Screen media options

Whether feed materials are wet, dry, or exceptionally abrasive, selecting the correct screen media is the key to a professionally blended deck. Open area and wear-life requirements are different during the individual phases, requiring a unique approach to each.

The market boasts numerous screen media options, and each offers a unique set of features for individual applications. Some of the most effective products that professionals may consider during their blending approach include the following:

Polyurethane — Among the more durable materials used in screen media, polyurethane provides a long wear life with little maintenance. The flexible polymer is resistant to tears and abrasion, while premium polyurethane products also offer tapered openings that reduce blinding and pegging. This makes the material a good choice in higher wear areas in both wet and dry applications, but these positive characteristics traditionally come at the expense of open area.

Woven wire — At the other end of the spectrum is woven wire. It is commonly referred to as wire cloth or wire mesh screen, and it comes in a variety of alloys, weave types, and diameters. Woven wire offers some of the greatest open area and can be used for a wide range of applications. It also is known to make the “cleanest” cut when referring to accuracy. These strong advantages come at the expense of wear life, but fortunately not all woven wire is the same. When selecting woven wire, wire with very high-in-carbon content allows for optimum characteristics in tensile strength and ductility.

Hybrid screens — The newest screen media technology is hybrid screens. Hybrid screens combine the excellent wear-life characteristics of polyurethane with the great open area of woven wire cloth. This combination lasts up to six times longer than traditional wire cloth, but offers as much as 80 percent more open area than modular polyurethane. The hybrid’s tapered openings either accept or reject near-size material to provide a self-cleaning effect, which eliminates nearly all blinding and pegging. The result is a screen that is extremely durable and highly productive.

Self-cleaning screens — Self-cleaning screens combine individual wires using flexible polyurethane strips, allowing the wires to move at frequencies higher than the G-force generated by the vibrating screen and eliminating blinding and pegging. The unique design of flat lying wires even offers higher open area than woven wire, while outlasting it by up to 25 percent. Through careful attention to the various phases of screening, a thorough analysis of the site’s needs, and use of the right mix of media, an operation can extend screen life, reduce downtime, and improve production of high-quality products.

Ontario operator improves the bottom line

For a company in Madoc, Ontario, about three hours northeast of Toronto, Canada, implementing a customized blend of screen media positively impacted the operation immediately.

A custom designed screening solution improved media wear life by a factor of eight.

Danford Construction Ltd. has been a family business for more than 50 years. Its Aggregates Division handles a variety of materials in a granite quarry, two limestone quarries, a traprock quarry, and eight gravel pits.

In 2011, Danford called in W.S. Tyler as a consultant to help customize screening for its granite operation. Following vibration analysis, Danford customized its deck with the ideal blend of screens.

“We are getting eight times the wear life out of the new screen set-up, adding two weeks production time per year, and have reduced our screening costs by 75 percent as a result,” says Jamie Danford, owner of Danford Construction, Ltd.