Built for mining fluid challenges

For abrasive slurry and tailings systems, Proco’s rubber expansion joints are designed to absorb movement, vibration, and pipe stress. They can help reduce the load transferred from pumps and connected equipment while accommodating movement caused by thermal expansion, installation tolerances, or ground settlement.

Proco Products’ Rob Coffee says mining applications often sit in a useful operating range for rubber-based products.

“With mining operations, you have a lot of abrasive slurries and other elements that you have to combat,” he says. “Typically, you’re at the lower temperature ranges where rubber expansion joints or rubber materials work well.”

Different materials and designs can then be selected to match the application. Natural rubber, EPDM, and neoprene may suit abrasive slurry duties, while PTFE-lined and moulded PTFE joints are used where strong acids, brines, or aggressive chemicals are present.

For higher-solids slurry, filled arch expansion joints can also help by reducing internal turbulence and limiting areas where abrasive material can collect. In longer tailings lines, expansion joints can also assist where ground settlement or pipe misalignment becomes an issue over time.

The other key product family is Proco’s ProFlex™ duckbill check valves. Unlike conventional mechanical check valves, these use an all-rubber design with no hinge, flap, or mechanical working parts to jam, corrode, or seize.

Coffee explains that the valve opens when flow is pumped out and closes under back pressure once the pump stops, preventing reverse flow.

“There’s no mechanical working part,” he says. “As fluid is pumped from one place to a discharge area, like a tailing pond, the valve opens up, and once the pump turns off, it closes, and that back pressure is keeping anything from coming backwards.”

For mining, that matters because solids-heavy fluid can interfere with conventional valves. Particles can jam sealing mechanisms, prevent proper closure, and create ongoing maintenance issues.

For Motion, Proco adds capability in applications where quality and reliability carry real consequences.

“Proco gives us a strong solution in the check valve space, particularly across duckbill and inline pipe check valve applications,” says Phil Austin, National Sales Engineering Manager at Motion. “It has opened up new opportunities for us to support customers with products that are well suited to demanding fluid handling environments.”

Austin says the products have also proven useful beyond mining, including council stormwater and flooding applications.

“It’s a real problem solver for councils, particularly where stormwater, flooding, and backflow through pipes are a concern,” he says.

In critical applications, both Austin and Coffee point to the same principle: reliability reduces risk. For Coffee, environmental protection is closely linked to understanding the life of components before they fail.

“Environmental risk comes back to reliability,” says Coffee. “The issue is understanding where a product is in its life before it fails. Expansion joints are often the forgotten child in a piping system. They sit there doing their job, absorbing movement and stress, so they may not get the same attention as pumps, valves, or major mechanical equipment. But when an expansion joint fails, it is typically a big deal.”

That is why Proco places emphasis on inspection, application support, and product selection, not just replacement supply.

“When we work with a distributor like Motion, the aim is to help customers look at these components before they become a problem,” Coffee says. “A proper survey, report, and recommendation can support the reliability of the plant and help avoid the environmental or personnel issues that can come from a catastrophic failure.”