Johannesburg-headquartered materials processor Danoher has reported a 30% increase in production at its flagship commercial site with the support of the latest CDE wet processing technology.
Bloemspruit Quarry supplies Bloemfontein and the surrounding areas with high-quality construction aggregates. Before installing its CDE plant, Danoher, which offers, among other services crushing and screening solutions, was operating traditional bucket wheel technology at Bloemspruit.
Once widely adopted in the materials processing industry, when sand resources were abundant, and construction materials commanded a high price tag, bucket wheel technology is now being replaced by more advanced and efficient technological solutions.
“This technology is increasingly under the spotlight for many materials processors who are seeking to address inefficiencies in their operations,” says Ruchin Garg, regional manager for MEA (Middle East & Africa) at CDE.
The solution, Garg says, is cyclone-based technology.
“High and variable moisture content, the loss of quality fines to settling ponds, inaccurate material classification. These are some of the many shortcomings stemming from bucket wheels that are addressed by CDE cyclone technology.”
Cyclone technology, Garg explains, involves the use of centrifugal force to classify materials instead of bucket wheels that rely on gravity as the means of separation.
Commenting on the then-existing plant set-up at Danoher’s Bloemspruit Quarry, Garg says the outdated technology had further limitations impacting the business and restricting its growth potential.
“This is a very competitive market,” Garg explains. “The demand for high quality washed sand and aggregates is high. To fulfil that increasing demand and grow your business, materials processors need to ensure they’re extracting every valuable grain of sand from their feed material. To achieve that, an efficient plant is a must.
“Not only was Danoher losing valuable fines to its settling ponds, but the gearbox in the unreliable bucket wheel was prone to failure leading to significant downtime and putting the business at a competitive disadvantage.”
To overcome these challenges, CDE recently commissioned a 60 tonnes per hour EvoWash 102 at the Bloemspruit Quarry.
Danoher business manager Johann van Niekerk says that as an industry leader, the company uses the most advanced equipment technology and was exploring various solutions to replace the dated bucket wheel.
“We evaluated the CDE wet processing technology at one of our customer’s sites where the company’s EvoWash sand washing plant was in operation. It was a major asset to them, and we saw an opportunity to integrate similar technology at Bloemspruit.”
Van Niekerk says they also sought to differentiate Danoher from other materials processors in the market.
“We needed something that was more suited to our requirements, a solution that offered us greater product flexibility. We wanted to stand out. To grow the business, we needed to differentiate ourselves from the competition while simultaneously producing a superior product for our customers.”
CDE’s Evowash, Van Niekerk says, compared to its previous bucket wheel, offers Danoher greater versatility.
“Demand in our local market is driven by washed sands. With our new EvoWash we’re producing more sand than ever before.”
Van Niekerk continues: “More control over our cut point means we’re also better equipped to be more responsive to the needs of our customers as we can produce sand fractions in line with their requirements or downstream processes.”
With the support of CDE cyclone technology, Danoher is now producing two grades of sand – fine (0 – 1.5mm) and coarse (0 – 5mm) – compared to only the one grade of sand its bucket wheel was capable of producing.
“Our production is up by 30% and water usage down by 15%,” says Van Niekerk. “This has opened up a new revenue stream for us, and the superior products are attracting new customers, too.”
He says the quality of the sand produced by the EvoWash is equal to that of natural sand.
“We recently secured an order for 600 tons a month of washed super sand from one customer whose sand was previously dredged from riverbeds,” says Van Niekerk. “This is testament to the quality of the sand being produced by the EvoWash.”
According to another of Danoher’s largest customers, its sand product is now the “most consistent washed crusher sand in the market” in Bloemfontein.
