment on sites across South Africa
and neighbouring states has reportedly been
seen, with sales reaching the R60 million
mark and with the equipment working in a
diversity of applications. According to Pilot
Crushtec, feedback received from service
and sales engineers in the field indicates that
the transition to Sandvik has been a virtually
seamless operation.
The diversity of sites across South Africa
and neighbouring states includes alluvial dia-
mond mining, the building and construction
industry, civil engineering, as well as coal and
copper mining on site locations far and wide,
including the Northern Cape, Queenstown,
Centurion and Richards Bay – not to mention
a strong representation in Zambia.
According to Pilot Crushtec International’s
National Sales Manager, Nicolan Goven-
der, the market’s ready acceptance of the
Sandvik brand can be measured by the fact
that customers are buying a comprehensive
Manufactured by MBE Minerals, the Pneuflot
pneumatic flotation system has been widely
used in coal flotation for treating fine coal
slurries since 1987. The product has since
become increasingly popular in the flota-
tion treatment of industrial minerals; ferrous
minerals; non-ferrous metals such as copper,
lead, nickel and zinc; and for precious metals
such as gold, silver and platinum.
Conventional agitator-flotation systems are
less sensitive to feed variations, but chang-
ing conditions, especially where base metal
minerals are being processed, decrease the
ability to control the process. Likewise, with
column flotation technology, the particle/
air collision time in a single cell is very low,
making selectivity very high. Multiple cells are
therefore required to achieve an acceptable
yield.
The Pneuflot pneumatic flotation cell mixes
the air and pulp in a continuous stream and
ensures that correctly sized bubbles are fed
into the pulp as it enters the cell. This maxi-
mises the number of particle and bubble
collisions. The system is able to produce a
wide range of bubble sizes between 0 and
1 000 µm, allowing the equipment to be used
for all flotation stages, from rougher through
cleaner to scavenger.
Turbulence in a Pneuflot cell is compara-
tively low when used on ultra fine feed materi-
als. The bubble size range in the self-aspirat-
ed aerator can be reduced by changing the
feed slurry rate using a frequency converter
on the motor’s power supply.
Sulzer Pumps and Mather & Platt have to-
gether announced a licensing agreement al-
lowing the manufacture, sale and servicing of
Mather & Platt products and parts by Sulzer
Pumps South Africa.
The agreement, signed in January this year,
will facilitate customer access to the Mather
& Platt centrifugal pump range via both com-
panies, allowing purchase of these pumps as
well as access to spare parts and service.
The confusion over the link between Sul-
zer and Mather & Platt, now clarified by the
licensing agreement, had its origins in the
nineteenth century, when English company
Mather & Platt developed and improved upon
the 1875 invention of the Reynolds turbine
centrifugal pump.
A few years later, Mather & Platt entered
into an agreement with Swiss rival Sulzer that
both companies would manufacture a multi-
stage turbine pump based on the invention,
but incorporating several improvements
made by Sulzer.
The new design was an attractive one, and
Pilot Crushtec enjoys brisk sales of Sandvik range
cross section of products
across all three Sandvik
ranges of mobile crush-
ers, screens and scalpers.
He adds that there is a
strong motivation behind
these purchase decisions.
“Increased tonnages,
after sales service and
spares back up are our
customers’ greatest con-
cerns,” he says. “Thanks to our alliance with
Sandvik, we are able to match these criteria
on all three counts. Pilot Crushtec Interna-
tional has products available ex-stock, as
well as the essential technical capabilities to
boost customers’ businesses.
“In addition, many of our existing custom-
ers are opting to buy new Sandvik products
with the prior knowledge that they will con-
tinue to enjoy Pilot Crushtec International’s
exceptional levels of after sales service. Re-
cently we sold two Sandvik QJ241 mobile
jaw crushers to a national agency following a
scrupulously conducted tender process. The
QJ241 was ultimately selected as it offered
clear advantages in terms of both price and
specification,” says Govender.
Africa Sales Manager Wayne Warren is
A Sandvik QA340 mobile double screen working in iron ore in the
Northern Cape.
equally upbeat about the launch of Sandvik
into sub-Saharan Africa. “Sales have exceed-
ed all expectations. Our cross border cus-
tomers have both a high regard for the brand
as well as the service we offer, so there was
no problem in gaining market acceptance
for the products. In fact, over the past quar-
ter our sales of mobile equipment into Africa
have shown a marked increase,” he says.
Warren comments that one model in partic-
ular has attracted a lively interest from export
customers: the Sandvik UD211 towable multi-
product system. This combines a grizzly feed-
er, jaw crusher, cone crusher and multislope
screen into a single, compact, wheeled unit.
One of these one-stop crushing and screen-
ing solutions is already working on site.
Pilot Crushtec, tel (+27 11) 842-5600
Pneuflot flotation system an attractive alternative
There are no rotational parts as in agita-
tor cells and, unlike column cells, no further
air injection is usually needed. Furthermore,
special rubber and ceramic materials are
used to construct all parts that are exposed
to friction.
Available in sizes ranging in diameter from
800 mm to 6 m, the Pneuflot systems have
been successfully installed in a number of in-
dustrial applications. Slurry feed rates of 10
to 1 400 m
3
/h can be achieved in a single cell,
depending on cell diameter.
Johannes Kottmann, MBE Minerals SA,
tel (+27 11) 397-4660
a sharing of markets seemed commercially
feasible, but Sulzer was able to supply the
pumps at a lower cost than Mather & Platt,
and the agreement to produce the same type
of pump ended in 1904.
Over the ensuing century, the intellectual
property rights to the Mather & Platt brand,
products and spare parts changed hands
several times, with independent pump devel-
opment by both Sulzer and by Mather & Platt
leading to the confusion now amicably settled
by the Southern African licensing agreement.
The most recent sale, in 2009, of Mather
& Platt by PSV Holdings to WPIL confirmed
Mather & Platt South Africa as the sole manu-
facturers, reconditioners and distributors of
Mather & Platt pumps throughout central and
southern Africa.
Sulzer South Africa is now the sole Mather
& Platt licensee. Mather & Platt products,
parts and service are now available from both
Mather & Platt and Sulzer.
Mather+Platt (Pty) Ltd,
tel (+27 11) 824-4810
Licensing agreement signed for pump range
