McLanahan UltraSAND Plant Provides Flexibility to South Vietnamese Man-Sand Plant

A customer in South Vietnam was looking to make a high-quality basalt crushed sand as a replacement for river sand. Manufacturing sand creates a large amount of fines from the crushing process, and the customer needed to remove these undersized particles to meet their required product specifications, which in this case was a fineness modulus of 2.2. Fines are typically removed with washing and classification equipment, so the customer needed a wash plant that would get the job done.

Solution

The customer reached out to Thanh Long JSC, McLanahan’s dealer in Vietnam, for a solution. Thanh Long JSC recommended a McLanahan UltraSAND Plant for producing their required product specification.

McLanahan UltraSAND Plants are modular sand washing and dewatering systems that are pre-designed and pre-engineered for rapid deployment. The fully designed UltraSAND Plant, with its quick setup time and small footprint, was more attractive to the customer than a stationary plant.

“As deposits are fully utilized, the fact that modular plants can be moved accordingly is very important,” said McLanahan Regional Sales Manager Neil Treseder. “They can be added to various modular options to suit ever-changing deposits. They don’t need a lot of infrastructure. In the Vietnamese market, the plants need to be versatile, quick to deploy and cost effective; the McLanahan modular Ultra line fits this bill.”

Treseder continued, “McLanahan modular plants are fully designed with a small footprint. Some customers have multiple sites, and if required, the plant can be moved to suit. The plants are shipped by containers, which makes them very cost effective.”

The customer provided a particle size distribution of their crushed sand so McLanahan could determine the size of the equipment needed to meet their product requirements. The solution was a 4-1S model UltraSAND Plant with two 15” diameter McLanahan Hydrocyclones with 20-degree cone angles for the washing stages and a McLanahan VD12 Dewatering Screen for dewatering the sand to improve final product dryness. The Dewatering Screen was fitted with spray bars to help wash out additional fines. Rounding out the system were a McLanahan Pump and sump.

The UltraSAND Plant also contained the support structures, including access stairs, walkways, handrails and kick plates, along with all the electrical controls housed in one convenient motor control station.

With the UltraSAND Plant, the customer’s crushed sand enters the sump, where it mixes with water and is pumped to a distributor box that splits the slurry between the two Hydrocyclones. The cyclones separate the fine particles from the product-sized sand and discharge them along with a majority of the water out the top of the cyclones. This waste stream is then sent to a settling pond.

The product-sized sand is discharged out the bottom of the Hydrocyclones and onto the Dewatering Screen. The Dewatering Screen removes excess water from the sand and discharges a drip-free product onto a stacking conveyor for stockpiling. The Dewatering Screen throughs — the water removed from the sand and any additional fine material that pass through the Dewatering Screen media — flow into the sump to mix with the slurry feed to the Hydrocyclones.

Results

When the UltraSAND Plant arrived in South Vietnam, it was simply a matter of placing the equipment, attaching all the connecting pipes and hoses, and providing power to the Pump and Dewatering Screen before the plant was up and running.

“McLanahan modular plants are quick to install, so the customer was producing sand soon after delivery to site,” Treseder shared.

Thanh Long JSC said the McLanahan UltraSAND Plant is working very well for the customer. The plant is providing a clean sand at the customer’s required tonnage and specifications, and it is also dewatering the finished product to 8% moisture. The lower moisture content reduces stockpile drying time, allowing the product to be sold sooner. It also reduces housekeeping requirements, as less water being transported in the final product allows for a cleaner site under conveyors and around stockpiles.

Another benefit of the McLanahan UltraSAND Plant is that it allowed the customer the flexibility to make adjustments when their required product size changed. Thanh Long JSC and McLanahan provided support for the customer throughout the entire process.

When a customer works with McLanahan, they get more than just industry-leading equipment with a long, reliable service life. They get the knowledge that comes with decades of process experience, along with the support of a global dealer network that provides unmatched local service all over the world. In addition to field-proven equipment, McLanahan also provides installation, startup, commissioning, training and after-sales support for all of its products.