New Approved Applicator

Early in 2019 Kledkaew Inter Products Co, Ltd. a rubber lining company based in Bangkok Thailand were approached by a representative from a major power station, with a request for a pulley lagging that would significantly extend the lagging service life beyond the 12 months that was typically being achieved with the rubber lagging currently in use. Additionally the end user specified that the lagging had to be hot vulcanised to the pulley shell to eliminate the risk of debonding that can occur with cold bonded lagging systems. This was a critical requirement as the conveyor operation and reliability were crucial in ensuring the power station was not subject to any stoppages due to catastrophic lagging failure such as debonding of the lagging from the pulley shell.

It was determined that ceramic lagging would provide the extended service life that was required and that this was available with a bonding system designed for hot vulcanised application to the pulley shell from an Australian company Elastotec P/L. Following discussion with Elastotec it was determined that the HVCL would be expected to extend the lagging service life by a minimum of 3-5 times that being achieved with rubber lagging. An additional important factor in selecting the HVCL was that Elastotec would provide a detailed application procedure for the HVCL and would deliver training and supervision of the initial lagging application at Kledkaew Inter Products Co Ltd. facility in Bangkok.

It was decided in consultation with power station maintenance personel to have four pulleys refurbished with the Elastotec HVCL and monitored as part of a trial to confirm the in service performance. In April 2019 an engineer from Elastotec spent two days working with the technicians and owners of Kledkaew Inter Products Co, Ltd. at their work shop applying the HVCL to the first of four pulleys. A detailed application procedure was provided with information on the engineering built into the application method to achieve the best result.

In addition to a written checklist that was completed for each pulley as a permanent record that the Elastotec application procedure had been followed exactly, and duplicate adhesion test samples were made and cured with the pulley (see photos below). Adhesion results of 20.0 and 24.7 N/mm both with 100% Rubber Tear failure confirmed that the application had been successful.

As an Elastotec Approved Applicator for HVCL Kledkaew Inter Products Co, Ltd. are able to provide their customer with a warranty that the HVCL will not debond from the conveyor pulley and that there will be no loss of the ceramic tiles due to debonding. This warranty is backed up by in field service data for over 700 pulleys installed internationally since 2012 with zero failures, plus extensive testing of out door ageing samples over the same period.

The Elastotec warranty is a measure of the confidence we have in the performance of our HVCL lagging and the company credo “Engineered to Perform”. Kledkaew Inter Products Co, Ltd. are now authorised to provide this option for improved pulley lagging service life to end users in Thailand.