Purpose
Ventilation systems account to up to 50% of a mine’s total energy costs and 40 to 50% of the energy consumption of a mine operation. AirFinders has investigated a number of main surface fan installations and has found their assemblage to be, in general, fairly inefficient. Typical efficiencies found were less than 65%, while proper systems should exceed 90%. Retrofitting of inefficient main fan assemblages will result in substantial fan operating cost savings, in some cases exceeding 40%. This course aims at introducing engineering processes used for improving main fan system assemblage efficiencies with minimum capital investment. General solutions and tactics for improving the fan installations will be assessed. The course approach is based on a combination of field-based investigations with engineering design studies. During the course, the host mine main fan installations will be examined and surveyed and their operating efficiencies determined.
Who Should Attend?
The target audience for this course includes technologists, mine operators and engineers who are involved in the design, management and day-to-day operation of primary surface fans.
Program
This intensive course is designed to provide comprehensive training on main surface fans, fan assemblage design, and ventilation surveys. The course is designed to familiarize the participant with the determination of pressure resistance of fan assemblage components including, airway collars, elbows, transition sections, airway splits, fan cones, backdraft dampers, inlet bells, inlet and outlet vanes, guide vanes, silencers, heaters and fan houses. Optimization techniques used to economically produce a modified system design with the highest efficiency in operation possible and with subsequent reductions in energy consumption will be presented. Case examples are provided to demonstrate examples of fan assemblage designs, fan selection and system commissioning.
Topics
- principles of fan assemblage design;
- methods of assessing surface fan performance;
- surface fan surveys;
- operation of primary fans;
- fan controls and instrumentation;
- ventilation management of surface fan installations.
Course Fee
If you are interested in having a ventilation training course held at your mine site and would like to receive a detailed quotation, please contact AirFinders.
Enrolment
The course is normally limited to 10 participants, depending on the number of company sponsors. This maximizes one-to-one interactions and facilitates the field survey and field data assessment.
Agenda
Courses are normally scheduled for 2 days. Classes normally follow the company’s shift period with breaks for lunch and refreshments. One half-day session (second day) is used for a survey of surface fan installations at the mine site and one half-day session is dedicated to assessing the field survey data to evaluate the potential technical and economic gains of setting up a retrofitting program.
