Although metal detectors are an important measure against metal waste, they should not be the only barrier. Without proper tools to remove metal before detecting, it can have negative ripple effects you’d rather avoid.
4 disadvantages you’d rather avoid:
Heavy load on works
Driving the work from a stationary position with heavy loads on conveyor belts and with stones in crushes puts great strain. Engines, drive belts, rollers and conveyors suffer unnecessary wear.
Unnecessary downtime
Olav Gilje, technical support at Nordic Bulk says that they often spent 5 minutes per stop from a metal detector when he worked as an operator in quarries.
If you multiply the number of stops by 5 minutes, there can be large costs over the course of one year. This point alone can justify the investment of one magnet.
Tiring for employees
If you have to go down or out to look for metal on the conveyor belt frequently, it can become an annoyance for employees. It drags down motivation and steals capacity from other work.
If the detector is delicate enough, it can knock out a silver paper, or iron in the rock.
If the metal detector stops frequently, the “wolf wolf” mood can lead operators to do only a cursory check before starting work again.
Possibility of breakdown
Gilje tells of a scenario where employees got bored and took superficial checks. They were inside a game in the breach where the detector knocked out 10-15 times an hour because of it. iron ore in the stone. Eventually, many assumed it was iron ore without checking properly.
In the end became impossible to produce. To move forward, they had to turn off the detector. Then we really lived at risk,” he said.
Metal detectors can also go bad over time, this is not something you discover until you find metal in the finished product or the crusher has wedged. A half-sized piece of metal can mean a long stop with expensive repairs.
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