A Hunter manufacturer’s technology is being piloted by a Queensland underground mine to help it to more effectively and easily clean up sludge and slurries.
Mooranbah North Mine has taken delivery of a new hydraulics fitted version of Brain Industries’ self-filling tanker.
Brain’s Managing Director, Gillian Summers said the Hunter designed and manufactured tanker is an advancement on Brain’s air driven model which enables vacuum recovery, haulage and dumping of heavily solids laden slurries and sludges containing lumps up to 150mm in size.
Gillian said the new six cubic metre tanker has been produced in response to calls from the underground mining industry for more versatility. It can be run from any load haul dumper.
She said powerful jet pumps means Brain’s self-filling tankers vacuum-load continuously to achieve high loading rates. It is constructed aluminium free to comply with mining regulations.
“While the new hydraulics version was produced for underground mines, our self-filling tankers are also suited to applications in hard rock mining, tunnelling and contract cleaning services,” Gillian said.
“With no moving parts in contact with the material, continuous loading of large lump solids, including waxy, fibrous and abrasive materials, is possible without detriment to the pump.”
Loading stops automatically at high level when handling wet materials. Excess water can be drained from the tailgate valves to allow top-up of load maximising hauled solids.
Gillian said the tanker is not only easy to use but easy to empty. A 250mm diameter dump hatch or full-sized rear door can be used.
Brain’s existing air driven self-filling tankers will be able to be retrofitted with hydraulics.
Brain’s self-filling tankers can be skid-mounted or trailer-mounted. The skid-mounted unit is made to be transported on a flatbed trailer or truck using the side-accessed forklift sockets. The multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) unit can also be transported above ground in this way. The trailer-mounted self-filling tanker has a rocker arm, load sharing wheels with oil-filled hubs and solid tyres.
IMAGE | Brain Industries’ self-filling tanker.
