Beavers customers include:
Thickener feed lines are some of the most critical slurry lines in any plant. With high flow rates, coarse particles, and constant abrasion, they’re often the first point of failure when lined with standard steel or rubber. Premature wear leads to unplanned shutdowns, high maintenance costs, and safety risks.
Beaver Process Equipment designs and manufactures purpose-built thickener lines using advanced materials like Abrasiguard lined pipe and Slurryflex CLX ceramic hose. These systems are engineered for the duty, delivering longer wear life, reduced downtime, and improved plant reliability.
Common Thickener Feed Lines Issues
Rapid Wear
Thickener feed lines carry some of the most abrasive slurries in the plant, combining high flow rates with coarse particles. Standard unlined or rubber-lined steel spools can’t withstand these conditions, with liners wearing thin and failing well before planned shutdowns. Frequent leaks from premature wear compromise safety and reliability, forcing crews into emergency repairs that disrupt production. Over time, this cycle erodes confidence in the piping system and increases unplanned downtime.
Frequent Change-Outs
Reliability engineers and maintenance teams often face repeated spool replacements in every shutdown cycle. These constant change-outs expose crews to additional safety risks, particularly when handling heavy, awkward spools in confined thickener areas. Each replacement also consumes valuable hours in already tight shutdown windows, reducing the time available for other critical tasks. As a result, teams are left firefighting the same failures instead of focusing on long-term improvements.
Misalignment & Vibration
Rigid steel piping rarely matches the realities of plant layouts, where settlement, movement, and imperfect alignments are unavoidable. Misalignment at joints leads to gaps and uneven wear, while vibration from pumps and slurry flow further stresses the system. These forces accelerate liner damage and can cause sudden failures at connection points. Over time, even minor fit-up issues compound into reliability problems that threaten plant availability.
Escalating Costs
Repeated failures don’t just create safety risks and downtime—they also inflate maintenance budgets year after year. Constantly replacing the same spools drives up direct spend on materials and labour, while indirect costs from lost throughput often go unrecorded but are significant. Mines can find themselves locked into a costly cycle of reactive maintenance. Without addressing the root cause, total ownership costs climb far beyond the initial piping price.
How Beaver Solves the Thickener Feed Lines Problem
1. Long-life Lined Pipe
Abrasiguard lined steel spools built for abrasive tailings duty.
2. Ceramic-lined Hose Sections
Flexible Slurryflex CLX hoses for misalignment and movement.
3. Custom Fit Design
Each line is modelled around the actual plant layout for ease of installation.
4. Integrated Supply
Complete packages from cyclone overflow through to the thickener, backed by decades of wear data and field results.
Why Beavers Feed Lines Perform Better
Proven track record with Australia’s largest mines
2–8× longer wear life vs. standard steel or rubber
End-to-end capability from design to supply
Australian-made with shorter lead times
Backed by decades of real-world wear data
Abrasiguard AC-Series Polyurethane Lined Pipe Bend Spool
Custom 3D/5D bends with AX-100 lining to minimise impact wear at turns into the thickener. Built to spec for tight layouts and long service life.
Abrasiguard AA-Series Polyurethane Lined Straight Pipe Spool
High-velocity straight spools for abrasive tailings duty. Chemically bonded AX-100 liner resists sliding abrasion and corrosion, extending run time between shutdowns.
Abrasiguard AD-Series Polyurethane Lined Pipe Reducer Spool
Concentric or eccentric polyurethane-lined reducer for smooth size transitions into thickener inlets, reducing turbulence and localised wear hotspots.
Slurryflex CLX XD-Series Reducer Ceramic Hose
Short ceramic-lined reducer hose that absorbs misalignment and pump vibration while handling severe abrasion at diameter changes on feed lines.
Slurryflex SJA-Series Single-Arch Rubber Expansion Joint
Single-arch expansion joint to control vibration, take thermal growth, and protect adjoining spools and valves in thickener feed duty.
Talk to Us About Your Thickener Lines
Every plant is different. Tell us about your operating conditions and reliability goals, and we’ll engineer the right solution for your thickener feed system.
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