The result is competitive advantage through improved product performance in the face of price-cutting by importers of foreign valves and pumps.

This consultative approach comes from Urethane Moulded Products, a long established Edenvale-based producer of high-performance polyurethanes for mining and industry.

Experienced engineers from UMP first investigate the application to gain an understanding of the requirement, then use modern elastomer technology to define and produce a specific blend of polyurethane to meet it.

UMP sales manager Santosh Gunpath explained that there was a growing realisation among valve and pump manufacturers that polyurethanes could substantially extend useful product life, resulting in superior cost effectiveness.

“The current focus is on liners to make pump and valve bodies last longer, because the bodies constitute the most expensive parts,” explained Santosh.

An example of UMP’s consultative approach may be found in a new knife-gate valve currently undergoing user trials in mining slurry applications.

Here, the valve manufacturer acknowledged the very good seal that polyurethane was likely to form with the valve blade, and commissioned UMP to develop a bonded polyurethane lining that would serve as an integral part of the knife-gate mechanism.

To avoid the cost of new moulds for trial valve body castings, UMP machined steel from existing valve bodies and made a temporary mould for the polyurethane insert replacements.

“Successful trials will lead to ongoing production at UMP, because the demand for this type of valve is substantial,” Santosh predicted.

“This is likely to become the third partnership we have formed with local valve manufacturers.”

Turning to the pumps market, Santosh said that the use of polyurethanes in pumps for the local market had slowed in recent years because of the supply by unscrupulous local companies of inferior blends.

This was in contrast to, for example, Australia where polyurethane impellers and body linings are widely used.

“Taking for instance the case of a polyurethane impeller, its price is higher than that of steel, so that the supply of inferior blends has led South African manufacturers to perceive that the cost does not justify the life of the part,” explained Santosh.

He said that it was important to grasp that different chemistries would produce different materials with different properties, and emphasised that UMP had the knowledge and the capacity to develop and deliver the correct type of long-wearing polyurethane for any specific application.

“We have invested in equipment that can blend and dispense the substantial volumes required for large polyurethane parts, and we claim a rigid business ethic.

“We take the approach that we will be quite clear to the customer as to what we are going to offer him, and we will not compromise on the quality he wants just to meet his price constraints,” Santosh concluded.

Both contracts, together valued at approximately R14-million, specified UMP’s proprietary  Redline polyurethane formulation as the lining medium. The necessary capacity was provided by a second pipe-spinning oven commissioned last year to allow UMP to line 30 pipe lengths with Redline each day at the peak of the Konkola contract.

“The order for Konkola Deep was one of the largest we have ever taken for protective pipe-lining,” explained UMP managing director, Trevor Carolin. “It encompassed more than 2335 pipe lengths delivered to us by Rare Chemical, the company supplying and installing the backfill tailings lines.”

“At Konkola Deep, the pipes will operate under high pressure, so we had to be very accurate with the lining process to prevent any possibility of de-bonding at the pipe ends,” continued Carolin.“All pipes were put through strict quality inspection and verification after lining, including numbering and recording of each pipe in the tailings line,” he said. The Konkola Deep Mining Project will almost quadruple Konkola’s copper production by accessing the rich ore body that lies beneath the current operation, extending mine life by 23 years and involving the sinking of a new shaft to a depth of 1490 metres.

It was to avoid the need for pipe maintenance and replacement at this depth that the decision was taken to protect the abrasion-prone backfill tailings pipes with Redline.Besides extending pipe life to a minimum of ten years, Redline’s very low coefficient of friction also lowers the cost of pumping the tailings underground, reducing energy consumption and lowering the cost per ton of mined ore. UMP was the first company in South Africa to successfully line backfill pipes at President Steyn Mine in the Free State, in 1980, leading to several subsequent orders for backfill pipe-lining at other mines.

At Vaal Reefs, pipes lined with Redline in 1990 are only now beginning to show signs of wear. The product is suitable not only for lining pipes, but also pipe fittings such as bends, laterals, T-pieces and reducers. Other applications for Redline include pipes in process plant mills, flotation reticulation, pipe and box launders, cyclone underflow systems, power generation plants, sand or gravel washing plants, and pulp, paper and sugar mills.