Gearless mill drives Go gearless

Introduction

The ABB gearless mill drive (GMD) is the most powerful mill drive system on the market. It combines highest efciency, reliability, exibility and availability.
The gearless mill drive eliminates all mechanical components of a conventional mill drive system, such as ring-gear, pinion, gearbox, coupling, motor shaft and motor bearings: By mounting the rotor poles directly onto the mill, the mill itself becomes the rotor of the gearless motor. History In 1969, ABB (then Brown Boveri & Cie.) commissioned the rst GMD ever, a 6.4 MW gearless motor for a ball mill at Ciments Lambert-Lafarge in Le Havre, France. Still operating today, it has proven to perform costeffectively and with long-term reliability. More signicantly, it met the challenge of heat-related expansion associated with the dry cement process right from the start. ABB was also the rst to introduce GMDs for mineral processing, when delivering a GMD to an ore mill at Bougainville, New Guinea in 1985. From there on ABB continued to innovate and was soon able to supply the rst GMD for a doublerotating ball mill in Carlin, Nevada again meeting the heat challenge of 160C at the mill shell. Furthermore, ABBs achievements include engineering GMDs for the largest auto genous (AG), semiautogenous (SAG) and ball mills in the world that also fulll highest power requirements and are ready to operate under extreme environmental conditions. Since designing its rst gearless mill drive in the late 1960s, ABB has accumulated over forty years of experience in optimizing gearless solutions for grinding applications. Today, ABB is the market leader with the largest number of installed units worldwide. Outlook High throughput, around the clock reliability, efficiency and the ability to mine in remote areas are making low ore grades economically feasible to grind these days. Therefore, the trend is going for larger ball and SAG mills, with higher installed power ratings relative to the mill diameter. ABB was contracted to deliver some of the largest GMDs ever realized: 22 MW GMD for 28 ball mill 28 MW GMD for a 40' SAG mill 28 MW GMD for 42' SAG mill ABB is well positioned to continue the push for larger and more powerful mills: Designs for 44-foot SAG mills with a rated power of up to 35 MW have been in place long since. Whether it is size or an installation at the highest altitude ever (4600m.a.s.l.), our gearless mill drives are designed to meet these challenges as we continuously develop new features that allow us to adapt to your needs and the ever changing site requirements.

The GMD system The gearless motor (also called wrap-around motor or ring motor) is a very large synchronous motor. The poles of the motor are directly installed on the pole flange of the mill shell, turning the mill body into the rotor. The stator is then wrapped around the mill. The gearless motor is fed by a cycloconverter. This cycloconverter is a line commutated frequency converter, in which the output voltage is composed of the main voltage wave but at a much lower frequency. For the GMD application it has a rated output frequency of around 5 Hz. The cycloconverter, with its fuse-less design, is connected to the MV network through three special cycloconverter transformers. Additionally a small excitation converter is required to supply the poles excitation via the

slip rings to the rotor of the gearless motor. Typically knife switches (offload manual disconnection switches) are installed directly at the motor for both the stator and rotor circuit, to make a visible disconnection before entering the motor for maintenance purposes. Inherent features The gearless solution eliminates the need for ring gear, pinion, gearbox, coupling, motor bearings. Inching and creeping functionalities are provided by the drive control SW, making an additional inching motor unnecessary. ABBs complete drive system, including the gearless motor, does not require any grease or lubrication, therefore reducing maintenance costs.

The gearless mill drive system is able to run the mill with variablespeed and in both directions of rotation. With these two inherent features you have the possibility to optimize the complete grinding process at any time during the lifespan of your mine. These optimization strategies are often oriented at decreasing the liner wear, thus resulting in reduced overall downtime.

The ABB solution

Competence in grinding Several decades of worldwide experience in grinding, allow ABB to supply optimized mill drive solutions that have consistently set new productivity records in cement and mineral applications, enabling grinding to become more powerful, more efficient and more productive. The expertise at hand is based on the largest installed base and knowledge bank in the industry. ABBs philosophy for grinding drive solutions is guided by the following values: Application-specific functionality Smooth operation Elimination of mechanical e lements Variable-speed control as an i nherent feature A team of dedicated engineers at our Main Technology Center for grinding solutions is on call to design, install and commission your mill electrification and automation system.

We provide: Development Engineering Assembly of your ring motor Project management Commissioning of the full drive system Service and equipment support (troubleshooting and maintenance) Spare parts Our strengths: Complete and optimized solutions Integration of our solutions into your plant environment taking into consider a tion electrical, mechanical and civil interfaces Combining drives with application and process Full service and equipment support Design rules ABBs unique gearless mill drive design is based on several important rules. One pivotal rule is that the system should always run sub-critical, ensuring that the motor cannot

reach the first critical speed. This leads to a certain minimum stiffness requirement. ABB makes no compromise on this essential rule, therefore ABBs stator typically has the highest stiffness. Stator design is also influenced by modes of transportation from the factory to mine sites all over the world. ABB has successfully overcome size constraints through innovative transport methods that ensure safe arrival of each motor part on site: Customer and site requirements are integrated into the design and determine the number of stator pieces (up to five) necessary to simplify the transport. The lower the number of stator parts, the less installation man hours are required on site. In addition every split of the stator influences stator stiffness. Without counter measures this would result in a lower natural frequency. ABB has successfully realized GMD projects with both less and more than four stator parts. A thorough analysis of the complete system (mill, pole units, bearings,

Network

foundations, interaction between rotor and stator, stator structure and the soil conditions) warrants that all components fit together from a resonance and stiffness point of view. Efficiency Mills are by far the largest power consumers in a concentrator plant. As specific designs can only be optimized to a certain value, ABB first selected the most efficient design and then optimized it. The sophisticated single-turn winding system ensures that stator winding losses are minimized. In addition, the rise of motor temperature is relatively low, resulting in a low thermal expansion and a lower resistance of the copper windings, hence translating into lower losses. A further reduction of losses is achieved by minimizing the number of semiconductors in the cycloconverter.

Poles ABBs poles are designed as single pole unit. This enables greater precision through individual adjustment options. The single pole unit automatically eliminates a potential failure by not having an additional pole assembly unit. ABBs center plates, pole bolts and mill flange act together as an efficient spring system. This ensures that the transfer of torque from pole to mill flange is only by force of friction and not by sheer force of the pole bolt. Windings ABBs single-turn windings eliminate the possibility of the catastrophic inter-turn failure by default. They make it possible to have real motor differential protection. ABB uses a full continuous vacuum pressure impregnation (VPI) system, for both, the winding in the slot and the overhang portion. The windings work on site at the stator joints is minimized with the sophisticated winding design.

Cooling Cooling boxes with water-to-air heat exchangers and cooling fans are located at the bottom of the stator frame, allowing easy access for maintenance while also providing cooling water just below the stator windings. With this design, a low temperature rise can be achieved, which minimizes thermal expansion and optimizes efficiency. Cooperation With the largest installed base of GMDs worldwide, ABB has extensive experience in dealing with all main mill suppliers. A long history of successful cooperation with them and the respective civil engineers ensures that all mill system components work seamlessly together when it comes to the installation on site. ABB achieves this goal by choosing the right partners who also work with the complete operation process in mind.

Network study The cycloconverter feeding the ring motor creates the typical harmonics and inter-harmonics of a 12-or 18-pulse direct converter. In addition, other utilities in the plant may generate undesirable harmonics towards the network. ABB has the resources, competence and know-how to perform a network study, preferably for the complete plant. This study allows to deal with harmonics, inter-harmonics and to improve the power factor to the required level. The applicable local standards typically form the basic requirements

for this study. Aside from performing the network study, ABB is also your partner for delivery of any hardware filter components you may require. Mill control and protection ABB features the most sophisticated cycloconverter to power the gearless motor. It is a well-proven technology which, while having a fuseless design, is short-circuit-proof. The con trol of the converter does not require speed or position sensors, therefore, automatically eliminating a potential failure source. Among our GMD standard features are inching,

creeping and power dip ride-through. Typically ABB also controls and feeds the mill auxiliaries. Comprehensive protection of the complete gearless mill drive system is key to achieve the highest possible availability. This includes state-ofthe-art air gap monitoring and the real gearless motor differential protection. Although the design is focused on avoiding short circuits or mitigating their effects, the complete system is still able to withstand any short circuit situation.

E-house

Converter transformer

Gearless mill drive MV circuit breaker Excitation transformers

Service

To support your existing installation ABB provides a range of services from phone support to complete service agreements. Service, maintenance and training Frequent maintenance checks of your application are required to warrant smooth and reliable operation of your GMD for years to come. Our experts are available over the phone, via our remote diagnostic system or on-site when you face technical issues. Aside from regular on-site GMD inspections, we also train your staff to contribute to the overall operational excellence. With ABBs solutions and services you keep your GMD running on an optimal level. One comprehensive service agreement, designed to fit your specific needs, guarantees life cycle maintenance for years.

Remote services SupportLine (emergency phone support 24/7, 365 days per year): Quick and reliable access to the technical know-how of ABB experts Remote diagnostics Troubleshooting: Support via remote access can be provided through a secure internet c onnection Maintenance Regular system inspections a ccording to a pre-planned maintenance schedule High availability of on-site resources, guaranteed through a secure internet connection

Customer training Application and process training units provide users with the knowledge required to safely and effectively operate and maintain the drive equipment. Your benefits Optimized asset performance Reduced and predictable maintenance costs Increased availability and reliability of equipment and systems Fast emergency response

Contact us

ABB Switzerland Ltd. Segelhofstrasse 9P 5405 Baden 5 Dttwil Switzerland Phone: +41 58 586 84 44 E-Mail: minerals@ch.abb.com ABBs Mining business unit is represented in the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Germany, Greece, Kazakhstan, M alaysia, Oman, Peru, Poland, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and USA. For contact details, please visit our website: www.abb.com/mining

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Main Technology Center for grinding solutions