Drive solution for stacker reclaimer
February 2024
Motion Control & Drives
Hägglunds Drives South Africa, a Bosch Rexroth Company, recently completed a retrofit project on the bucket wheel of a stacker reclaimer at Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT). The project, acquired via a tender process, was realised late in 2022 and entailed replacing a gearbox drive solution with a direct drive solution from Hägglunds Drives SA.
Installation of the drive unit commenced at the end of August 2023 with commissioning conducted in late September. In addition to supplying the equipment, Hägglunds Drives SA’s scope of work involved fitting the motor to the main shaft of the bucket wheel and positioning the drive unit on the slew, with all relevant piping installed.
“While we were awarded the contract via tender, we have a long-standing relationship with RBCT, having provided solutions and services to them over the years,” says Ashley Mohun, sales engineer at Hägglunds Drives SA.
RBCT was established in 1976 as a 12-million ton export terminal and, over the years, expanded to its current 91-million ton capacity export terminal providing coal to the global market. “Hägglunds Drives systems are incorporated in our tipplers and stacker reclaimers due to their high availability and high reliability,” says Kubendren Naidoo, general manager of Asset Management at RBCT. “The terminal prides itself on being a world-class, efficient, and technologically advanced terminal, and Hägglunds Drives solutions offer high efficiency, reliability and availability that ensure fast turnaround times of trains and vessels.
“Hägglunds Drives’systems eliminate delays and unnecessary stops and ensure that we get the maximum useful life of our equipment,” adds Naidoo. “They also ensure maximum availability, especially on our stacker reclaimers where we use the Hägglunds Drives CBM motor.
“The Hagglunds Drives team provides a professional and excellent service to RBCT,” he continues. “The technical teams from Hägglunds Drives and RBCT work together to ensure that the systems work efficiently, from concept and design phases through to implementation. The team from Hägglunds Drives provides an excellent aftersales service, with no challenges envisaged or experienced.”
The direct drive solution installed on the stacker reclaimer is accompanied by a 12-month warranty on parts and workmanship, and a service agreement has been tailored to meet the requirements of RBCT. “RBCT can be assured of our commitment and ongoing support”, concludes Greg Daniels, service engineer at Hagglunds Drives SA.
Further reading:
Smarter motor technology for high-performance industrial automation
Adroit Technologies
Motion Control & Drives
Adroit Technologies is bringing Mitsubishi Electric’s EM-A series permanent magnet motors to Africa, offering servo-like speed and position control at a lower cost by combining patented sensorless control with the FR-E800 inverter to eliminate encoders while achieving IE5 efficiency.
Read more...
A smarter approach to simplifying motion architecture
Motion Control & Drives
n motion system design, the wiring and drive placement between motor and drive are often decided by default, yet they shape a machine’s cost, footprint and adaptability. Kollmorgen sets out how single-cable and decentralised architectures simplify the cabinet.
Read more...
Robotic case packer achieves 99% uptime
Rockwell Automation
Motion Control & Drives
DCC Automation designed a new robotic case packer for a nutrition supplement manufacturer using delta robots and a unified Rockwell Automation control platform, cutting changeover time from 45 minutes to 5 minutes, and achieving 99 to 99,5% uptime against the previous 10% per-shift downtime.
Read more...
igus puts 3D-printed wear materials to the test
igus
Motion Control & Drives
A new igus white paper compares its tribological iglidur 3D-printing materials directly with conventional POM, reporting lower wear, more stable friction and up to ten times longer service life in gear testing for customised, low-volume and replacement components.
Read more...
SEW-EURODRIVE’s expanded local engineering capability
SEW-EURODRIVE
Editor's Choice Motion Control & Drives
At Electra Mining Africa, SEW-EURODRIVE demonstrated how its expanded local engineering capability, digital technologies and lifecycle support strategy help customers improve reliability, energy efficiency and total cost of ownership across the full life of their drive assets.
Read more...
Latest Danfoss automation drive
Bearing Man Group t/a BMG
Motion Control & Drives
BMG has launched the Danfoss iC7-Automation enclosed variable speed drive range in South Africa, backed by significant local stockholding of 400 V models up to 710 kW, approved warranty workshops, and DrivePro digital asset management support.
Read more...
Severe-duty workhorses powering mining
Motion Control & Drives
Mining machines such as rock crushers, pumps and conveyors need motors that combine high torque with robust enclosures, seals and cooling. WEG Africa explains how severe-duty motors deliver more than a decade of reliable performance in harsh conditions while meeting modern energy-efficiency standards.
Read more...
Looking beyond the spec sheet when choosing motion architecture
Motion Control & Drives
When machine builders focus only on torque, speed and price, engineering time, integration effort and long-term maintainability get overlooked. Kollmorgen explains how thinking at the system level, not the component level, leads to better motion architecture choices.
Read more...
Economy drive system closes the drive gap in the entry-level segment
Beckhoff Automation
Editor's Choice Motion Control & Drives
Beckhoff has launched an economy drive system pairing its new AX1000 servo drive and AM1000 servomotor with the AF1000 dual-axis variable frequency drive on a shared EtherCAT platform, targeting series machines and price-sensitive markets without sacrificing TwinCAT integration or functional safety.
Read more...
SEW-EURODRIVE showcases modernisation and lifecycle support at Electra Mining Africa 2026
SEW-EURODRIVE
Motion Control & Drives
At Electra Mining Africa 2026, SEW-EURODRIVE showed how it has expanded beyond equipment supply into integrated engineering solutions, plant modernisation and long-term lifecycle support for mining and industrial operators across Africa.
Read more...