AEG Quality Assurance

AEG Quality Assurance

AEG takes a look at one of the key features of a good quality wire screen.

Wire screens still remain the best screen media available to maximise the open area on any screening surface. Even though in recent years other screen media including rubber & polyurethane has become popular wire is still widely used around the world. Wire doesn’t have the wear properties of rubber & poly but for open area efficiency & effectiveness vs cost it remains popular.

But are the end users getting value for money from the wire screens they are using? Clients believe they are getting the best quality wire available when they purchase a screen and expect to get the best wear-life possible from that wire screen. Supply to the industry has changed in recent years and although extra market competition can improve things for end-users like lead-times and the ability to keep lower stocks, the market has also been introduced to a lot of products that aren’t made locally. Customers deserve to know where the product is coming from and does it meet the quality standards of the locally produced product.

AEG has used OneSteel in its manufacturing facilities in New Zealand & Australia since it opened in 1995. OneSteel is Australia’s premier manufacturer of steel long products (rod, bar, pipe, tube & wire) and has been producing wire in Australia since 1915. OneSteel is fully Quality Accredited to AS/NZ ISO9001:2000.

At its modern facilities in Newcastle, OneSteel uses “state-of-the-art” equipment & technology to produce high quality wire for the Australian manufacturing industry. The entire manufacturing process chain – from mining of the iron ore, through steelmaking & casting, to rod rolling & finally wiredrawing – is owned & operated by OneSteel. This ensures that focus on the requirements of the end-user is maintained throughout all areas of manufacturing that can impact on the quality of the finished wire.

OneSteel only uses steel from its iron ore-fed blast furnace operation in Whyalla for the manufacture of its high carbon products. This ensures greater consistency of steel chemistry, compared with steel sourced from recycled scrap, leading to greater consistency of wire properties – batch-to batch, every batch. OneSteel has also invested over $3million in recent years to ensure its wiredrawing facilities incorporate the most up-to-date technology available – again leading to greater consistency of wire properties.

All of this leads to one thing – confidence! As in most other walks of life, the Australian manufacturing industry faces significant impacts from imported products, some of which may not be subject to the same rigorous quality standards as the local product. Do you know where your screens are manufactured? You can be confident that an Australian-made product, using Australian wire from OneSteel, has the quality pedigree to provide the performance you expect for many years to come.

Following are some guidelines of what the tensile strengths should be of the high carbon screens your using day-to-day in the quarry & mining industry:-

Wire Diameter Range      Tensile [MPa]
1.60mm to 2.00mm                   1500/1800
2.50mm to 3.15mm                   1350/1650
4.00mm to 5.60mm         1250/1550
6.30mm to 7.10mm         1200/1500
8.00mm to 9.00mm         1150/1450
10.0mm to 12.5mm                   1050/1350

Of course the tensile levels are just a snap-shot of the finished product but the true strength overall is in the chemical analysis that gives this specialised product its abrasive wear resistant properties including the blends of carbon, phosphorus, Manganese & Silicon etc .