CHALLENGE
At the Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold mine in Safford, AZ, they move a lot of material. There are several chutes that come off the vibrating screens to feed oversized material to tertiary crushers. The original chute ended in a square box that would accumulate so much dead bed material it was too heavy to lift out for maintenance. The Crush & Convey Superintendent turned to his local Tricon field representative, Marcus Gaethje, to recommend a solution.
SOLUTION
While one of the chutes was on the ground for maintenance, Marcus flew in Tricon engineer Chase Jackson. Together, they used LIDAR 3-D scanning technology to precisely measure the existing chute. Chase took the results back to the office and used the scan data and AutoCAD to design a new chute system with a tapered box to solve the dead bed material problem. The bin walls were lined with 1″ bolt-in Super-C® plate, while the impact areas of the tapered box were lined with 3/4″ Tri-Braze®. The new chute was a perfect fit and will provide much more reliable operation with reduced maintenance needs. The C&C superintendent was so pleased with the service and results that they plan to order additional Tricon chute systems for installation in 2025.
