Month: August 2021

Have you read our eBook yet?

As a company that is centred around helping its customers, Earnest Machine aims to provide rich information, resources and training materials wherever we can. Our eBook will provide a background on plating and coating processes, the options available to you and how to specify the properties needed for each application. 

We understand the problems that corrosion, chemical exposure and harsh environments can bring to fasteners used in industrial applications. The eBook will guide you through plating and coating differences and how each can add value to its application. 

Our Protecting Industrial Fasteners from Corrosion & Other Harsh Environments: The Plating and Coating eBook is available to download for free. You can get your copy here.

Why we use plating and coating

Corrosion and wear are great enemies to fasteners. Once corrosion starts, it causes fasteners to break down rapidly, which reduces their effectiveness along with their lifespan. This makes corrosion protection, with coating systems and plating techniques, a really important process. 

Fasteners made from carbon or steel alloys, that are subject to harsh environments or hazardous chemicals, need plating or coating for protection. Fasteners that are applied without a kind of corrosion resistance can compromise their assembly, which is dangerous and costly to replace.

Topics 

Knowing different plating and coating processes, such as the difference between zinc plating and zinc flake coating, will help you understand what properties you may need on any given application. Our eBook covers important topics to extend your knowledge, in easy to digest sections. The topics include:

Download your free copy of our plating and coating eBook here. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with a member of the Earnest Machine team with any questions.

What Mining Industry Equipment Needs From Fasteners

Whether it’s the extraction of metals, minerals, liquids or gasses, all mining applications need large diameter, high strength fasteners to run efficiently. Any overruns or delays cost the mining company money in downtime. Extracting as many usable minerals as efficiently as possible is the ultimate goal. High-quality fasteners are needed to keep mining equipment operating.

Here at Earnest, we’ve been supplying fasteners used for mining and industrial applications for more than 75 years. We’ve gained a wealth sector knowledge and intricacies, which we use to benefit our customers. 

The basis of the mining industry 

In the mining services industry, operators have to manage the maintenance of large scale, high value equipment, alongside fleets and specialist vehicles. By nature, it’s a complex industry that also deals with a great deal of environmental exposure. This means that repair teams deal with continuous maintenance issues and hurdles, alongside health and safety compliance. The equipment used in mining is subject to some of the harshest environments imaginable. Proper maintenance and protection of equipment is critical.

When we’re discussing mining equipment, we mainly mean one of these three categories:

• Deep Hole Mining
  The conveyor systems used to remove the minerals or maintenance of the trucks used to haul away the minerals and ores from the mine site. 

• Strip Mining
  From dragline buckets, stripping shovels, heavy-duty dump trucks and graders. 

• Open Pit Mining
  Open pit mines use every type of construction equipment, from excavators to bulldozers along with conveyor systems and trucks. Applications like a rock quarry, utilise special equipment, such as rock crushers and shaker screens. 

Mining industry needs and considerations 

From mine shafts to truck maintenance, modern mining tools and equipment need specialist attention and care. For example, strip mining equipment is some of the largest construction equipment that has ever been built. In turn, the fasteners used have to be some of the strongest fastener types made. This highlights the need for large-scale strength and durability in the global mining equipment market. 

The trick to successful sourcing maintenance parts for mining equipment is really in the supplier you use. You need one that can provide on hand, large diameter high strength fasteners and can handle mining equipment demand. Readily available, high strength and large diameter fasteners aren’t always easily sourced. Most stocking distributors of nuts and bolts don’t stock large diameter sizes (diameters over 1 ¼ inches). 

Working with a trusted, reputable supplier is essential. Earnest Machine stocks high strength and large diameter parts, as we understand that in the world of mining, uptime is critical. Working with a supplier that stocks the large diameter parts you need saves maintenance teams time sourcing parts. These parts include:

The scale and technical nature of mining equipment often require custom and specialty parts not found by a stocking distributor. You need a supplier that has the resources to find the parts you are having trouble finding. The Earnest Machine UK team understands the requirements of the mining market and has the experience and resources to help our customers source hard to find parts that meet the requirements of the mining industry.

Get in touch to enquire about how we can help you with specialist fasteners for your mining equipment applications.