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28 www.coalage.com September 2018 screening machines continued The straight shaft features jacking bolts in the mechanism tube that supports the shaft during changeouts, eliminating the need for a crane "and thus improving safety while minimizing downtime," the company reported. "The screens are also equipped with a quick-change spring kit that allows for the removal of the spring pack with only minimal vertical clearance and no need for an overhead crane." The line provides operators looking to upgrade their screening operations with a solution that fi ts directly into their system with no rework to existing struc- tures, the company reported. "MAX Se- ries Vibrating Screens make it easy to get more from your screen without needing to change your entire operation," McLanah- an reported. "Customers can be sure they are getting a solution that will give them more uptime, easier maintenance and a safer working environment." The line is also well-suited for a min- er designing a new plant, Mangrich said. "What customers often desire is the ability to package the screen with a crusher," he said. "We now have the ability to provide single-source responsibility when making major modifi cations to a system or open- ing up a new greenfi eld location." And this is where the market research paid off, with a solution that compliments other offerings, Mangrich said. "As a fam- ily-owned company, McLanahan is small enough to be dynamic in its management, and large enough to offer complex equip- ment systems," he said. "McLanahan can now truly offer a complete system from the face to the fi lter press, and include the key component, the McLanahan MAX Screen." One-stop Plant Shopping Sandvik launched three plant acquisition solutions in June. Two enable customers to speedily order entire plants from a menu. The third aims to produce a contract and a relationship that meets the exact needs of the customer. FastPlant offers more than a dozen predefi ned plants, each of which can be "quoted and ordered in just one meeting" and will be shipped out within 12 weeks, Sandvik reported. The SmartPlant offering is similar but empowers the customer to "select the SmartStations that meet their crushing and screening needs and place them together to create their plant." And CustomPlant initiates the customer into a "long-term plant partnership that delivers a new level of integration between the cus- tomer and Sandvik," the company reported. The launch formalizes offerings large- ly previously offered by the company, said Pär Stigmer, director, plant solutions, crushing and screening, Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology. FastPlant offers 13 designs and is geared toward quarries, Stigmer said. The solution is ideal for "a small-style-type of industrial process, with maybe one shift a day, fi ve shifts per week," he said. The FastPlant offerings "cater" to op- erations mining "less-abrasive" material, Stigmer said. And how Sandvik operates, he said, will buffer the risks inherent in selling to potential wildcat startups. "For me it is not a transactional deal or busi- ness we're in," he said. "Even though we talk about partnerships, especifi cally for the CustomPlant segment, you could say that we are in a service partnership and a supplier partnership regardless of the of- fering that we carry." The selection process is designed to be completed in a single meeting that begins with an information exchange. "We try to fi nd out what the customer needs, what are they trying to produce and why are they trying to produce this, and how can we optimize our proposal for the solution based on their needs," Stigmer said. Sandvik gathers the desired plant ca- pacity, the mined material characteristics, the end-product specs, and then suggests some logical process fl ow options. The discussion moves to Sandvik's recommendations for proper machine use and how that fi ts into the design. Next comes pricing and the quote. And the fi rst shipment leaves the port within three months, Stigmer said. "Fast- Plant is about time to market." SmartPlant customers could range in size from large quarries to small mines, Stigmer said. "That spans most of our cus- tomer base." The goal, he said, "is to en- able our customers to use different mod- ularized smart stations." The resulting plants are "automation ready and can be upgraded to accom- modate the customer's evolving require- ments," Sandvik reported. The idea is to ensure the plant "will be future-proofed by the confi guration itself," Stigmer said. "These are not just mechan- ical modules. They are also electrical and automation modules," he said. "What we try to do is we try to bring out smart mod- ules that are preconfi gured for a plant." Those modules are interchangeable, allowing the miner to upgrade when need- ed, Stigmer said. The selection process for a SmartPlant is similar in many ways to that of a Fast- Plant. For the former, Sandvik expects the customer to already have a predefi ned de- sign. "They have full freedom of designing any type of fl ow sheet they want," Stigmer said. "We're saying we have the modules, the smart stations, let's confi gure them to your needs," he said. "What we try to en- able is the fastest time to market by being preemptive of the modularity." CustomPlant is for the junior miner open to an Early Contractor Involvement agreement. The solution has Sandvik managing "product risks" and leveraging "skills not only from Sandvik but from cus- tomers," Stigmer said. The solution arose from the basic need of the contractor to establish a robust re- lationship early enough with the miner to prevent critical misunderstandings. "If you send us specifi cations, it will be very diffi cult for you to blindly pencil down ev- erything that one needs to know for us to take that and basically as a black box deliv- er something back to you that 100% meets those needs," Stigmer said. "It is very hard to detail out very complicated models." And the bigger the contract, the great- er the risk of misinterpretation of its de- tails by either party. "Either the customer carries the risk, or we carry the risk, and in both cases, nobody really wanted the risk," Stigmer said. With CustomPlant, Sandvik is looped in on the basic engineering and design of the plant. To facilitate the dialogue, the company developed a system that gener- ates a 3D conceptual model to illustrate design specifi cations and details. The effect, among other things, is to draw out a clearer picture of the custom- er's expectations and the ways they can be met. That, Stigmer said, is good for the re- lationship, and can help it be an enduring one. "The reason why they can be sure is that we want to be part of the operations — if it is one year or 20 years, we will be there to back them up."