Full-Service Solutions at Fenner Conveyors
Published in International Mining - Conveyor Report 2024
Fenner Conveyors, a Michelin Group company, is a formidable player in conveyor belting technology and supply globally. However, its scope is much broader than just the belts themselves. In Australia, for example, it offers a true turnkey solution that is unique in the industry. This includes the conveyor belt itself, but also conveyor field service (including installation, maintenance throughout conveyor life, as well as decommissioning), conveyor equipment including rollers, pulleys and idler frames, plus the conveyor engineering - whether individual components or the entire system - from head to tail. Finally for conveyor technology it offers the iBelt
Stuart Milliken, COO at Fenner Conveyors, told IM: "Traditionally, Fenner Conveyors is synonymous with conveyor belts, but this is changing. Following its multiple acquisitions over the years, Fenner Conveyors has succeeded in establishing itself as a complete offering for anything in the industry, from conveyor field services to the design, manufacturing and monitoring of conveyor systems, the latter of which is carried out through digital technologies supported by its maintenance and field service teams. Fenner Conveyors’ breadth of capability far exceeds its traditional conveyor belting products. The company has engineered conveyor components and systems, established methodologies for conveyor installations and change-out equipment, and uses the information it gains from conveyor monitoring to develop new products and compounds that are engineered for belting."
This growth into a full solution has been organic but also via a series of important collective acquisitions. Engineered methodologies for belt installation and change outs, were delivered through Victoria-based company, Belle Banne Conveyors, acquired in 2010. The acquisition of Australian Conveyor Engineering (ACE) in 2012 provided Fenner with the ability to design conveyor systems, pulleys, and everything else that is part of the process, including all electrical system components such as the starters and drive motors. And in 2022, Fenner Conveyors made the acquisition of Conveyor Products & Solutions Pty Ltd (CPS), which operates as the company’s primary roller manufacturer based in Western Australia. This development was the last piece of the puzzle to form where Fenner Conveyors currently stands in 2024.
And CPS's scope is also growing. In November 2023, the CPS team showcased its latest investment in Australian conveyor manufacturing - a state-of-the-art pulley and fabrication facility in Bayswater, Western Australia. From these new premises, CPS is now producing over 300 pulleys per year and north of 3,500 aftermarket idler frames per year.
Reflecting the scale of the Australian market, Fenner Conveyors is making other big investments, most recently into its Kwinana facility in WA. The A$70 million facility opened in 2009 and primarily produces the steel cord belting. At the time, the move was one of the largest investments into conveyor belt manufacturing made in Australia by a single company.
In 2020, the company partnered with German-based Siempelkamp as part of a A$23.5 million expansion to the Kwinana facility. A third press line was to be installed to increase Fenner Conveyors’ steel cord capacity by a further 50%. The facility already housed two of the world’s largest steel cord press lines, measuring 18.5 m in length and having the capability to produce steel cord and rubber ply belts up to 3,200 mm wide and 50 mm thick. An increasing demand for steel cord belts meant Fenner needed to significantly expand its production facility.
Finally, to give a project example that illustrates Fenner Conveyors’ scope, in 2020, Fenner Conveyors was contracted through it’s engineering division, ACE, to deliver an overland conveyor system for Anglo American’s Aquila underground hard coking coal mine near Middlemount. The company selected Fenner Conveyors to design, supply and install the 2.6 km-long ACV002 overland conveyor, along with four drives, a transformer, loop take-up, elevated gantry sections, overland structure, and belting. It also included the mechanical and electrical installation, belt installation and commissioning.
It runs from the underground to the surface and then moves up to the stockpile. Often, the product will be put onto a stockpile outside the mine, but because the project will make use of an existing stockpile and wash plant, the conveyor will help connect the infrastructure together. Included within the design were several custom components, such as a horizontal curve in the conveyor and an elevated stacker to load onto the stockpile.
