Heavy task, lightweigt solution

Use in the desert: Lifting and turning a pump weighing several tonnes becomes easier and safer with RUD endless chains.

RUD lifts massive pump in a mine.

Living activity also dominates hostile locations: The Atacama Desert lies 60 km south-east of Calama – a city in the north of the South American country of Chile in the Andes. There is a mine here where copper and molybdenum are extracted. The medium-sized mine currently extracts ore from depths of 1000 m. The largest challenge at the extraordinary location is the dry environment, for the Atacama Desert is the driest desert in the world. Water is needed for almost every process in the mine. As water is obviously a rare resource in the desert, it has to be obtai-ned from the coast. A pump is used for this, which transports the water through 144 km of pipes to the mine.

Lightweight chains instead of heavy shackles.

This powerful pump has huge dimensions – something which becomes apparent during maintenance work in particular. The heavy object has to be raised for this. The problem for the mine operators: at around 40 kg per shackle, the numerous shackles that should be used for this task were much too heavy. In order to solve the weight problem, adjustable ICE endless chains with a nominal thickness of 16 mm were used. The result: a solution weighing on 11 kg per chain and a considerably safer solution. Overall, with the endless chains the weight was reduced by 70%.