MechChem Africa May-June 2021

⎪ Products and industry news ⎪

Saldanha Tippler project adopts Bauer drives

tor greater than 2 and 100 000 hours of design life. The 750 kW gearboxes, two parallel drive systems and three parallel and tandem drives, will be installed on a sacrificial conveyor and a 283 m long overland conveyor, respectively, while the 185 kW units will drive an adjustable shuttle conveyor. Compliant with necessary and im- portant thermal criteria, the 750 kW gearboxes are equipped with a cooling and forced lubrication systemwithdual oil pumps, one servingas abackupunit. Derek explains that in addition to machine lon- gevity, this system is also a safety feature, keeping the drive temperature to below a safe-touch of 70 °C. Bauer will also be responsible for providing the condition monitoring sen- sors to facilitate remote monitoring of the gearboxes including motor speed and motor windings temperatures, brake wear and temperatures, oil levels andflow pressures, as well as bearing wear and vibrations. “Early detection allows for a planned shutdown to do the necessary maintenance, thereby avoiding critical failure and costly downtime,” notesDerek, adding that Bauer is also supplying large 710 mm diameter hydraulic disk brakes for the sacrificial and shuttle conveyors in collaborationwith supply partner,Magnet Service Binder. no longer have issues of dust, safety and fatigue when moving the chocolate pow- der – and we’re in the process of expand- ing and will be ordering additional units.” Flexiconalsomanufactures other con- figurations of flexible screwconveyors, as well as bulkbagfillers, pneumatic convey - ing systems, tubular cable conveyors, bulk bag unloaders, bulk bag conditioners, bag dump stations, drum/box/container tippers, weigh batching and blending systems, and engineered plant-wide bulk handling systems with auto- mated controls. www.flexicon.co.za The castor-mounted frame of Flexicon’s mobile screw conveyor allows the unit to be positioned with the discharge above the screener.

drives. Bauer upgraded these drives after ten years of operation and, in 2020, sup- plieda thirdslewdrivewithplanetarygear- boxes, along with an overland conveyor. When Derek Gilmore joined Bauer as managing director for Drives and Motors in June 2019, the Tippler upgrade project for Saldanha Iron Ore port fell under his auspices. He explains that the company responsible for overseeing the project favoured a total solution supply chain through a single sourced provider. “The fact that Hudaco is a listed supplier to the Saldanha Port operation paved the way for Bauer, as part of the Hudaco group, to put in a bid on the drive requirements for this project.” The full scope of supply from Bauer includes industrial gearboxes, medium voltage electric motors, drive base plates, high and low speed couplings, brakes, actuators, parts and spares as well as condition monitoring. “We will also be responsible for torque arm and complete drive assembly,” adds Gilmore. “Our industrial gearboxes are manu- factured by India-based OEM, Elecon Engineering Company, one of the largest manufacturers of industrial gear units in Asia,” he continues. These rugged and reliable gearboxes boast a service fac- amotor positioned beyond the discharge point, which precludes material contact with bearings or seals. The conveyor’s charging adapter consists of a trough at the outlet of a pyramidal hopper that exposes the intake end of the spiral to the powdered mix. A pneumatically-actuated vibrator fitted to the hopperwall promotes the flow of powder into the trough as the rotating spi- ral moves it at a 45° incline through the enclosed tube, dis- charging it into the screener. A 3.6 m high castor-mounted frame with support boom enables operators to roll the unit into position with the conveyor discharge directly above the screener, and thereafter to a cleaning area. Mobility of the units also provides SMK with the flexibility to sat - isfy new processes. Patel says: “We also considered a solid shaft auger conveyor among other op-

Bauer GearedMotors, a business division of Hudaco Trading, is delivering a total drive solution that includes five large sized 750 kW industrial gearboxes and two 185kWunits for theTippler upgrade proj- ect at the Saldanha IronOre Export Plant. Wei ghing up to 15 t each , the 750 kW gearboxes are the largest ma- chines ever supplied by Bauer to date. Bauer has been amarket leader in electric drives since 1984, initially specialising in geared motors. The Hudaco power transmission division later diversified, expanding its portfolio to include indus- trial gearboxes and transmission solutions. Bauer joined the Hudaco group in 2002 and, in the same year, became a supplier to Saldanha providing slewandbucketwheel Weighing up to 15 t each, the 750 kW gearboxes for the Saldanha Tippler upgrade project are the largest machines ever supplied by Bauer to date. SMK Nutra Makers, a formulator and contract manufacturer of dietary supple- ments and nutritional products, has improved production of a protein shake sports drink by switching from manual dumping of a powdered chocolate mix froman elevated safety cage, to dumping of themixat floor level intomobileflexible screw conveyors. Previously, operators in a safety cage were raised by a forklift to dump 25 kg bags of the shake powder into either of two screeners positionedaboveblenders. To improve the laborious, dusty proce- dure, the companypurchased twomobile, high-capacity flexible screw conveyors, eachdedicated to a separate blender. The powder is now dumped at floor level into the hopper of a conveyor, which feeds a screener and, in turn, a blender. SMK owner Avni Patel says, “Manual handling at floor level has increased productivity, eliminated dust and improved worker safety.” Supplied by Flexicon, each of the BEV-CON™ model conveyors includes a 7.5 m long bevelled-edge spiral driven by

Dumping fromheight eliminatedwith screw conveyors

tions, ultimately deciding on the Flexicon conveyors, which are precisely what we needed. We

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