Wire is one thing, bad welds are another; after the material hit the primary screen it slowed down in velocity so less damage occured.

My first inclination is to assume the aggregate being screened is harder -Mos or Rockwell and or has a lot of clay.

which screen has the water circuit for cutting sand?

Candidly it sounds as if the welds for the screen cloth failed. my cohort Mr. George Baker will be more able to diagnose this but we are still short in information as related to operating speeds, flow dividers for mass movement across the screen decks-is the flowing evenly across the top of the screeners, both primary and tertiary? has a stroke check been done on all the screeners

A thousand apologies george and alas no more "Camp" maple syrup and no Hudson Bay Point Blankets for me if I missdiagnosed this mass failure. ■

I read your question a few times and tend to believe the installation method may be the SUSPECT.

If we assume the plus/minus tolerance from the factory was in deed correct.....the screen sections were SQUARE AND if we assume the quality was fine.....then we must look elsewhere.

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There is an actual methodology to installing wirecloth sections....install then try to retighten like you did is normal to pull up any slack after 8hrs running is perfect handling.

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I want to say.....the hand tightening is thee problem here..without further info of course. Using impact would basically give you PLUS MINUS equal torque tightening theoretically.

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BUT, if hand tightening....you know....big guys TIGHTEN more, smaller guys tighten less, all tighten better when starting and all tighten less near the end......after getting more tired. OVERALL result would be more UNEVEN torque value and this could allow for slightly loose fit.......and the fact you TORE along the edges makes me think that could be the case.

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The other possible answer is.......if the crew was not CENTERING the wirecloth section first prior to tightening...this could cause the hooked edges to engage the tensioning RAIL ....NOT SEATED correctly in the bend of the hook. If this happens and it does....then the wirecloth DOES NOT SIT DOWN tightly on the sideplate ledge angles and will flex up and down and RIP....as a result.

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We assume the rail rubbers were in GOOD CONTACT with underside of the FLEXMAT WIRECLOTH.....if not....steel on steel contact.....equals RIP.......

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Assume the Outside edge to outside edge hook dimension was correct.....if the section is EVEN SLIGHTLY OVERSIZE on the width...you can not tighten it....and it will RIP at the edges due to flexing.....it must be drum head tight.

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Maybe...give me the INSIDE the sideplate dimension please and then give me the OUTSIDE HOOK dimensions to cross check...ordered correctly.....This is kinda important and may be a problem especially if ordering from FLEXMAT folks for the first time...but, really should not happen.

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If you have any broken cross members in your big machine, those members will in fact could cause broken wirecloth as a result. IS THE STROKE balanced on the 7x20...are we abusing the wirecloth by being unbalanced? What is the speed and circle size...that may have been the reason for blinding in the first place.

Hoping this is of some help. ■

Would it be possible to advise what happened with this troubleshooting adventure?

I would love to know the result and I am sure our members would also.

THANKYOU kindly. ■