TAKRAF South Africa’s mid-life upgrade on a bucket-wheel reclaimer for a leading iron producer in South Africa employed the latest hydraulic technology to maximize maintainability, performance and life extension.

TAKRAF South Africa ensured all elements of the upgrade were executed to international standards. The upgrade catered for all structural/mechanical modifications required, machine realignment, bucket-wheel and bucket change out, upgrading of the bucket-wheel drive from an electromechanical to a hydraulic drive, rebalancing of the machine and modification to the operating philosophy to suit the upgrade.

Given the complexity of the installation, TAKRAF Africa deployed a dedicated crew to the client’s site, with two cranes, cherry pickers and scaffolding required to execute the job. With careful planning, the installation was executed with no lost time injuries.

After eight months of operation, the design has proven that the machine is smoother to operate, and machine overloading conditions have been minimised. From the performance to date, it is anticipated the machine’s life in terms of loading product has been extended significantly.