Development of Advanced Surface Enhancement Technology for Decreasing Wear and Corrosion of Equipment Used for Mineral Processing

Abstract

Equipment wear is a major concern in the mineral processing industry, which dramatically increases the maintenance cost and adversely affects plant operation efficiency. In this research, a novel surface treatment technology, laser surface engineering (LSE) surface coating process was proposed for the surface enhancement of selected mineral processing equipment. Microstructural and mechanical properties of the coated specimen were characterized. Laboratory-simulated wear tests were conducted to evaluate the tribological performance of the coated components. Test results indicate that the wear resistance of ASTM A36 (raw coal screen section) and AISI 4140 steels can be increased 10 and 25 folds, respectively by the application of LSE process. Initial field testing showed a 2 times improvement of the service life of a raw coal screen panel.