Challenge
At a sand and aggregate production site in Hungary, fine sand was escaping the process with the overflow water instead of being recovered, with material down to 63 micron ending up in the settling pond. The result was material loss, higher water consumption, and a system that demanded more manual maintenance than the team had capacity for.
The customer needed a compact fines
recovery unit that could capture those fine particles reliably, reduce water losses, and fit into an existing operation built around a dewatering screen. It had to run continuously in a high-solids slurry environment and keep maintenance to a minimum.
Location
Hungary
Industry
Mining
Fine particles recovered, not lost
A 250 mm Kinarox hydrocyclone, configured to the required d50 cut-off, captures particles below 63 µm that would otherwise leave the process.
Automated lubrication, less maintenance
The Schegler Vigor pump runs with an automatic greasing system that doses at controlled intervals.
Built around what the customer already had
The hydrocyclone overflow and underflow were integrated directly into the existing dewatering screen.
Solution
Vaikon engineered and supplied a complete fines recovery module, configured around the specific duty point and process requirements of the site.
At the heart of the system sits a Schegler Vigor centrifugal slurry pump, configured for this duty and fitted with a Pulsa automatic greasing system. Rather than relying on manual lubrication rounds, the system doses grease at controlled intervals, keeping the bearings in optimal condition without operator intervention.
The pump discharge connects to a 250 mm Kinarox CC100 hydrocyclone via a flexible, wear-resistant slurry hose. The hydrocyclone was configured to the required duty point and the d50 cut point, the particle size at which half the
material reports to the underflow and half to the overflow. A Krux KR150 knife gate valve was installed for flow isolation during maintenance, keeping interventions short and controlled.
The cyclone underflow was fed directly onto the customer's existing dewatering screen, while the overflow was returned to the process water circuit. This connection was optimised so that the recovered fines arrive at the screen in the right condition to be dewatered as dry as possible, improving both material recovery and water recirculation back into the process.
Result
Since Vaikon installed the fines recovery module, the site recovers 20% more fine
material than before. Particles that previously escaped the process are now captured and dewatered, reducing material loss and improving water recirculation performance.
Automated lubrication on the pump removed the need for daily greasing rounds, reducing the maintenance load on the team. The modular layout kept the installation compact and straightforward, with room to scale if the process grows.