Development of Advanced Surface Enhancement Technology for Decreasing Wear and Corrosion of Equipment Used for Mineral Processing

Abstract

Equipment wear is a major concern in the mineral processing industry, which dramatically increases the maintenance cost and adversely affects plant operation efficiency. In this research, novel surface treatment technologies, High Density Infrared (HDI) and Laser Surface Engineering (LSE) surface coating processes were developed for the surface enhancement of selected mineral and coal processing equipment. Microstructural and mechanical properties of the coated specimens were characterized. Laboratory-simulated wear tests were conducted to evaluate the tribological performance of the coated components. Test results indicate that the wear resistance of ASTM A36 (raw coal screen section) and can be significantly increased by applying HDI and LSE coating processes. Field testing has been performed using a LSE-treated screen panel and it showed a significant improvement of the service life.III