After more than two years of investigation, field trials and internal change management processes, the world’s biggest miner, BHP has adopted Segnut in its WA Iron Ore operations. This week saw the final supply agreement being executed between BHP and Segnut Trading Pty Ltd. The agreement sets in place agreed pricing and terms of trade and registers the product on BHP’s Global Contract Management system, allocating inventory numbers against which BHP operations can order Segnut.
Segnut F.I.R.S.T.
The development of Segnut FIRST and its application in mobile plant GET applications continues to garner interest and support in the mobile plant sector, where the use of rattle-guns is being phased out but where the awkward nature of reactions arms brings its own safety issues.
Infrastructure Magazine has highlighted the development, which is now in its final stages of testing with BHP.
After nearly two years of close cooperation including technical trials, laboratory tests and rigorous field trials, Segnut has been officially accepted by BHP for use in its WA Iron Ore operations. In 2017, the screen house at Mount Whaleback mine caught fire as a result of hotworks being used to remove a seized nut. In Segnut, BHP found a means of removing the need for hot works to remove seized fasteners, that requires no special tools, nor changes to the design of the chutes, wear liners or other equipment. By replacing common hex nuts on wear liners and hard skirts on conveyors, BHP aims to remove the risk of a hot works (spark–ignited) fire in areas of high fuel load, such a screen houses and car dumpers.