702 Hoses for FMG’s Iron Bridge Magnetite Project

We worked with design engineer Hatch to define the piping specification for the gravity circuit.

FMG needed a flexible hose solution to cope with significant thermal movement from the HDPE gravity launder pipe—up to 420mm of movement in operation.

The engineers at Hatch, who designed the piping system, said rigid pipe was an automatic ‘no’ because it wasn’t flexible enough. And most hoses they looked at weren’t suitable because they kink.

That’s why all the hoses on the new plant are SF-Series Superflex—it’s the only hard wall slurry hose available that can reach a bend radius of 4-7D.

And it will withstand severe wear from the coarse, sharp iron ore slurry. On iron ore duty with this much thermal movement, a Slurryflex mining hose in the SF-Series range is what lets the line flex without kinking under the movement.

Our Brisbane manufacturing team built 702 hoses for the project over a period of 22 weeks—more than 8,000 hours work—and delivered them to site on schedule ready for installation.