Electrical and Structural Engineering designs and support. New Material Transport and Storage at Iron Plant in South Texas
SAXUM Engineering employs experienced personnel in all disciplines of engineering to fully support all aspects of a project scope. This is an advantage to have one engineering firm that can provide consistent, effective designs that are jointly optimizing civil/structural, mechanical, electrical, and process details at the same time. This is currently being demonstrated at a Voestalpine Plant in Portland, TX where SAXUM is providing civil/structural and electrical/controls engineering designs for new transport and storage facilities.
This project will provide upgraded storage, handling, and material optimization for Voestalpine’s process of blending their REMET material with their iron oxide feed to their reactor to produce Hot Briquetted Iron.
Included in the civil/structural scope of work is belt conveyor structural supports, transfer tower supports, and the steel design for an approximately 200’ by 80’ storage building (50’ tall). These structures total approximately 3.5 million pounds of steel design work for SAXUM’s designers. These designs and calculations were performed using SAP2000 and the detailed final designs are being provided for shop drawings using TEKLA. SAXUM has used up to 25 designers and engineers at one time for the design and review work.
SAXUM’s electrical design team has worked closely with the civil/structural team to accommodate the client’s requirements for power and controls for the new system. In this sense, electrical designs include routing of power through a new duct bank to a new transformer feeding a new substation. All supporting electrical designs for cables, tray, lighting, grounding, and installation were provided by the SAXUM staff. On the other hand, controls engineering includes the development of the required instruments lists and I/O for the controls.
It is important to mention that this work is in progress, but the estimate is approximately 2,000 I/O points that will require three (3) remote I/O panels. Also, the supply and testing of the 3 RIO panels is in SAXUM’s scope of supply.
Furthermore, all civil/structural and electrical engineering work in this project is being conducted with the supervision of an experienced project management team and licensed civil and electrical engineers.
To accomplish the project’s objectives, SAXUM will continue to support the equipment supply company and the Voelstalpine Plant through eventual commissioning of this important upgrade project.
Computational Fluid Dynamics for the Mineral Processing Industries
SAXUM, through its experienced engineering team, has the capability to perform analyses on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) at the highest level of quality regarding complex combustion and hydromechanical problems of the mineral processing industries, particularly the cement and metal mining ones. Among others, SAXUM’s services in CFD offer accurate and effective solutions to the following crucial industrial problems:
- Co-processing studies for the Cement Industry: in this case, the main application of SAXUM design solutions based on CFD is the evaluation of the efficiency of using specific alternative fuels in the pyro-process area of clinker production plants. Main objectives of these analyses are the identification of the optimal injection point of the alternative fuels in the precalciner chamber, the optimal ratio between alternative and basic fuels to be used, the particles concentration and temperature distribution.
- Soils slope stability analysis for the mining industry: CFD analysis with fluid-solid interaction is considered for the evaluation of infiltration lines in porous materials like soils in the slopes of tailing dams and their severe consequences in the overall slope stability. SAXUM’s CFD studies in this matter lead to optimal slope design solutions regarding new tailing dams or, alternatively, to accurate assessments of the safety conditions of existing slopes and of the eventual required upgrades to improve their stability conditions.
- Stress analysis in piping systems: CFD analysis with fluid-solid interaction is also used to evaluate resulting stress distributions in piping systems under consideration of the real hydraulic properties of the fluid, its pressure, and the temperature conditions. These analyses give rise to the selection of the optimal designs of piping systems in industrial applications.
- Multicell silos for the cement industry: multicell silos define one of the most complex structural systems in the industry. They are recurrently used in the cement industry for delivering arbitrary cement qualities by conveniently mixing different products which are storage in different cells of one silo. SAXUM’s CFD analyses are aimed to accurately determine the stress distributions in all different sectors of the cell walls during the loading and unloading processes of the different cells. Based on these computational results with CFD analyses, we are able to perform optimal designs of the multicell silo structures. SAXUM has performed the designs of large amount of multicell silos for the cement industry in different countries and continents.
Pre-commissioning, Commissioning and Start-up services by SAXUM
SAXUM through its experienced team of engineering professionals provides services aimed at managing and developing pre-commissioning, commissioning and start up actions for the mineral processing industries. In the framework of international quality standards, we plan and stablish the strategies for these services, starting from the pre-commissioning stage.
Recently, SAXUM completed the pre-commissioning and commissioning activities regarding the crushing system of the Lindero gold mine located in the Puna region of the Salta province, Argentina. These activities by SAXUM involved, sequentially, the following areas: Primary crushing system, Secondary crushing system, Tertiary crushing system.
Applied procedures by SAXUM for the pre-commissioning of the crushing systems were as follow: Operational and functional risk analysis (OTP); LOTO system for safe process; working system in the framework of the IEC / API / ASME / ISO standards; development of predefined formats for tests review; on-site works management; development of vendor schedules.
Regarding the pre-commissioning stage, following documents were managed or developed by SAXUM: definition of systems and subsystems, basic functions, imputation of items, as-built drawings, vendor drawings and reports, calibration certificates and test record.
On the other hand, for the commissioning stage, the documents managed and prepared by SAXUM were: ready for start-up certificates, consolidated list of pending items; reports of vendors and procedures, final drawings with the identification of the commissioned systems, OTP reports, static functional tests. Finally, the equipment release certificates under SAXUM standards were issued.
SAXUM was present at the PDAC 2020, the world´s premier Mineral Exploration & Mining Convention.
SAXUM has participated in the PDAC 2020, the world’s premier Mineral Exploration & Mining Convention, from 1st to 4th of March in Toronto, Canada. This is the leading convention for people, companies and organizations in, or connected with, mineral exploration. In addition to meeting over 1,000 exhibitors, 3,500 investors and 25,600 attendees from 135 countries, you can also attend technical sessions, short courses and networking events. The four-day annual convention held in Toronto, Canada, has grown in size, stature and influence since it began in 1932 and today is the event of choice or the world’s mineral industry.
Ph: Chris Hayman, our North America’s General Manager, at SAXUM’s booth at PDAC 2020.
We present our Lead Electromechanical Engineer: Daniel Dewald
Since 2014, Mr. Dewald is the Lead Electromechanical Engineer and Electromechanical Site Supervisor for Cement Projects of SAXUM. Daniel has wide experience in the coordination of electromechanical engineering teams for the development of projects related to industrial facilities. He is an experienced project engineer specialized in electromechanical engineering projects for industrial facilities as well as in the design of electrical lines, evaluation of CapEx, short-circuit, protection, among others.
As the Leader of the Electromechanical department of the company, Daniel specializes in design and dimensioning of electrical systems of medium and low voltage for cement plant facilities. As well as in site supervision of electromechanical erections and installations in cement industries. Also, he is in charge of the follow up and technical solution of Requests for Information from Electrical and Mechanical Erection Company. Daniel participated in multiple projects in Argentina, USA and Brazil holding an essential role during their execution in order to ensure their quality and development.
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