Update on JHEP SAG mill

drive selection
Dual pinion versus Gearless in
view of changes to AGMA
standards

Selection concerns

Gear design improvements leading to increased tolerances to Hertz

stresses in mating gear teeth

Hertz stresses a short description

Common misconceptions:
The bending stress alone does not define the major
dimensions of the gears, such as pitch diameters or centre
distance. A compliance with Hertz stress limits does.
Exciding allowable Hertz stresses will lead to severe pitting
of the tooth surface and tooth failure due to subsurface
cracking of the tooth material.
Hertz stresses can be reduced by enlarging gears,
improving gear hardness and surface finish, and provision of
adequate lubrication.

Examples of destructive pitting in gears

Comparison of AGMA standards for spur/helical gears

fabrication. AGMA 321.05 vs. new AGMA 6014/6114
A need for a new, more relaxed standard originated from
the fact that the old standard vastly ignored progress in the
accuracy of gear cutting process and significant
improvements in the gear material quality. The new
standards are still maintaining gears safety factors (service
factors)
Hertz contact stress resistance or pitting - a durability
factor describes ability to resist formation of pits and
cracks in the tooth flanks. It is a function of tooth geometry,
material hardness , the quality of gears surface finish
(cutting, grinding and polishing) and friction between
surfaces of the mating gear = 1.75.
The strength factor describes ability to withstand the

A typical meshing of a spur gear

Tooth relieve drawing

A significant difference between AGMA 321.05 and 6114 is that AGMA 321.05
assumes full tip loading for the calculation of gear tooth strength and
approximates single tooth loading for gear tooth durability. All modern gears
are tip relieved so there is no tip loading at all.
In reality a well designed spur gear will cycle between having 1 and 2 gears in
contact.
For a properly designed helical gear, this increases to cycle between 2 and 3
teeth in contact, meaning that the actual worst case loading is when the
contact point is well below the tip of the gear tooth. AGMA 6114 (and other
standards introduced since 1989) use a AGMA 908 to determine geometry
factors that take into account the above.
AGMA 6114 allows for gear design with 1275 mm gear face width.
The new standard reduces the prescribed width of the gear face for a given
load by a whooping 5% .

Summarising - gears designed to AGMA 321.05 have

potentially more in reserve meaning they should be
able to transmit more that they were designed for
better than 10% . The new AGMA 6014/6114 explores
that 10% allowing for bigger load transfer without
compromising the gear safety factors.
In short, it is a very clear that a SAG mill ring
gear designed for 22.5MW in AGMA 321.05 is
more than sufficient for 24MW in AGMA
6014/6114.
The cost savings resulted from the revision of
standards, averages to a more than 5% per a set of
gears.

Girth Gear improvements in casting techniques

and materials

MAGMA will evaluate different parallelization strategies during

different phases of the metalcasting simulation process

Gear Fabrication
Current ability to cut gears for large, girth gear driven SAG mills is
restricted to:
16 meters in diameter = 52.5 feet
1.2 meters in face width
250 tonnes of machined weight
330 mm thick, 330 BHN hardness - steel bending ability for a
fabricated, steel girth gear.
All parameters above are good for a 22.5MW to 24MW dual pinion
SAG mill drive.
Changes to AGMA standard have revitalised the large gear cutting
industry and soon a machine shop in Holland will be able to fabricate
gears of the following parameters:
20 meters in diameter = 65.6 feet
1.5 meters in face width
400 tonnes of machined weight.
A fully climate controlled facility in Holland will be ready for
production in 2012.

24MW Ring Gear and Pinion calculations

A simple capital cost comparison - dual pinion vs.

gearless

Additional considerations in selection of JHEP SAG

mill drive

Concrete madness - foundations of SAG Mill gearless drive

A gearless drive will require about 250% more concrete and more importantly
more reinforcing steel in the foundations than the equivalent dual pinion drive =
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
This picture shows only what is above the ground. Majority of concrete is below
the surface!

Fabrication in China - METSO report on quality issues

Fundamental observations/issues:
A principle of collective harmony - first defined by Confucius, is reflected in
attempts to please everyone and enforce compromises resulting in significant
lapses in quality control.
This principle does not apply in China only. All populations subjected to a
dictatorship and willing to accept it, display the same trait - what about Julia?
Harmony may make a foundry agree to increase output significantly
without an increase in casting pits, melt ovens, or other capacity.
Harmony may translate into running one cutting machine at faster speeds,
while a second is down for repairs, in order to maintain production rates. In
the interim, the customers compromise to this harmony may be to
accept poorer surface finishes.
Harmony may even affect language use. It may allow a translation of yes,
we will try to meet this specification, although our machinery is incapable of
this result to mean yes, we will meet this specification.
All these subtleties are not easy for a new western customer to understand
because they are tough and heartless bastards.

Installation issues

Information shared with: Outotec, CITIC and METSO