Motor rebuilt for Zambian copper mine

October 2016 News

Marthinusen & Coutts, a division of Actom, recently completed the rebuild of a 6550 kW 2 pole 11 000 V squirrel cage induction blower motor for a copper mine in Zambia.

According to Rob Melaia, engineering and technical executive at Marthinusen & Coutts, the motor had suffered a rotor failure, which caused collateral and associated damage to the stator and also considerable damage to the rotor laminations at the core extremities.

The repair work undertaken comprised a stator rewind, a rotor rebar, including a partial recore with new laminations, and the replacement of the P900 high strength rotor retaining rings.

Interestingly, the retaining rings are made from the same steel used for the largest turbo generator in the world and it was sourced by Marthinusen & Coutts from a leading German supplier in record time. “Working closely with our network of local and international partners facilitates access to specialists in all fields and allowed fast procurement of these specialised rings,” says Melaia.

Once the rebuild had been completed, the motor was tested at Marthinusen & Coutts’ facility which houses the third largest high speed dynamic balancing machine in sub-Saharan Africa. “We were able to perform high speed balancing as well as a full no-load run test to verify vibration and bearing integrity condition performance,” concludes Melaia.

For more information contact Richard Botton, Marthinusen & Coutts, +27 (0)11 607 1700, [email protected], www.mandc.co.za

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