Avweld Outperform Expectation with Long Life Wear Resistant AbrasaPipe ®

DAVID CAMILLERI, Sales Engineer for AVWELD provides an insight into the AbrasaPipe®

Early in 2018, David Camilleri (Avweld’s Sales Engineer) and Vaughan Bartleson (Loctite Business Development Manager) were approached by Stuart Daley, Maintenance Supervisor at Holcim’s quarry in Werribee, about an issue with the extremely short life of piping used in the dewatering wash process. The piping is used to feed 7mm minus concrete aggregate, which is very abrasive Western Plain Basalt.

Holcim had tried a range of options, with limited success. In the most abrasive positions, standard 6 inch steel pipe elbows could last as little as 3-4 weeks. Rubber lined pipes only increased the life to 5 weeks and didn’t justify the increase in cost.

It was evident the constant pipe changeouts were causing significant downtime and labour costs to the plant. David and Vaughan provided two solutions, patch repair and replacement.

For patch repair of holes in old rubber lined pipe elbows, the solution recommended involved using Loctite Flex 80 polyurethane rubber repair compound. The exterior was patched with Loctite Fast Cure Wearing Compound. Flex 80 is typically used for repairing damaged conveyor belts. The fast curing wearing compound is typically used to patch worn liners.

The pipe repaired using this method was installed and lasted for 8 weeks.

The option presented for new pipes for longer life extension and Avweld’s AbrasaPipe® hardface weld overlay pipe was introduced. With chrome carbide hardfacing overlay up to 9mm thick, this product provides exceptional abrasion resistance, and can be supplied in either straight pipes, elbows or reducers.

For the pricing of the pipe, the Holcim team had an expectation that this product would last 3-6 months. At the time of writing this article, the trial pipe had been installed for 14 months and was still performing well. This massive increase in life has provided considerable labour and material savings for the quarry and resulted in AbrasaPipe® being standardised as the material of choice for abrasive pipe applications.

In addition to the obvious cost savings, safety has also been a consideration by switching to AbrasaPipe®. The manual labour involved with replacing pipe work in difficult locations, sometimes high off the ground, provides significant hazards. The reduction of this high-risk changeout task by a factor of over 10 times is an excellent safety benefit.

Avweld continue discussions with the quarry regarding further cost saving and safety improvement possibilities, by using their experience in wear resistant materials to increase the life of quarry plant and equipment.

Avweld Company Background

Avweld are a large scale repair and maintenance company based in Melbourne. Their focus is on extending the life of critical equipment using advanced materials and processes. Material processing industries are a key focus area of Avweld.

Products and services include supply of AbrasaPlate® wear plate, repair of crushers, shaft and journal repairs, general hardfacing, large scale machining and grinding and thermal spray. Avweld are a certified Loctite Composites Applicator.

Through their welding supplies division Alloys International, they also supply wires and electrodes for maintenance and repair, including low hydrogen electrodes, hard facing, tungsten carbide and exotic materials.

Avweld and Alloys have technical sales staff in all areas of Australia, with expertise in material selection and advice for life extension of high wearing components. Both Avweld and Alloys International have been active Associate Members of the CMPA since 2016.

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