A remote mine in Indonesia is the destination for three McLanahan Feeder-Breakers. The mine, on the island of Sumatra, is a state-owned energy provider and one of the largest coal mining companies in the country. It needed robust and reliable feeding and crushing equipment to meet the challenges of its rugged and remote location.
The design brief was focused on two main areas: the equipment had to fit into shipping containers for delivery, and the equipment had to have minimum installation requirements once arriving on site.
The remote site processes raw ROM coal, which is delivered to the Feeder-Breakers via a truck dump. The Feeder-Breakers were required to process 1,000 tons per hour each, with a 600mm in-feed lump size and 200mm out-feed lump.
With support from McLanahan's Indonesian agent, PT Suprabakti Mandiri, McLanahan Technical Services and Engineering departments were able to customize the Feeder-Breakers to fit the client’s design brief.
The Project
Starting with the client’s design brief, McLanahan engineers had to ensure the equipment could be packed into 40 foot open-top shipping containers and delivered. Efficiency with size and mass requirements of the equipment was a high priority to ensure the least number of shipping containers were used.
To achieve this, McLanahan's Engineering department modularized the existing Feeder-Breaker design into three main pieces. For the Reclaim Feeder-Breaker, these pieces included the feed deck, breaker and gooseneck along with the drive. For the Feeder-Breakers, these pieces included the tail section, feed section and breaker section with drive.
While delivery requirements to site were important, once on site the equipment would need to be assembled under the supervision of McLanahan’s certified representative PT Suprabakti Mandiri. To maximize the efficiency and quality of construction, McLanahan engineers designed the equipment to minimize complexity and the number of components needed for each machine, including parts; essentially, the equipment was to be a “plug and play” type installation.
Customized Solution
To achieve the customer’s requirements, McLanahan designed three customized and modularized Feeder-Breakers, including:
- Two Dump Hopper Feeder-Breakers
- One Gooseneck Reclaim Feeder-Breaker
McLanahan Feeder-Breakers are used to accept a non-continuous feed from trucks, dozers or wheeled loaders. They reduce the maximum lump size of the material to a desired product size and feed this onto a conveyor belt or through a secondary crushing machine at a controlled rate. This high-torque equipment with low rotational speeds results in small shaft sizes and modular compact equipment.
The two Dump Hopper Feeder-Breakers each have:
- A 10m long hopper opening and a horizontal discharge
- A single drag conveyor and breaker roll
- An integral hopper and hydraulically operated rear door with its own Hydraulic Power Unit (HPU)
- A breaker roll consisting of replaceable, weld-on carbide tipped picks
The Reclaim Feeder-Breaker is 16.7m in length with a 5m long exposed deck under coal and an 18° inclined discharge to provide a 2m lift. It also has a single drag conveyor, breaker roll and carbide-impregnated tipped picks on the breaker roll.
The supply contract also included spare parts, which was a critical factor for the client due to the site’s remote location and their contract to supply reliable and consistent energy to their customers.
All three machines were manufactured in Australia using local suppliers and contractors, while assembly and Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) was completed at McLanahan's Newcastle facility. Upon successful testing, each machine was disassembled for shipping and packed into containers for delivery to Jakarta, Indonesia. The Feeder-Breakers will be installed, commissioned and ready to begin operation in mid-2021.
To comply with the customer’s shipping requirement, each container was efficiently packed to ensure the minimum number of containers were shipped. Each Feeder-Breaker was containerized in three pieces, plus additional containers used for ancillary items. The breaker section was containerized with the complete breaker minus the drive assembly, and the head shaft was packed with the drive attached.
Responsive Communication
Due to the remote location and travel restrictions, all communication — including design reviews, project updates and FAT — were conducted via video conferencing. As the client was unable to observe the testing of the equipment in person, each critical stage was documented and timestamped by photo or video to meet the contractual requirements.
The challenges of the communication and cultural considerations of the project were achieved with the assistance and support of McLanahan's long-time Indonesian agent, Pt Suprabakti Mandiri, which have been a McLanahan agent for mineral equipment in Indonesia since 2009. Utilizing their skills and knowledge to initiate and manage remote online meetings, for live streaming equipment testing and translation, and to correlate and present manufacturing data reports and documentation was critical.
"It’s a real thrill to be able to showcase our technology to one of Asia’s most trusted coal mining companies," said Chris Knowles, Director of Sales and Marketing. "As an Australian OEM, we feel that our experience in developing equipment focused on safety and ease of maintenance was a big factor in our selection. Our aim is to further develop both our remote condition monitoring technology as well as an extensive service team locally in Indonesia."
