CDC gets trial service contract with Middelbult
Dust Buster News

Colliery Dust Control (CDC), South Africa's leading manufacturer and supplier of wet fan scrubber boxes for continuous miners and road headers, recently signed on Sasol Coal's Middelbult Colliery in Secunda for a service contract to ensure maximum dust suppression efficiency.

CDC offers collieries an integrated dust suppression system in which water-powered air movers and a spray fan system are configured to operate in conjunction with the scrubber box to maintain dust counts below 5 mg per cu m. "We have successfully demonstrated through our service contracts that proper and timeous servicing plays a vital role in ensuring consistently efficient dust suppression, with dust counts being maintained within regulation levels," said general manager Bob Johnstone.

The service contract with Middelbult, effective from May 1, is a trial contract in which CDC will seek to show that good maintenance servicing plays a vital role in ensuring that the integrated dust suppression system operates to the fullest efficiency. "We hope of course that this will result in a long-term service contract in which we will take care of the dust suppression systems on all the continuous miners at Middelbult," said Johnstone.

"But the message we would like to get across to the industry as a whole is that, either way, whether you do the servicing of your dust suppression equipment in-house or let CDC's dedicated team take responsibility for it via a service contract, the most important point is that proper and regular servicing is a key element in maintaining the efficiency of the system."

He added: "Not only is it essential to keep dust counts at low levels in accordance with the requirements laid down by the Government Mining Engineer to ensure the health and safety of mine personnel, but it has the additional advantage of markedly higher production levels being achieved as a result of the improved working environment."

Among collieries that have already opted for CDC service contracts to ensure consistently low dust counts are Ingwe Coal Corporation's Delmas Colliery and Matla Colliery No.2.

Delmas Colliery has been on a CDC service contract since February last year, involving the servicing by CDC of the dust suppression systems on all seven of the mine's road headers, five of which are fitted with CDC systems.

The service contract for Matla Colliery No. 2 has been in effect since November last year and encompasses the servicing of two machines fitted with CDC dust suppression systems.

The CDC service team usually devotes a full shift to servicing the dust suppression system on one machine. This involves checking the general condition of the scrubber box, removing and cleaning the screen and demisters, removing and cleaning all the filter elements, cleaning the sump and sump pipes, changing the oil in the booster pump and checking that it is operating correctly, removing and cleaning all spray nozzles, checking the entire system for leaks and pressure, making sure everything is in working order and replacing parts where necessary, and finally producing a full report on the total system for the customer at the end of the shift.