Hi Sydney. The 70-77% is AVAILABILITY, not nameplate. Very...

Hi Sydney. The 70-77% is AVAILABILITY, not nameplate. Very different things. The % availability is the number of hours running divided by the number of hours point to point. So, in a 168 hour week, if the plant was standing for 36 hours, the availability is 136/168 or 78.6%. Nameplate THROUGHPUT for the DMS is 150 tph, so if you achieve 151 tph, that's 0.75% over nameplate. Generally, a DMS requires a steady feed of material, to maximise the separation efficiency in the cyclones. The feedrate is normally controlled with a variable speed feeder under the DMS feed bin. The operator adjusts the feedrate to the optimal rate and this is rarely changed. Pushing the feedrate above this optimal feedrate increases the risk of blockages. Remember that in one hour downtime, a DMS operator will lose about 15 t of saleable spod, that is he is blowing more than his entire monthly salary for one little mistake.