One of the easiest areas to pick up some of those efficiency gains is in coal preparation.

Take screens, for example, which play a key role in the coal prep process.

Like everything though, the ongoing quest for higher throughput is ever present.

This higher throughput means modern coal prep plants have to have equipment with ever-increasing capacity.

This, in turn, requires investment by manufacturers both in design and production capability.

To produce super-sized screens at facilities close enough to the region requiring the equipment and to be able to provide technical support and onsite service is challenging.

With its Linatex screening equipment, Weir Minerals believes it can meet that challenge.

It is investing millions in the design and manufacture of super-sized screens at manufacturing facilities in South Africa, the US and China, with further development underway in Australia.

The Johannesburg facility is the Weir Minerals “design centre of origin” for the global screens business and is responsible for screen design. It is also Weir’s global hub of knowledge and support.

One of Weir’s philosophies is to incorporate technology into screens and screen media to create lighter, energy-efficient and durable designs.

Weir Minerals screen media manager Chris Cable said the company’s research and development focus had always been on delivering the highest-performance screens and screen media in the industry.

“New designs and materials to improve maintenance requirements and increase longevity are always in the pipeline,” he said.

“Our entire screening equipment range, including screen media, can be tailored to suit the individual needs of specific applications.”

The company’s key screen range is Linatex.

It has dewatering screens that boast sloping or curved back deck sections and an adjustable deck angle and discharge lip.

The Linatex single and double-deck banana screens are designed to operate at high gravity-force levels, enabling better feed separation. They are also said to have exceptionally high throughput per unit screening area.

The single and double-deck horizontal screens range from 300mm to more than 4m wide and up to 10m in length. These can be supplied with either exciter driven or out-of-balance motors.