Royal IHC will design and deliver two mining screen towers to the family-owned company Spaansen. The towers will be installed on the hopper dredger Yed Prior.
Spaansen is currently converting the Gerd container vessel into a gravel hopper dredger with a hopper capacity of approximately 5000 cubic metres. The conversion is taking place at a yard in Harlingen, the Netherlands with shipyard Bijlsma from Wartena supplying ship sections.
Upgraded screen towers
For this order IHC has upgraded the design of the screen towers to increase their screening efficiency and ease of maintenance. The screen decks will be twice as large as the standard design and cylinders will be added to remotely adjust the screening angle. In addition, the screen deck has been made out of two sections to optimise the flow. The areas with the highest wear are being redesigned so they can be easily maintained. All these upgrades will ensure a high separation efficiency, resulting in obtaining higher volumes of gravel with a higher value.
‘IHC has invested extensively in the development of its screening technology,’ says IHC Manager Operations Robin Hageman. ‘We are now much better at predicting what happens on the screen deck, which allows us to design an optimal screening system for each customer.’
The engineering has already been completed and the towers will be installed on the vessel during the second quarter of 2020.
