TB Wood's MTO & Standard Sheaves for Mine Flotation Tank Agitator Drives

September 29, 2016
Mine Flotation Tank

Massive 97" MTO sheaves delivered direct to Mexico facility in a dedicated semi truck

A major global mineral and metals processing equipment OEM needed reliable belt drive solutions for its line of mining flotation cells (tanks). The tanks are used to recover minerals utilizing a flotation process. Water and chemicals are combined with crushed (ground) ore creating a slurry which is aerated within the cell (tank) to form bubbles. The valuable target mineral, such as copper, attaches to the bubbles and rises to the surface where it is skimmed off for further refinement.

A belt drive, positioned over the top of the tank, is connected to a shaft that extends down through the center of the tank to the agitator (impeller) that continuously mixes the slurry solution.

The OEM contacted TB Wood’s based on a long-term relationship, along with its reputation for quality and on-time delivery. The TB Wood’s engineering team provided technical support to ensure that each drive system was sized correctly to meet the requirements of the different sized tanks within the customer’s line. TB Wood’s manufactures hundreds of gray iron standard and Made-to-Order (MTO) sheaves in a wide variety of sizes. The 3- and 5-groove units for this application ranged from 4.5" to 97" diameters. All MTO sheaves were private branded by either casting or stamping the customer’s part number on each unit. Mated QD bushings were also shipped for each sheave.

The TB Wood’s production team was able to overcome significant scheduling challenges to complete manufacturing and ship the multiple private-branded large MTO sheaves to the customer’s facility in Mexico on a tight timeline. 50" and 64" MTO sheaves were shipped by rail and the massive 97" MTO sheaves were delivered in a dedicated semi truck.

MTO Sheaves