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Press Releases Flender Powers the World's Biggest in Mining Equipment
At the power transmission giant’s manufacturing bases in Bocholt and Friedrichsfeld, Germany, the facilities are among the finest in the world. Not only are massive ranges of bevel gears ground for best quality and gearboxes literally ‘custom-made,’ but precision machining to DIN 6 level is achieved, whatever the size of gearbox. In mining and quarrying, Flender products are found from Australia to South America and from the UK to Thailand. World’s Highest Capacity For example, the world’s highest capacity mobile sizing station, in use in Australia, features no less than four Flender Power Transmission gear units. Manufactured by world leaders in mineral sizers MMD of Derbyshire, the fully mobile sizer station is capable of processing over 10,000 tonnes per hour of overburden, and can rotate through 270 degrees. It has a slewing discharge conveyor and an apron plate feeder, which can be raised when the unit is moving. The whole unit weighs 1760 tonnes, and its slewing elevating discharge conveyor is mounted on a turntable. The unit is also mounted on tracks, which allow it to move in conjunction with the large rope shovel feeding the unit. This in turn discharges on to a belt conveyor system. Flender supplied four of its high performance FZG bevel helical gear units, two for the apron plate feeder drive, one for the transfer conveyor drive, and one for the discharge conveyor drive. It was important to MMD that all components on the massive station could be bolted together, rather than attached to a central frame, so that everything could be separately transported as a normal road load. The apron plate feeder drives comprise the FZG gear units, shaft mounted with shrink discs and fitted with Flender Neupex flexible input couplings. There are special sealing arrangements on the input and output shafts, and the units are mounted on bedframes with motors. Also mounted on each bedframe is an airblast oil cooler, and each of these two assemblies weighs more than 25 tonnes, excluding motors. The one-off unit for the transfer conveyor drive consists of the FZG bevel helical unit, shaft mounted with shrink disc and fitted with a Neupex flexible input coupling. There is a special sealing arrangement on the input/output shafts, and the unit is mounted on a bedframe with motor. The discharge conveyor drive is also a one-off unit, comprising a Flender FZG B3DE15 unit, shaft mounted with shrink disc. It is fitted with Neupex flexible input coupling, with special sealing arrangement on the input/output shafts. This unit also has an increased area housing to allow for high temperatures, and is mounted on a bedframe with motor. All the Flender units for this demanding application were designed to cope with ambient temperatures ranging from minus 10°C to plus 45°C, and 24 hours per day duty. Flender drive components are backed by more than 80 parts and service support outlets worldwide. The Largest Gearboxes, Tailor-made Other huge gearboxes have been tailor-made too for the mining and quarrying industry, such as two bucket wheel excavator planetary units, each weighing 30 tons, for a lignite mine in northern Thailand. Each complete excavator (weighing 730 tons) can excavate and convey about 2000 cbm soil per hour (the equivalent volume of two large houses). The bucket wheel drives have two gear units, the first of switch gear type, to reduce the working speed by 50% should soil conditions demand it. Power is transmitted from switch gear to main gear via universal joint shaft. 1100 kW of power is required to excavate and lift the material, creating a total force of 48 tons on the bucket edges, more than the longest freight train in Europe requires in pulling power! Other challenges included allowing for massive shock loads on the gear units, as well as saving as much weight as possible on the excavator wheel to help achieve balance. The caterpillar crawlers for this system are also driven by Flender worm planetary units with high ratios. To help the equipment swivel on the undercarriage, compact units with planetary gear stages and variable output speeds were selected. These units are in vertical design with downwards driving pinions, joining a big girth gear on the undercarriage. Six conveyor drives transmit a power of 250 kW each. All gear units were designed to function with ambient temperatures of 40°C, through natural heat dissipation, as cooling water was not feasible for such an excavator. More information on Flender’s gear units for high capacity mining equipment is available on tel +44 (0)1274 657700 (e-mail info@siemens.com or fax +44 (0)1274 669836), or check out the Flender website at www.flender-power.co.uk ENDS For further media information please contact Bridget Summers, Footprint, PO Box 4, Colton, Leeds LS15 8WX, UK. Tel: 0113 251 5697. Fax: 0113 251 5351. E-mail: bridget@fim.org.uk |
Flender Power
Transmission is a leading manufacturer of mechanical gear units, geared motors
and couplings for the world’s most demanding customers.