The significant capital costs of longwall mining equipment make its production uptime – and hence its efficient recovery and relocation – vital to mine productivity; RMI Pressure Systems has successfully been building and installing its salvage – or rental – pump units in Australia to facilitate the moving of longwalls.
According to RMI’s director for sales and service in Australia, Huw Dodds, customers usually hire the reliable and versatile RMI units in pairs – one to power down the roof supports shields at the old coalface, and the other to power up the shields at the new face.
“However, over the past four to five months, we are seeing a growing trend in Australia towards hiring a third salvage unit to be located in an underground workshop,” said Dodds. “This allows repair and maintenance work to be carried out on the shields without having to take them above ground, which shortens the out-of-service mining time and saves both money and resources at the mine.”
RMI Pressure Systems is a global leader in high pressure and high volume fluid pumping stations, with over a century’s experience in designing, manufacturing and supporting this technology. With a primary manufacturing facility in the UK, the company has operations in China, the US, India and Australia – supporting equipment in countries around the globe.
Huw Dodds, RMI’s director for sales and service in Australia.
A standard RMI salvage unit is fitted with the company’s proven S300 Trimax pump, driven by an on-board 110 kW electric motor. This delivers a duty of 202 l/min at 208 bar, although these basic specifications can be adapted to suit specific customer requirements. He notes that the salvage units are used mainly for the shields, but can also provide hydraulic power to any other longwall items as required during the relocation.
“To assist our customers with the scheduling of their longwall moves, we work closely with them to ensure that our units and service personnel are available when they need us,” he says. “Flexibility and forward planning also help us in adapting the equipment to specific customer requirements.”
RMI’s service engineers are qualified to provide training for customers’ staff, and this is regularly done on-site for new and existing operators. The company also provides comprehensive documentation – including operation manuals in both soft and hard copies – for every rental period.
“Given the value of time in conducting these longwall moves, we prioritise the reliability of our salvage units,” he explained. “This includes conducting a complete run test before dispatch, and a full service when they are returned. Our well-equipped workshop allows us to do this in-house, where we can stringently control the quality of what we do.”
For those customers that request a Factory Acceptance Test (FAT), they can witness the units operating at the RMI facility, while also familiarising themselves with the units ahead of dispatch. To ensure the highest levels of safety are applied, the salvage units incorporate the standard electrical and mechanical safety devices, but also undergo rigorous third-party certification in line with local requirements. The company’s non-diesel units are approved for hazardous zones in underground mining.
“To ensure that basic maintenance can easily be conducted on site, we supply a genuine spares kit with our salvage units – containing consumable items like filters and some operation-critical components,” said Dodds. “For longer rental periods, we conduct the on-site servicing, and our service engineers provide support either in person or remotely, depending on the customers requirement.”
Being the only high pressure plunger pump OEM for Longwall mining applications in Australia, customers benefit from direct contact with local specialists who have in-depth technical knowledge – as well as easy and quick access to genuine spare parts.
In addition to their application in longwall mining, RMI salvage units also operate in the steel industry. Among their uses in this sector has been as stand-by units to provide service in cases of main pump failure.
About RMI
For companies in the mining and heavy industry sectors looking for quality, robust high-pressure pumping solutions, RMI Pressure Systems designs, manufactures and supports world class reciprocal pumps that last. Through stringent quality processes and extensive testing protocols, we produce pumps that give customers optimal uptime and life-long productivity. With over a century of engineering experience, we have the global expertise to ensure our customers of high-pressure pumping solutions and support that promote profitability and sustainability. Our high-pressure pumping technology delivers 95% energy efficiency and saves water. This aligns with the growing concern in our markets with environmental sustainability, supporting customers who are working towards lower resource consumption and reduced carbon emissions.
