Types of Lined Pipes Used in Mining Processing Plant

In mining processing plants, pipes are often chosen based on the type of fluid being transported, temperature conditions, pressure requirements, and the need for corrosion resistance.

 

In mining processing plants, pipes are often chosen based on the type of fluid being transported, temperature conditions, pressure requirements, and the need for corrosion resistance. There are several types of lined pipes used in these environments. Here’s an overview of their types and a comparison of their features:

 

Lined pipes:

 

Lined pipes have an inner layer of material applied to the inner surface of the pipe. This lining serves as a protective barrier against corrosion, abrasion, and chemical attack. Common types of lined pipes include:

 

Rubber lined pipes

Rubber lined pipes are a traditionally option for high-wear applications. Good quality rubber lining can absorb and disperse slurry particle impact and provide good wear resistance, especially suitable for hard rock applications, or slurry with large and sharp particles.

 

As per its manufacturing craft, rubber lining is available for straight pipes, reducers, elbows, tees.

 

Rubber lining offer excellent abrasive resistance, but has some drawbacks. Rubber liner has high surface roughness, with high friction loss, it means more pumping energy is required, especially when it comes to long distance pipelines.

 

Another limitation of rubber lining is the operating temperature. Natural rubber lining has operating temperature of -45 to 95℃, synthetic rubber liners will offer a higher temperature tolerance but can be more expensive and wear faster.

 

Poorly manufactured rubber lining may wear easily at the defective area and once this wear starts, it can lead to entire lining to suck off the pipe wall and into the pump.

 

Rubber Lined Pipes

Polyurethane lined pipes

Good quality polyurethane resists erosive wear from high-energy particles. This makes it an ideal choice for sharp-particle slurry applications like coal, and large-particle applications like oil sands, dredging and hard rock.

 

Polyurethane liner is chemically compatibe with most fluids and isn’t affected by dissolved oxygen and reagents.

 

Standard polyurethane liner formulation have temperature limits of 0 to 60℃.

 

Tradition cast craft is available for straight pipes only.

 

Polyurethane Lined Pipe

UHMWPE lined pipes

UHMWPE liner, is a modern polyethylene famous as its ultra high molecular weight.

 

Extruded uhmwpe liner, has the extremely smooth surface, compared to all liner materials in this topic. This create extraordinary benifits of UHMWPE liner at anti-scaling, and maximum dynamic head. The smooth surface of UHMWPE reduces friction, allowing for easier flow of materials and reducing the energy required to pump slurries or viscous fluids.

 

UHMWPE liner has an unusually high resistance to chemicals and other media. They are resistant to aqueous solutions of salts, non-oxidising acids and alkalis. This makes UHMWPE liner a better option when it comes to scaling applications at some processing plant.

 

UHMWPE has the highest sliding abrasion resistance than any other commercial plastics, making it ideal for small particle slurry transport. Due to its limitation at impact energy absorb like rubber liner, UHMWPE liner usually being installed away from pump to avoid great particle impact.

 

UHMWPE liner can withstand temperature up to around 80 to 90℃, which is lower than ceramic lined pipe / PTFE lined pipe.

 

Different as rubber liner or polyurethane liner, UHMWPE liner does not belongs to elastomer, UHMWPE liner will not suck off the pipe wall even when it wears out or fails.

 

UHMWPE liner, once it is extruded out, it is difficult to be further processed or thermal welded, thus, UHMWPE lining is only available at straight pipes and elbows.

 

 

UHMWPE lined pipe

Ceramic lined pipes

Usually, ceramic lined pipes are chosen when there is high temperature and high wear.

 

Ceramic linings are very wear resistant, particularly to sliding wear abrasion.

 

Some poorly manufactured ceramic liners may experience two common problems: shattering and debonding. Shattering happens when high-velocity particles hit the lining. Debonding occurs when slurry gets into the grout and forces the tile off the wall.

 

Choosing the right lined pipes for a mining processing plant is critically important due to the demanding nature of the materials being transported, as well as the harsh environmental conditions within such facilities. The selection of the appropriate lined pipe material affects the efficiency, cost, and longevity of the plant's operations.