Welding, Assembly, Machining, Fabricating
D. M. Manufacturing Builds Worlds Largest Plate Press
May 28, 2010
The employees of D.M. Manufacturing welded, fabricated, assembled, and tested a 408,000 pound plate press to be used in coal mining operations. D.M. Manufacturing used it cutting and welding equipment and expertise to cut and fabricate the machine from an average of 4 inch thick plate steel. Then with in house labor, the machine was plumbed, wired, and assembled with components supplied by the customer.
This plate press, the largest of its kind, is 12 feet wide, 12 feet tall and 100 feet long. Work began in November, 2009 and the machine was completed in May, 2010. D.M. Manufacturing’s transportation division is the lead in transporting these oversize loads to the mining site.
This massive machine has plates that use pressure from large cylinders to compress coal dust from slurry which is a byproduct in the mining operations. The press’ 10 feet square plates transforms the dust in the slurry into coal cakes about 7 feet square. The cakes can be cut into bricks to be used as fuel. About 110 coal cakes are produced every 15 to 20 minutes. This process is critical in making the mining operations more environmentally friendly. Plate presses are used in other mining operations such as silver mining, and D.M. Manufacturing has built more than 20 presses of various sizes to date.
D. M. Manufacturing is a preferred fabricator of many engineering firms for wastewater equipment applications.
