To best meet urgent local needs and harsh conditions with massively improved lead times, SEW-EURODRIVE is on a mission to localise its modular drive concept for a variety of industrial drive applications. Jonathan McKey, national and Africa manager for business development, sales and marketing, highlights a few of the advantages this presents to the power generation sector.
SEW-EURODRIVE’s expanded local capability from its new Aeroton facility will include the assembly of its latest X.e Series industrial gear units (IGs); its modular air-cooled condenser units (MACCs); standard, VSD- and servo-driven gearmotors; along with customer-specific drivetrain packages that, for the power industry, include conveyor, cooling towers and ash drives; girth-gear solutions; fans, pump drives and a host of other purpose-built modern and modular solutions.
X.e Series gear units
Modular X.e Series units, the latest evolution of the company’s IG range, are now even more robust, reliable, efficient and easy to maintain than their predecessors. Significantly increasing the number of possible torque/speed combinations and fine-size graduations enables solutions to be custom-built to precisely suit clients’ specifications.
Additional modular features and options include motor adaptors; integral and load-sharing backstops; various sealing and shaft systems; and many more, all of which add to the ease of use and reliability of X.e Series drive solutions. “Conveyor drives in the power industry are often required to operate in extremely dusty and very hot or cold conditions. Due to the new thermally optimised housings, along with the contact-free taconite sealing system, these drives offer excellent reliability under these conditions,” McKey notes.
The X.e Series offers an optimised choice of gear unit sizes, reduced gear unit weight and sufficient centre distances. In addition, when the drive needs to be operated at low speed, for example during maintenance, the drive package can be equipped with a directly mounted slow-speed auxiliary drive to advance the system while the main drive is switched off.
The new X.e range is also ideal for girth gear applications, where the new-generation units have become the global standard for use with SEW-EURODRIVE’s segmented mill drive solution.
MACC Series drives
MACC drives from SEW-EURODRIVE are purpose-designed for driving the modern fan-based, air-cooled condenser (ACC) systems used in steam-driven power generation plants. ACCs need to generate huge airflows to cool and condense exhaust steam from turbines.
“Our Modular Air-Cooled Condenser (MACC) drives have specific optimisations to make them tailormade to best suit these applications,” McKey explains.
These include a stiffer case with built-in cooling veins for improved cooling, as well as SEW-EURODRIVE’s internal extended bearing distance (EBD) system, which better enables the gearbox bearings to accommodate the very high axial and radial forces transferred through the fan and the drive shaft.
“We have also built-in a maintenance brake so that when servicing is required, wind from the outside can be prevented from turning the fan and the main shaft, making the boxes easier to maintain in situ,” says McKey. These are compelling reasons for power stations to replace faulty ACCs with SEW-EURODRIVE MACCs. “To make this easier for plant operators, we build customised adaptor plates to enable our design to be easily retrofitted as a direct replacement for any older-generation boxes currently in use. We also customise the output shaft length to perfectly match the ACC infrastructure on site and to establish the ideal fan position for maximum efficiency,” he adds.
The typical lead time for imported large industrial gearboxes from most gearbox OEMs can range anywhere from 18 to 24 weeks, or more. Once SEW-EURODRIVE’s assembly plant is complete and operational, it will be able to assemble most common modular designs locally at capacities of approximately three to five per week.
Electric motors, gearmotors and VSDs
Supporting drivetrains for the power generation and other industrial sectors are the SEW electric motors, which are available in the power range from 0,09 to 375 kW, and in efficiency classes IE1, IE3 and IE4. “Our IE3 DRN motors have replaced our IE2 range, and we can now also supply premium-efficiency DRU motors which meet IE4 efficiency requirements if requested,” notes McKey, adding that all of these motors are directly compatible with SEW-EURODRIVE’s modular approach to drive packages, either in combination with an industrial gear unit – as directly coupled to a helical or bevel-helical gear unit or as part of a complete drive package on a baseplate – or fully incorporated into a gearmotor unit.
In a clean and static free area of the new Johannesburg factory, SEW-EURODRIVE’s inverters, controllers and other electronic systems – including AGV’s – will also be locally assembled. These are tailored to control the speed, torque and application-specific functions of drive systems to get the most out of the company’s modular drivetrains and gearmotors, in terms of energy efficiency and functionality.
“Local assembly of these modular systems demonstrates SEW-EURODRIVE’s commitment to being part of solving South Africa’s long lead-time supply problems, while also attracting business from across the world from those experiencing long delays in meeting urgent needs,” McKey concludes.
| Tel: | +27 11 248 7000 |
| Email: | info@sew.co.za |
| www: | www.sew-eurodrive.co.za |
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