Castech Solutions trials robust low-cost picks for trenching.
Castech Solutions is the Australian agent for a manufacturer of mining and construction cutting solutions. The catalog of this manufacturer comprises consumable parts including mining and construction Picks and Bits thru to complete cutting drums and heads.
The trenching division of a major innovative mining and civil construction services group approached Castech interested in trialing the trenching Picks to evaluate their cost-effectiveness.
Castech’s price was very competitive and the customer purchased ~250 Picks for testing.
Image 1. Pick supplied by Castech.
The performance of trenching Picks can only be determined under actual operating conditions. Therefore, the only meaningful comparison between different Picks is to fit the different suppliers’ Picks, side by side, into the trencher machine and carry out a field test. The terrain to be trenched was located in the hills area NE of Perth, consisting of bauxite laterite rock clay; see Image 2.
Image 2. Section of the trench and detail of the rock being cut.
One station of the trenching machine was fitted with Picks supplied by Castech; see Image 3. The other stations fitted with Picks from the two existing Picks suppliers, each considered by the operator to be the industry benchmark.
Image 3. Station fitted with Picks supplied by Castech (each station fits 19 picks). Detail of a partially worn Pick in its holder.
The trenching machine worked 150 hours to trench 2100 meters. The section of the trench being 1200m deep and 900m wide. Trenching speeds between 15 and 13 m/hr.
On completion of the trenching job, the Pick wear was compared. The picks supplied by Castech performed equally as well as the best performer of the other two brands.
A worn Castech Pick is shown in Image 4. It can be seen that there is still significant material protecting the holder. The pick is far from the end of its service life.
Image 4. Level of wear in the Pick after 150h of trenching.
Customer and operator feed-back has been very positive:
“We are having a very good run with these Castech cutters in this very hard Laterite ( cap stone ) . We are trenching 15 meters an hour in the really hard going, 1200mm deep and 900 mm wide. We have trenched approx. 1300 meters and have not changed a Castech cutter yet, and are running the same as a brand tooth.” (In the middle of the job)
“Up till now we have not changed a Castech tooth at all, very impressed with their performance.” (At the end of the job)
Castech is now a preferred supplier and will continue to work closely with the customer and machine operator to optimize Pick design and lower operating costs.
