DRIVES AND CONTROLS
coming years. We have a great opportunity to supply our longstanding gearing expertise to our customers and our new service centre brings us ever more local.”
The new service centre opened in March 2017 and employs 12 people. It will serve key industries such as metals processing and mining, where customer responsiveness and fast service are key.
The group has also opened a new industrial gearbox service and repair centre in Peru. The 1,600 m ² facility has approximately 1,000 m ² workshop space, including 20 t main cranage capacity and a 5 t auxiliary crane. The workshop is fully fitted with machine tools and equipment necessary to carry out a wide range of gearbox repairs.
“ Located in Arequipa at the heart of Peru’ s copper mining industry, our new service centre is close to our key customers, enabling us to deliver rapid gearbox service, repair and upgrade for all mining applications including conveyors and mills.”
Danfoss delivers at GSM Aggregates
With an annual cement production capacity of 60 Mt and 42 cement plants across four continents, Italcementi Group is a leading global supplier of construction materials. The group is a major player in the French building-material market; in the cement business through Ciments Calsia, in the ready-mix concrete sector through Unibéton and in aggregates production and supply with GSM. Italcementi has a strong focus on innovation and sustainable construction materials. They saw many synergies with Danfoss and decided to invest in 31 VLT ® AutomationDrives to control the speed of industrial equipment such as conveyor belts, water pumps, agitators and crushers in the GSM Aggregates limestone quarry in Roussas, France.
The three main goals of the investment were to reduce energy consumption, optimise productivity and reduce the risk of malfunction by removing the need for long cables.
Danfoss states:“ Quarries are notorious for being harsh environments, with dust, noise, extreme temperature variations and vibration frequent occupational hazards. The VLT ® AutomationDrive’ s broad range of enclosure sizes and protection ratings from IP20 to IP66 made it easy to install the drives outdoors, directly on the frame of the applications, which ensured reliable operation in the quarry’ s harsh conditions. Previous drives used at the site had a relatively low power range and, being placed in protective cabinets, meant that significant costs associated with their cooling were incurred.”
The VLT ® AutomationDrive’ s control algorithm, its over-torque of 160 %, wide power range up to 1.4 MW and versatility made it suitable for the wide range of applications onsite. And, the fact
that its RFI filter and harmonic chokes are integrated in the IP66 housing, ensured protection of the electronics and increased efficiency.
“ In addition, because the drives are cooled by ambient air, they no longer encounter overheating problems, which will enable tangible energy savings. The configuration of the installation meant that the drives could be installed in the immediate vicinity of the motors which simplified infrastructure management and development costs. The size of control cabinets could be reduced and high-performance fieldbus options installed in the VLT ® AutomationDrive enabled connection to EtherNet / IP-based networks, which simplified cabling. The VLT ® AutomationDrive contains many integrated sensors that can extremely accurately monitor daily site activities. Frequent and relevant performance records can be generated that indicate where energy savings at all levels can be made.”
The qualities of the VLT ® AutomationDrive allowed Italcementi to rethink the automation of their facilities, particularly with regard to the water pumps that are spread across all their sites. They can now be fully controlled by the drives.“ This implementation represents another successful cooperation between Danfoss and Italcementi. In 2015 and 2016, more than 210 AC drives( up to 90 kW with IP66 frames) were successfully installed on Italcementi’ s water and sand pumps.”
Kumera reflects on mining focus
Kumera Drives is a supplier of industrial gearboxes and related services to the global mining and minerals sector as well as other industries. Market effort currently is focused especially on the mining segment, where products like girth gears and drives, heavy-duty agitator gearboxes and customised catalogue gearboxes have seen major growth. The global presence was broadened by signing a representation agreement in 2016 with South African based Harcliff Mining and Services Company. Consequently, Kumera’ s traditional presence in Europe, Asia and South America was expanded also to sub Saharan territory.
The first Kumera Active Drive( KAD) for a mining girth gear application has been successfully delivered and commissioned into operation in Turkey in September 2016. The customer was able to reduce the installation time by choosing the Kumera Active Drive instead of a conventional girth gear drive.
In addition, a new planetary thickener drive and Guard Gear 4.0 condition monitoring device were released in May 2016. The new planetary thickener drive increases the efficiency of thickening and clarifying processes significantly.
It also represents a fully new technical solution for the applications. First customer deliveries were due to take place in September 2017.
Guard Gear 4.0 is a 4th generation condition monitoring system offering real time health analysis of gearboxes. Guard Gear 4.0 is flexibly configurable, and the sensors can be chosen from a wide range of commercially available sensors. Prevailing IoT( Internet of Things) features enable remote monitoring through a cloud service.
Flender brand strengthened under Siemens
Starting October 1, 2017, the Siemens Mechanical Drives unit( MD) has been operating in the market as Flender GmbH, a Siemens company. Branches will also take on the new name worldwide. Earlier this year, Siemens announced that it would be running the unit as a stand-alone company under the Siemens umbrella, to expand its leeway for action and provide a sharper, business-specific focus. The new setup is to be completed worldwide by mid-2018.
“ Flender is our strong brand with a tradition more than a century old, and we’ ve always done business under the name. At this year’ s Hannover Messe, we highlighted Flender even more brightly, and made quite a splash with our standalone fair booth for gear units and clutches. Eventually all the unit’ s activities worldwide will be gathered under Flender,” says Stefan Tenbrock, CEO of Siemens Mechanical Drives.“ It’ s an important step in our transformation into a stand-alone firm under Siemens AG, acting as a market leader for our customers worldwide and thinking like a mid-sized company.”
The future Flender GmbH is one of the world’ s leading providers of components for mechanical drive technology, producing at eight locations with more than 6,000 employees around the world. Its product range embraces a broad portfolio of gear units and clutches, drive applications and associated services. The range of sectors it serves includes key industries like mining.“ Flender products and services combine the latest technology with the highest quality standards, and have reliably been transmitting power in the best possible way for decades.” A Friedrich Flender AG was founded in Düsseldorf in 1899, originally making wood pulleys. In subsequent decades, the company grew to be a leading maker of gear solutions. Siemens took over Flender in 2005 and integrated the company into its corporate group as a unit for mechanical drives. In February 2017 the company announced that it would reorganise Mechanical Drives as a stand-alone entity within Siemens, so it could implement its growth plans faster, more flexibly and more efficiently amid a challenging competitive environment. IM
12 International Mining | NOVEMBER 2017