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News & Events 
Autumn 2001 Review Click here if you wish to view the February 2000 Review
Flender Motox Unit Helps Reduce Climate Change Levy
We have produced lifetime running costs based on 24-hour-per-day use over 10 years of our MOTOX premium efficiency range that show considerable savings over standard efficiency motors. The range offers several other benefits for companies looking to make energy savings, including reduced inventory costs due to standard IEC motors being used, direct interchangeability with other European manufacturers' products, compactness, 9-18 months' measurable payback period with enhanced capital allowance, and same day build and despatch from Bradford. Our MOTOX high efficiency motors bring significant benefits to industry. Where multiple units are specified, the savings over the lifetime of the units can be substantial, and can certainly help companies who consider themselves energy efficient now, to be even more so in the future. Our wide range of motors come with power ratings from 0.18kW up to 75kW. All Flender MOTOX motors now fall within category eff2 as defined by CEMEP, and some fall within category eff1, the highest efficiency rating. We believe we are one of the only gearbox manufacturers to currently be able to offer eff1 category geared motors 'off the shelf' and demand is substantial. For more information contact Paul Dudley on +44 (0)1274 657700 (fax +44 (0)1274 669836). Solving Space Problems For Customers
Plenty Pumps, which specialises in pumps for the sugar industry, needed to solve a problem for a major client in the Philippines. The client was short of factory space, and so in conjunction with Plenty we designed a special piggy-back gear unit to operate with Plenty's Magmo No.6 belt driven pump. As Plenty Pumps' sales office manager Marcus Dearlove confirmed, the initiative for the one-off design came from Flender: "We discussed the problem with Des Walsh from Flender, who suggested the piggy-back design. It's a great solution and the customer's delighted!" The Plenty Magmo pump is designed to operate primarily with massecuite and magma, and the Flender unit was positioned with a MOTOX D181P geared motor on top of the gear unit. Two Flender MOTOX units were supplied, each with a power rating of 55 kW, operating at speeds between 10rpm and 50rpm. The pump's flow range is 1.2m3/hr to 56m3/hr, with a discharge pressure of 7.0 bar g and unlimited viscosity. All Plenty Pumps are designed to minimise sugar crystal damage through a gentle pumping action and with their good tolerance to large particles minimise the chances of pump seizure. With belt driven units such as the Flender one, pump speeds are easily changed on site through altering the pulley diameters. Plenty Pumps has now incorporated the unique piggy-back design into its catalogue which goes to its customers worldwide. Flender Drive Assemblies For China
The drive assemblies are for two railcar dumper systems at the plant, each of which empties the contents of two coal wagons every two minutes on an automated line, at a rate of 3840 tonnes per hour. The drive assemblies will provide a total unloading capability of 20 million tonnes of coal per year. Each railcar dumper system consists of a dumper (two drives), indexer (six drives) and charger (two drives). Each dumper drive assembly comprises a 90kW motor with twin input disc brake arrangement, H3SH size 10 Flender FZG gear unit with steel housing, and ZAPEX Cardan spacer shaft coupling with disc brake. All are mounted on a baseplate. Additionally, a pinion shaft is mounted in pedestal bearings on a separate adjustable slide base. The pinions drive semi-circular girth gears to actuate tipping, rotating each railcar through 160¡ and returning it back to the starting position. Each drive assembly features three brakes, required to arrest rotation in the event of an emergency stop. We are also supplying 16 PLANUREX planetary gear units for the indexers and chargers on the same railcar dumper system. The Flender units comprise 90kW motors, Autogard torque limiting couplings, multi-disc brakes, P2NA size 10 gear units and output pinions. By moving the train along wagon by wagon, the process enables a high degree of automation and is a high integrity, high throughput system. We won the order from Bristol based customer Strachan & Henshaw's bulk materials handling division, which recently became part of Swedish company Svedala. Svedala project manager Dave Hicken commented on the Flender units: "We have designed a highly automated process that maximises the efficient throughput of coal. Flender technology has been an integral part of this and the reliability of their products was certainly a deciding factor." Flender Powers Polish Pipe Conveyor
As part of the Polish industries' drive to reduce pollution emissions from the country's power plants, significant investment has been made at the plant in South-East Poland on a flue gas desulphurisation system. Gypsum is produced as a by-product, and in order to carry this product to a lorry disposal point the Dosco pipe conveyor was selected. The conveyor has a single length of 1200 metres, negotiating horizontal and vertical curves en route and providing environmental benefits by totally enclosing the material. The project has now been completed and is fully functional. Our FZG unit combines high power capacity with excellent reliability. It is used in particularly demanding applications such as cranes, wind turbines, cooling towers and other power plants, as well as a variety of materials handling applications in hostile environments with exceptional heat or cold, huge temperature contrasts or high levels of dust and particle pollution, from Chile to China. Shift Changes Mean Better Customer Service
Leeds United Fans In Safe Hands With First Class First-Aider!
We are pleased to report that our sales of energy efficient eff1 geared motors have shown tremendous growth during 2001. Through our distribution partners we have successfully converted many household names to Flender eff1 drives by showing the efficiency savings, enhanced capital allowances, and using both Siemens and WEG IEC eff1 standard motors from 0.18kW. The dry change feature has also led to a saving in downtime and has proved an important additional benefit. On the couplings front we have now started to work actively in the fluid couplings area, having success in both the quarrying and water industries. Flender Powers World's Largest Wind Turbine
We have supplied a gear unit and generator for the world's largest serial wind power station, near Grevenbroich, Germany. The Nordex N-80 represents the biggest and latest development in a healthy renewables industry that has seen phenomenal growth in Germany, with expenditure in this area almost doubling in the space of one year. The Nordex N-80 comprises a Flender PZAS 3415 planetary gear unit and generator. The gear unit alone weighs 18,000 kg and has a transmission ratio of 1:67.9, with a 290-litre oil tank! The Loher generator produces 2.5MW at a speed of 700 to 1300 rpm, with 690 volts. The double-fed asynchronous, liquid-cooled generator weighs 12,000 kg and its efficiency is more than 96% under full load. The gear unit has four planetary gears, with a double-row self-aligning roller bearing for the main shaft, and a very compact, light and space saving footprint. An articulated joint coupling between gear unit and generator compensates axial and radial shaft misalignment. The wind energy plant works at full capacity with a wind speed of 14 metres per second. The wind tower is 80 metres high and weighs in at 190 tonnes. Each blade is 38.5 metres long and weighs 10 tonnes. e-Commerce Now Being Trialled For Flender Customers As part of our ongoing plans to continually improve the service we offer to customers, Flender Germany is launching an e-commerce initiative. Once proven in Germany, it will be rolled out across all Flender group companies. We had already developed our own FIS CRM software to successfully create a data infrastructure, and the FIS system has recorded the data and interlinks of more than 70,000 Flender customers worldwide. The next logical step was to put our electronic product catalogue on-line, within which customers can search, configure, check and then select their requirements. The electronic catalogue can be found on the Flender homepage, under the name of Net-CAT®. Net-CAT® is an on-line configurator which, using technical parameters like torque, power rating and speed, selects the optimum drive solution for a requested application. Geared units such as CAVEX, FZG, PLANUREX and MOTOX-N geared motors can be configured, as can our couplings ranges, including NEUPEX, RUPEX, ARPEX and ZAPEX. Benefits include the ability to configure entire drive trains, with subsequent generation of CAD drawings in dxf or dwg format. With the changes we implemented last year to our service offer, and Gary Husband now playing a key role in co-ordinating service improvements for all customers, we hope you will have begun to see the benefits. We're also now able to accept credit card payments via Visa, Mastercard, Delta, Switch or Visa Purchasing. Just contact the Sales Department with your order. |
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Are you aware that your company can make savings of up to 7% on its energy costs and reduce its climate change levy (CCL) appropriately, by specifying our energy efficient MOTOX geared motors?
We have helped a customer solve a tricky space problem with an inventive type of gear unit.
Our products are certainly travelling long distances these days, in a truly global marketplace. One example is the supply of four Flender drive assemblies to a coal export terminal at Port of Tianjin, China.
We've been busy in Europe as well as China, recently supplying a 250kW FZG bevel helical gear unit for a new pipe conveyor to the Polaniec power plant in Poland, through our pipe conveyor specialist customer Dosco Overseas Engineering.
You should already be aware that we have changed our shift patterns for our popular geared motor series MOTOX, and that we now provide 11-hours per day, seven days per week, coverage. With a four-days-on, four-days-off system for our MOTOX production personnel, we are already reporting significant benefits, including a 10% increase in productivity. The aim is to make MOTOX deliveries even more reliable!
It's not just marketing expertise that you'll find at Flender these days! Marketing co-ordinator Angela Richards has much more than marketing skills up her sleeve, as she is also a qualified first-aider for Leeds United FC! Angela, along with a team of up to 60 other first-aiders, ensures both local fans and visitors are in safe hands, whatever the circumstances, during the football season. Towards the end of the 2000/2001 season she stood in for her first-aid supervisor, literally looking after the whole of the East and South stands at Elland Road, which she thoroughly enjoyed: "It helps that I'm a big Leeds United fan, although now I have to video all the games! People get themselves into some amazing situations at matches; fans can get over-excited when Leeds score and injure themselves jumping out of their seats. We've even had one little boy stick his fingers in a bolt hole on the wall and he had to be taken to hospital sporting part of Elland Road! But when you've got 40,000 people in one place then things do happen." Angela began her first-aid 'career' at work in 1993, and later trained with the West Yorkshire Ambulance Service. She takes exams every three years, and undergoes four days' training per year.
We're delighted to welcome three new faces to the Flender team - Martin Ingham, who joins as Internal Sales Engineer, John Auld, who joins as Management Accountant and Phil Hewitt, who joins as Couplings Sales Engineer. Martin has joined Flender from the Leeds branch of nationwide distributor BSL, where he spent five years selling Flender gear units. He is now the first point of contact for all enquiries relating to quotes for couplings and gearboxes, and his direct line is +44 (0)1274 657711. Martin is married with two young daughters and is from the Batley area. He recently spent six weeks in Germany at our head office on a training course! Management accountant John Auld joins Flender for the second time, having worked for the company between January 1984 and May 1988. His responsibilities include general accounting, VAT returns, costings and other management accountancy. He has previously worked for Kuwait Petroleum, Yorkshire Water and Euro Design. Married with a six-year-old son, John is originally from Haworth (Bront' country) and now lives in Burley-in-Wharfedale. Phil Hewitt joins us from chain manufacturer Seddis, and for Phil also it's a return to Flender - he worked for the company between 1990 and 1995! Phil is selling our full ranges of couplings all over the UK as well as supporting our distribution partners, and he cites the increasing popularity of the more specialised fluid couplings, such as FLUDEX: "Couplings are crucial to the process, so fast service and turnaround is essential. We sell on quality and service." Phil has lived in Northampton for several years, although is originally from Keighley, and recently married. And finally, Alan Randall has taken on the new role of Internal Sales Manager, to help with our increased requirements in this area. Alan has been with Flender for 25 years.
Flender is the world's largest manufacturer of gear units for wind turbines, installing one in every two around the world, from Cardiff to California.