Starting from this chapter, the mineral washing equipment will be sorted and analyzed, and other mining equipment will also be introduced in the following articles.

Industry differentiation

As an important equipment in mineral sorting, screening machinery has significant differences in equipment selection for different materials and sorting processes, and the types of screening machines are also different.

The sieve machine divides mixed materials with different particle sizes into several products with different particle sizes through a sieve. It is mainly used in the coal washing process for raw coal/product classification, product dehydration, desliming, and media removal. In the field of non-coal mines, it is mainly used for ore classification. The commonly used screening equipment in coal industry production mainly includes fixed screens, roller screens, vibrating screens, relaxation screens, etc. The screening equipment for non-coal mines mainly includes ordinary vibrating screens, stacked screens, etc.

Due to historical reasons, both the coal industry and the non-coal industry are developing independently, and there is relatively little sharing in process design, equipment development, and other aspects. The same situation also exists in screening machinery. The coal industry has benefited from the rapid development in the past two decades, and the washing equipment has developed rapidly in terms of large-scale, intelligent, and diversified. As the core equipment in the washing process, the proportion of screening machines is relatively high. In the field of non-coal mines, due to the frequent crushing and grinding processes of minerals, there are more cyclones and fewer screening machines used for mineral classification. However, in iron ore concentrators, the use of stacked screens is relatively large.

The development of mining equipment is mainly aimed at adapting to mineral sorting processes and solving some problems existing in mining usage sites. Full communication between coal and non-coal industries will also bring new concepts to their respective mining fields and promote the transformation and upgrading of processes and equipment. For example, the laminated screen was first used in iron ore beneficiation plants to solve the classification of ultra-fine materials. Later, it was introduced into the coal industry and has been well applied and promoted in coal slurry classification, dehydration, and other aspects in recent years.

Brand Development

Like other mining machinery, screening machines were first introduced from abroad, such as the USK circular and USL linear vibrating screens from KHD in Germany, the SCHENCK banana and ordinary vibrating screens from Germany, the Liwell relaxation screen from Germany, and the Derrick laminated screen from the United States.

The introduction of foreign screening machines to China has a characteristic, especially in the coal industry. Most of the equipment of foreign brands is represented by design institutes/engineering companies. After several years of digestion, absorption, and brand integration, foreign screening machine brands are gradually being squeezed out by Chinese brands.

SCHENCK sieve machine was first promoted by Schenck and its application effect was relatively good. However, with the increase in coal production, the demand for sieve machines has surged, and many design institutes want to intervene. Among them, Dadi Engineering Development Group has established AURY Company, fully absorbing Schenck's technology, and with the strength of Dadi Engineering General Contracting, the brand of AURY has been built on the basis of Schenck sieve machine, However, due to the inability of sales and service concepts to adapt to market development and changes, Schenck 's mineral processing business has lost market share, and was ultimately acquired by Sandvik in 2022.

Compared to AURY, as a rising star in the coal industry, Qinhuangdao EUROCMA Company has also made bold attempts in the large-scale development of ordinary vibrating screens and relaxation screens with the help of Shenke's technical strength. In recent years, it has developed very rapidly, and has received unanimous praise from the project site in terms of product quality and after-sales service. It is not limited to the coal industry, but has been promoted in other non-coal mining fields such as non-ferrous mines, iron mines, potassium salt mines, etc, has made outstanding contributions to the development of non-coal mine screening machinery.

LUDOWICI in Australia is sold in China by John Finley as an agent, and with the strength of its design institute and general contracting project, it has been widely adapted in the coal industry in China. Later, due to the expiration of the agency agreement, many products and technologies of LUDOWICI were converted to John Finley JOHNFINLAY. LUDOWICI's mineral processing products gradually withdrew from China and were later acquired by FLSmidth.

The Con Weld vibrating screen in the United States is mainly sold in China through the agency of TECHGART. Later, due to the expiration of the agency agreement, the Con Weld brand withdrew from China and was changed to TECHGART. The Con Weld screen machine is a heavy-duty screen, and the probability of the screen machine beam breaking is higher in many project use sites. In addition, the TECHGART screen machine has not made a good breakthrough in equipment large-scale direction.

The Tabor screening machine in the United States was first represented by Beijing YuanZhiHan. However, due to the quality issues of the Tabor screening machine itself, it has not been recognized in the Chinese market and is currently no longer in use.

The Birtley sieve machine in the United States was a flash in the pan in China. Due to the unclear market positioning of the decision-making team, it withdrew without conducting market promotion.

The saddle heavy screening machine started relatively early and has a relatively large market share in the small equipment market, with relatively few research and development applications in equipment large-scale.

The above is mainly the development situation of some brands of ordinary vibrating screens and flip flop screens. Currently, in the competition for large screen machines, Qinhuangdao Yougema and Tianjin AURY have become the main players in the market.

Regarding roller screens, the main production factories in China currently include Shijiazhuang GongBei and Shenyang Kedi. Roller screens started early, but with the diversified development of vibrating screens, the roller screen market has been affected to some extent. However, roller screens still have their advantages in large-scale production and handling sticky materials. Shijiazhuang GongBei has been making unremitting efforts in the research and development of roller screens, which can adapt to different mining sites.

For laminated screens, they were previously mainly used in non-coal mining fields, especially in iron ore beneficiation plants. Derrick in the United States has always been at the forefront, with stable product performance and good sorting results. The sieve plate is the core of the laminated screen, and the opening rate and classification efficiency have a significant impact on the classification effect of materials. In China, the main brands include Anhui FangYuan, Tangshan LuKai, and Weihai Haiwang. Anhui FangYuan's promotion of laminated screens in the coal industry is very effective, making many contributions to the practice of fine coal separation technology. Its research and development of screen plates is also very in-depth, which can be compared with Derrick. The application effects of Tangshan LuKai and Weihai Haiwang in some mining fields are also quite good.

With the rapid development of intelligent mining equipment, the system monitoring of screening machines is gradually being valued, which can provide timely diagnosis of equipment for on-site use in mines, so as to facilitate early maintenance and repair. In addition, with the increasing exchange of equipment in coal and non-coal mines, the optimization of mine sorting processes and the resolution of mineral sorting problems will also be greatly improved. It is hoped that the brand enterprises of screen machines can go abroad more and better and provide more services for the mine sites in countries along the "the Belt and Road".

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