Led by Bob Mills, Bearing Man Group’s technical manager, the BMG engineering team has fully assembled and commissioned two Zollern Dorstener gear units at Nakambala Sugar Mill in Zambia.
“These gear units, which are capable of a peak output torque of 4 million Nm, provide a much needed upgrade to the crushing capacity of the mill,” says Mills. “The new mill drives utilise technologically advanced materials and manufacturing processes to achieve a highly compact power to weight ratio, whilst retaining exceptionally high durability and mechanical reliability.
“The gearing consists of a primary helical stage, a secondary planetary stage and a main load distribution stage, where the power is split and distributed over multiple pinions onto the final stage gear sets. The meshing of multiple pinions with the output gear enables a smaller design, which results in an efficient, compact and lighter construction with reduced structural demands.”
The new gear units weigh 38 tonnes dry and are driven by 850 kW, 6 pole electric motors. They were manufactured, assembled and load tested at Dorstener works in Germany, before being dismantled for ease of handling and shipped via South Africa to Zambia.
Zollern Dorstner is a leading German manufacturer of custom designed gear units for applications requiring exceptional performance. Typical industries for these gear units include sugar and cement, as well as demanding wind turbine applications.
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