Crusher technology developed for the mining industry

Intertek, a multinational testing company, recently adopted crusher technology that it helped to develop, following a project with testing equipment supplier Orbis and AXT, Orbis’s distributor in Australia. The technology helps Intertek provide a range of testing and analytical services to its mining clientele.

Orbis is a recently established Australian company that manufactures sample preparation equipment such as crushers and pulverisers for the mining industry. In March 2018 the company commenced a development project with Intertek to assess and refine its OM50 WM jaw crusher.

Over a period of several months, the Intertek team threw a wide range of samples at the prototype and had it working around the clock. This included some very hard materials, which only induced minimal amounts of wear on the crusher jaws that were deemed very acceptable.

During this time, Intertek provided valuable field-based feedback to the Orbis team and helped engineer a more robust crusher that was also easier to service when required. This also included adjustments to safety features to meet OH&S requirements.

“The OM50 WM crusher proved to be very effective at processing every sample we asked of it, including drill cores, iron ore, etc,” said Glynn Croft, Intertek’s Sample Preparation Manager at the company’s Maddington operation. “Compared to other similar systems, we found it to be very powerful, while its simplified design enhanced its robustness.

“Perhaps the most impressive thing about it was its performance. Other systems require two crushing stages to take drill core down to between 2–3 mm, while the OM50 WM can do it in a single pass, which helps to streamline our workflow. In fact, we liked it so much we bought the prototype!”

“We were also very impressed with the Orbis rotary sample divider fitted to the crusher,” added Tristan MacPherson, Maintenance Manager for Sample Preparation at Intertek. “Using a dial for adjusting sample output size is revolutionary and further speeds up sample preparation in our operation.”

Image caption: The Orbis OM50 WM crusher with rotary sample divider at Intertek.