Agitators

agitator blade assembly — Agitators, shafts, turbines and blades receive significantly more abrasion and erosion from vigorous high-velocity agitation of slurry media containing high solids.

End-to-end Agitator Blades Services

Reclaim your existing damaged agitator blades
Supply pre-designed titanium blades with Cr-Ox, or patented ML-381^®, or a combination of both
Redesign your existing blade to optimally perform based on the flow characteristics you’re experiencing.

To optimize and improve autoclave agitator systems, MOGAS' POx Agitator Engineering Design and Test Program has yielded exceptional results for over a decade. This has been achieved through collaboration with industry partners in three key areas.

Cost Reduction

MOGAS Surface Technologies' coatings and cladding—along with optimizing OEM impeller designs and materials—have proven superior to out-perform OEM supplied agitator hardfacing. At one POx gold operation, $1M per year in materials costs were saved by installing a non-OEM agitator design with our proprietary surface engineering.

Case Study
In a 16-month trial campaign, MOGAS impellers with patented ML-381^® was installed in an HPAL autoclave compartment for seven months, examined, then reinstalled in the same autoclave along side a competitor impeller. After nine months of severe service both impeller blades were re-examined. While the competitor hardfacing showed significant signs of disintegration, the ML-381^® laser clad blades could have easily served another nine months, totaling 25 months of productive service and further reducing lifecycle cost.

Extending operating campaigns from 9 to 12 months through improved agitator life was worth $8M per year to one of the world's largest gold mining operation

Wear Reduction

Simplifying to first principles is the key to the process, prioritized in the order below:

geometry
materials
operation

MOGAS' 5-stage process has been successful in significantly extending agitators life and involves:

setting out functional specification and design criteria based on site data and conversation
CFD analysis and trials to analyse power draw, and wear and scale zones.
layered paint modelling to visualize wear patterns
optimisation and verification for validation of preferred designs
geometry refinements, materials, coating for production

Case Study
MOGAS' 5-stage process has been successful in extending a POx gold operation’s agitator life from 6 to 19 months, incresaed tonnage, extended operating campaigns with reduced lifecycle costs; and ultimate goal of achieving >24 months operation.

Scale Reduction

Scaling is often the limiting factor to extended operating campaigns and is influenced by variables such as process chemistry, poor compartment circulation, agitator design, and Weir wall and baffle design.

MOGAS has experience in identifying and quantifying the extent of scale build-up that creates process instability, control issues and unsafe operation. Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) software models performance issues so low velocity scale-forming areas are visualized and design variations considered for internal components.

Case Study
A quench tank that experienced significant scale build-up required cleaning every 21 days. CFD modelling of the system resulted in the development of an improved impeller design and cleaning interval increased to 48 days.