From the Easy Maintenance Skirt to the Ultra Seal Skirt

H & B Mining are leaders in the design and supply of conveyor products for the Australian mining industry. Here, we tell our story of innovation in conveyor skirting design starting with the Easy Maintenance Skirting (EMS) in 1996, up to the Ultra Seal Skirting System in 2023. 

Eddy Hodgkinson, founder and owner of H & B Mining had been employed in mining conveyor design for over 20 years, before he came up with an innovative idea for conveyor skirting in 1996. Inspiration came straight from the people on the ground. During mine site visits, Eddy and his team would ask the mine operators what they needed. The answer was simple safe access and the ability to adjust the skirt liners and skirt rubber to control the gap between the belt and the skirt.

Eddy and his team designed the EMS conveyor skirt utilising the parameters of existing standard skirts with a new clamp handle design for safe and simple removal of the secondary seal rubber which allowed for access to the skirt liners (primary seal) for inspection. A liner adjuster feature was also included on the skirt panel so liner plates could be vertically adjusted from outside of the skirted area. The maintenance crews could now control the gap between the skirt liners and the belt manually without a confined space permit.

The mine operators asked if it was possible to design a skirt whereby the liners could be changed out from outside the skirted area; this heralded the segmented skirt design. H&B segmented skirts feature detachable skirt segments (to which the skirt liners are attached) and allow for a single operator to inspect and change out. The EMS Segmented Skirting system allowed for inspection and maintenance of the primary and secondary seal from outside of the skirted area. Material containment and dust control was optimised as the gap between the skirts, and the belt was minimised and overall maintenance was safer, simpler and quicker providing for improved safety, better maintenance and overall increased efficiency.

By 2007, the EMS skirting had become standard skirt for all the big WA mines. H & B Mining again asked the mine operators, “What do you need?” The feedback was that the skirt liners are extremely heavy and unsafe to man-handle. In response, H & B designed the ‘Eco-light’ liner. This ni-hard liner was designed to be 40% lighter and could accommodate commercial bolts. The eco-light liner was safer to handle and reduced supply costs.

H & B Mining designed and supplied the EMS skirting system according to client requests and the ‘Non-drop’ skirt liner and ‘Better-Flow’ skirt liner were new developments that resulted. The team continued to complete mine-site inspections and ask miners what they needed. Miners wanted better protection of the carry belt 

Whilst also being able to maintain the seal between the skirting and conveyor belt. The operators observed that material was getting trapped between the primary and secondary seal and creating a groove in the belt.

The H & B Mining team used their cumulative experience, and extensive knowledge and skill, together with client information to come up with the ‘Ultra Seal’ skirt – a culmination of 30 years of conveyor skirt design and refinement. The Ultra Seal skirt combines all of the original features in it’s design (liner adjusters and EMS clamps) however, the beauty of the Ultra Seal is the stepped vertical skirt rubber design which eliminates the gap between the primary and secondary seals; this eliminates the chance of material being trapped thus increasing the life of the belt.

The Ultra Seal Skirting system meets all the needs requested by our clients:

• access to liners and rubber from outside the chute and skirted area
• vertical adjustment of skirt liners
• easy change out and adjustment of rubber
• ability to change skirt liner from outside the chute and skirted area (optional)
• optimal seal between the skirting and the belt (through easy adjustment)
• no gap between primary and secondary seal to protect carry belt.

Innovation is about taking an existing product and improving it, and H & B Mining have been doing that for over 30 years. Mine operators absolutely agree and actually refer to the conveyor skirts as “H & B’s”.