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ERLAU TPC industrial applications.

Tyre protection chains (TPCs) play a vital role in many industrial activities.

For ease of handling, demolition rubble is often reduced and screened on site. Where wheeled loadedrs are used to feed the crushing plant and load the tipper lorries, it is important to guard against concealed ‘surprises’ that can pierce and destroy tyres in a matter of moments.

Anyone invovlved in processing scrap metal faces similar hazards on a daily basis as loaders crowd into the heaps of tangled metal awaiting separation, compaction, shredding and smelting.

When it comes to steel making, as well as risking side-wall damage, pot handlers carrying ladles of molten metal and loaders shifting slag for reprocessing are exposed to highly abrasive ash and intense heat.

To save expensive tyres and ensure productivity, loader operators fit tyre protection chains (TPCs) such as the FELS range developed by RUD-Erlau specifically for such demamding applications. As the illustrations show FELS is designed to provide loader tyres with all-embracing tread and side-wall protection.

In steel mills you will find FELS DURO X14 fitted on small scrap-handling loaders while FELS JUMBO PLUS X16 will be required for larger machines working with scrap and medium-sized loaders running over hot slag. For more demanding slag handling FELS GUARD X19 and FELS GIGANT PLUS X19 are recommended.

Tata Steel’s Jamshedpur plant currently produces some 7mtpa of rod, hot and cold rolled coil and sheet.

Where there is steel-making there is slag.

At Jamshedpur, in preference to a lumbering tracked loader, a versatile 10 tonne capacity (CAT) HM 2071 Payloader is assigned the task of shifting fiery slag to the waste recovery plant where the spent limestone flux and residual steel are separated.

The limestone can either go for making cement and concrete or can serve as a road building material. The recovered steel is sent to the LD shop for re-smelting.

Steel slag is unlike any other material.

Here, tyres encounter highly-abrasive granuals, risk side-wall damage while exposed to intense, unrelenting heat.

To protect the CAT’s 29.5×29 tyres, Tata relies on a full set of RUD-Erlau FELS JUMBO x16.

The close self-cleaning mesh wraps around the entire tyre, absorbing the heat, preventing damage, eliminating abrasion and, most importantly, keeping the loader on the job.

Also in India, Essar Steel operates the world’s largest ,gas-based, hot

As part of the process, three Kress Pot Carriers are employed to transport 70t ladles of hot molten slag from the furnace to the slag dump.

To give the Kress, 30.00×51 tyres all-round protection from accidental spills and the intense heat, Essar has installed three sets of RUD-Erlau’s FELS JUMBO Plus X16 chains. At the dump, the tyres of the three CAT 2071Payloaders working the slag dump are completely protected with FELS JUMBO X16 TPCs.

First developed by RUD-Erlau to protect the tyres of the early hudraulic mining machines, the company’s TPCs have evolved into a sophisticated accesory which, at a time of tyre shortages and high demand for resources, are considered by plant operators to be essential in meeting production targets and reducing the cost per output tonne.

To discuss a suitable TPC and life-of-chain support for your application, contact RUD-Erlau for your nearest engineer.