LQ-HD
Heavy-duty Rotary Valve
Reinforced build with wear protection for abrasive minerals, cement and clinker dust.
Mining & Mineral Processing
Rotary Airlock Valves for Mining & Mineral Processing
Mineral processing combines the coarsest particles with the most abrasive ones. A valve that survives on cement dust will be destroyed by quartz or concentrate at the same tonnage. Wear protection, drive torque margin and access for rebuild are what determine whether the valve is an asset or a monthly expense.
Request a QuoteTypical duty points
Crushing and screening plants use airlocks to seal dust collection hoods and transfer points. Grinding circuits discharge from cyclone underflow and feed flotation or gravity separation. Dry separation and dewatering circuits handle concentrate and tailings where the material is fine but highly abrasive. In all of these the valve is both a feeder and an air seal, and both functions degrade together as wear opens the clearance.
The wear mechanism
Abrasion is not uniform. The highest wear is on the rotor tip at the point where the pocket empties and on the housing bore directly below the inlet. Understanding this lets us put wear protection only where it is needed: hard-facing on the tips, a replaceable liner in the bore, and a thicker inlet throat. It also means the wear parts can be supplied as separately orderable items, so the valve body and drive are not thrown away when the tips are gone.
Particle size and jamming
Coarse ore and tramp material cause jams. The valve should be sized for the largest expected particle, not the average, and the drive should have a torque margin for start-up under a full pocket. A shear pin or torque limiter protects the gearbox, and a reversing starter is often the cheapest fix for the occasional jam.
Working with concentrate
Concentrate is dense, fine and often damp. Pocket fill is good but discharge can bridge at the throat, so the inlet transition matters as much as the valve. Where the material is also corrosive, we build the body in stainless with the same wear protection.
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