January 2009Maintenance, Test & Measurement, Calibration
Control Techniques drives for Serbian mine project.
Heavy duty AC drives from Control Techniques have been chosen for a major open-cast coal mining project in Kostolac, 90 km from Belgrade.
The government owned Te-Ko Kostolac mine is the second largest open-cast coal mine in Serbia and directly supplies an adjacent coal-fired power station. The application is for the drive and control of a massive two-part conveyor system, used to remove the earth and rock scoured from above the coal seams.
System architecture
Four 315 kW heavy duty Unidrive SP free-standing drives have been supplied, each fitted with a Profibus module that communicates directly with the central PLC and ESA HMI panels. The compact size and easily installed and maintained modular format of the drives were key factors in the selection of these drives, which are installed in limited space in the clean electrical switch-room mounted on the conveyor station.
The four drives operate in Control Techniques’ unique open loop RFC mode, and control two pinch-drums, with one 315 kW, 1490 rpm motor at each end of each drum. The control system monitors the load and adjusts the drives’ speed to ensure an even distribution of motor power.
System components
The Unidrive SP cubicle drives, built at Control Techniques’ factory in Newtown, Powys, span the range from 90 to 675 kW, offering customers a simple AC-in AC-out solution, whilst retaining the technical flexibility and performance that has become the benchmark of the Unidrive SP range.
The free-standing cubicles offer a pre-engineered solution with a small space envelope and competitive pricing. Yet, customers can be certain of a robust field-proven product that also offers industry-leading communications, feedback options, multiple operating modes – including energy-saving four quadrant operation – and a high level of programmability.
System operation
Most of the time, the conveyors run at full speed, 50 Hz/4,5 m/sec, but operation at reduced speed during periods of light load is possible to save energy. The system has also been designed to operate on three, or even two, motors in the event of a failure.
Diggers load earth onto the 1,6 metre wide loading conveyor system, which carries the load onto a dispensing conveyor. Both conveyors can be moved to where they are needed by a caterpillar system and the total length can be up to 2 kilometres. The load during the 24 hours a day operation is fairly even, depending on the nature of the earth and rock being loaded, with capacity varying between 3000 and 5000 tonnes per hour.
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