Editor’s note: The following is a selected portion from the upcoming 2025 Edition of the Pit & Quarry University Handbook. The full handbook is slated for release this November, at which time additional content will also be published online. Be sure to check back for more content as it’s made available!
Related: Screening (Part 1) | P&Q University Handbook
Choosing screen media for a screen box isn’t as simple as it used to be.
What once was just woven wire now includes alternative options such as rubber, polyurethane, metal plates, high-vibration wire, combinations of different materials and more.
With each type come new options for customizations of a screen deck to provide enhanced efficiency and throughput, whether by using one type of media or blending multiple.
Standard woven wire is often the cheapest – at first sight – option. But that’s no reason for alternative options to be passed over without some consideration. Depending on the application, these products can improve wear life, reduce pegging and blinding, speed up the stratification process and better
remove fines to increase the overall quality of the screened product. High-performance screen media can improve open area – in some cases 30 percent more than traditional woven wire and 50 percent more than polyurethane and rubber panels.
Following are a few reasons to explore high-performance screen media.
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Advantages of high-performance screen media
• Prolonging wear life. Most types of specialized screen media offer a much longer wear life than traditional woven wire.
Thick rubber and steel plate media mean greater durability, but they sometimes sacrifice open area. High-performance media is made up of highly engineered wires held together with polyurethane strips, which eliminate cross wires with high-wear spots that are common to woven wire and a few types of self-cleaning media. This results in optimal open area and a wear life as much as five times longer than wire alone.
• Minimizing screening issues. High-performance screen media can offer exceptional open area – in some cases, 30 percent more than traditional woven wire and 50 percent more than traditional polyurethane and rubber panels. It is often a good solution for issues such as pegging, blinding or material contamination.
Some media is tapered to help solve these problems, while others use unique designs to allow wires to vibrate independently from hook to hook under material contact. The result is high-frequency vibrations from the wires, in addition to the vibration from the screen box.
This virtually eliminates near-size pegging on the top decks and fine material blinding and clogging on the bottom decks. It also means less risk of material contamination and cleaner retained product through the middle decks.
• Improving efficiency. Because screen machines are often placed at both the beginning and end of production, the right screen media can be key to the quality and volume of production. High-performance media can offer the necessary efficiency boost because some kinds accelerate stratification and increase material separation.
High-vibration wire screens operate at a high frequency to accelerate the stratification process. That frequency can be as high as 8,000 to 10,000 cycles per minute – as much as 13 times higher than the standard vibration of a screen box. The increased screening action spreads material over the entire screen’s surface area on all decks.
This moves material faster while maximizing contact to ensure optimal throughput with no carryover. The result is a higher quality end product.
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This type of screen media can also be extremely effective at removing fines. The result can be less water needed to wash material or, sometimes, a complete elimination of necessary water use.
One type of screen media isn’t always the option, and the answer isn’t immediately obvious. Consult with a dealer and manufacturer to determine the best type of media to solve screening problems and improve performance. The right solution could mean turning a screen that was a bottleneck into a profit maker.
Serge Raymond is manager of product technology at Major.
