Mining Institute of North-Eastern Federal University (Yakutsk, Russia):

Ovchinnikov N. P., Director, Candidate of Engineering Sciences, Associate Professor, ovchinnlar1986@mail.ru

Hydraulic transportation units, namely, Russian and foreign-made slurry pumps, form an important link in the process chains for the processing of diamond-bearing mineral raw materials operated at such Russian mining companies as «Almazy Anabara» and «ALROSA». Despite their criticality, slurry pumps at the processing facilities of these companies are generally operated inefficiently and are unreliable. Low availability of the slurry pumps at «ALROSA» processing plants is due to the frequent failures of their wet end parts and, to a lesser extent, to the failures of bearings, shafts, and seals. Slurry pump downtime at the screening plants of «Almazy Anabara» mines is mainly caused by impeller failures. The abrasive slurry pumped in the process is the leading cause of malfunctions of the above-mentioned parts, which has been confirmed by relevant statistical studies. It has been established that durability of wet end parts in the slurry pumps of «ALROSA» concentrators, determined as their hydroabrasive wear resistance, largely depends on the wear resistance of the material of the part itself, the density of the slurry pumped, and the coefficient for the pump shaft rpm. The wear life of impellers in the slurry pumps at the screening plants of «Almazy Anabara» mines depends on the wear resistance coefficient of the impeller material and on the grainsize composition of the solid phase of the slurry pumped.

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