A MOUNT Gambier engineer has recently built a “cyclone dust collector” bound for the Vatukoula Gold Mine on the Fiji Islands.
John McKee of McKee Engineering built the large, steel funnel-shaped tube, which helps remove contaminants from gold ore.
Dust and debris are pulled into the tangential inlet at high velocities, forcing material against the walls in a cylconic motion, which causes large particles to slide down into the hopper while smaller or fine dust exits from the other side.
Mr McKee said he was excited to see his project go international.
“I do work that goes to the east coast of Australia, Western Australia and then some stuff like this is lucky enough to go overseas,” he said.
“This is the first project that has ever gone to a gold mine, I was quite surprised when I heard that’s where it was going.”
The project took Mr McKee four weeks to build and while everything presents challenges he said it was quite easy.
“Preparation is more important than anything and then the final welding, but actually getting the pieces laser-cut and put together is reasonably easy,” he said.
“In saying that you can’t afford to make too many mistakes with stainless, so you have to be careful.”
With the “cyclone” to leave his workplace in coming weeks, Mr McKee said it was always bittersweet.
“It is good to have your stuff go away, but when it goes away, you generally don’t see it again,” he said.
“It is really rewarding when I do see photographs of my work in action.”
Described as a “big version of a Dyson vaccum cleaner”, when in operation the unit will run at 650 degrees Celsius.
