Bonfiglioli supplies alignment-free drives to Lihir Gold

ThyssenKrupp contacted Bonfiglioli to supply drives for discharge and spillage conveyors on Lihir Gold’s process plant expansion project at its gold mining operation in New Ireland province of Papua New Guinea.
The application consists of two jaw crushing lines operating in parallel. Each line has two conveyors: one for discharging and one for spillage. The discharge conveyors have a throughput of 1,200wtph, while the spillage conveyors receive 20 per cent of that throughput in finer ores from spillage.
The upgrade will increase total annual gold production by approximately 240,000 ounces per annum on average from 2012 over the remaining life of the operation.
The application requirements were for operation 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks per year. Discharge conveyors were required to have a right angle bevel helical with rigid flange couplings, backstops, and fluid couplings. Spillage conveyors needed to be shaft mounted gear motors with torque arm bearing L-10 life to be greater than 60,000 hrs and gear life to be 100,000 hrs
Bonfiglioli has extended the versatility of its new HD series of advanced heavy duty drives by introducing an alignment-free configuration that cost-effectively integrates motor and gearbox. The company’s recently expanded drives service centre came up with an “alignment free” input design for the Lihir project, which negates the need for a costly baseplate.
The “alignment free” input is basically a large bell housing that contains the fluid coupling fan and provides a standard IEC interface for the flange mounted motor. This type of input also saves time and labour during commissioning of the drive as the alignment of the transmission components has already been done.
Vents cut in the bell housing allow air from the fan to be forced along a path to provide optimum cooling for the gearbox. The bell housing also has an additional benefit as it provides a collection point for fluid lost by the fluid coupling in case of a blowout. The company says the job was won simply by providing more benefits at a lower cost.
Discharge conveyor specifications:
2 x HDO110 3 24.6 LPB R1 VP B3 FAN MOP A CW TK OLG alignment-free drives fitted with free issued Teco 75 kW 4 pole motors
Spillage conveyors:
A703 US 72.5 P132 fitted with free issued Teco 5.5 kW motors
ThyssenKrupp Material Handling supports clients in large scale material handling applications specifically in the areas of open pit mining, minerals processing and bulk material handling.
Contact: malcolmlewis@bonfiglioli.com.au