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Gearbox Design Development for Central Mill Drives And Vertical Roller Grinding Mill Drives

Andreas Ldiger, Branch Sales Mgr. Cement & Minerals - A. Friedr. Flender AG February 13th 2007

Abstract New developments in drive systems for Ball Mills and Vertical Roller Mills are contributing to the constant efforts to increase Cement Plant efficiency and to reduce operating costs and initial investments. Besides the technical aspect of selecting a drive system, the initial cost, cost of installation, cost of commissioning as well as cost of operation are factors in the decision making process for a particular drive system. Introduction Horizontal and Vertical Grinding mills play a key role in the production of cement. In cement plants the grinding process for producing raw meal, grinding clinker and slag are the most energy - intensive machines in the manufacturing process. Grinding processes account for 50 to 60% of the process engineering requirements for electrical energy. A choice of drive for tube mills is the central drive. With central mill drives the mill is driven from the end wall. Since the output of the gear unit is directly coupled to the mill, considerable torques need to be generated by the gear unit. Within the cement production the grinding process is the most energy demanding part; attention has therefore to be paid to the design of the drive system for cost and energy efficiency as well as operational availability and quick availability of components. A new line of planetary reducers have been developed to account for growing mill sizes and torque requirements. The new multi planetary concept is capable of delivering mill powers in excess of 6,000 kW.

1079-9931/07/$25.00 2007 IEEE

Also, the further development of the roller grinding mill and the industrial introduction of high pressure comminution have achieved energy savings in the grinding process of between 30 and 50%. Gear unit manufacturers have also played a great part in this trend; they were faced with the challenge of providing gear units with substantially higher ratings and at the same time had to find new drive solutions to fulfil the increased demands on availability and service life. For this application, A new concept in planetary design has been introduced which transmits mill powers of up to 8.000 kW. The new Central Mill Drive With the new gear reducer, the tube mill is driven from the end wall of the mill. Very large gear units are needed even for smaller mill ratings because of the lack of a gear ratio at the girth gear stage. Planetary gear reducers have for years proved satisfactory for this type of drive up to 9.500 KNm Mill torque. Compact Central Mill Gear Reducers are available for torques, which exceed the range of normal parallel shaft and planetary gear reducers. The increased number and the arrangements of the planetary wheels in the main stage ensure high contact ratios with low specific loadings.

Typical mounting conditions for these reducers are; foot mounted design with either a solid output shaft or a flanged output shaft.

The above table shows typical central mill reducer sizes required in todays market

New developments in casting technology and reducer design provides good access to the high speed shaft for easy maintenance although the input shaft can even be positioned in multiples of 90 from the center of the unit. The required total ratio of the gear unit can be adjusted in very fine steps in the first helical stage and in the two planetary stages. Larger changes of ratio are possible at low costs by changing of the first input stage only. This provides a user friendly mill drive which can be modified at low costs. The 1st planetary stage is equipped with 3 planets while the 2nd planetary stage contains 6 planets which are all positioned in TOKAT-Bronze slide bearings. The advantages of use of TOKAT-Bronze compared to standard slide bearings are higher allowable surface pressure which increases the operational reliability of the gear reducer and provides bearings which are non-sensitive to mixed friction. The TOKAT-Bronze bearings have been used successfully for many years in the High Speed and Marine industries. The gear reducer can be supplied with a max. ratio of 100:1. This allows the use of Electric motors with speeds up to 1.500 rpm using 4-poles instead of 6-poles. This results in a cost savings of approx. 25 % with an example of a 4000 kW motor with 6.6kV. The operational reliability of a gear reducer is widely depending on a balanced utilization of all gear stages involved. In case of the Central Mill Gear Reducer, this is accomplished by means of an optimized ratio distribution of i1 up to 4.0 in the first helical stage, i2 up to 7.5 in the 1st planetary stage and i3 up to 3.5 in the 2nd planetary stage. Smaller ratios in the planetary stage mean lower manufacturing costs for the planetary gears. The possibility of a thru-shaft pipe from input shaft to output shaft with a rotary union eliminates the need for a Scuffing box, thus resulting in savings in investment and providing an oil tight gear reducer. This is another design carry-over; this time from the Wind Turbine industry to accommodate the cable necessary for pitch adjustment of the blades. For Mill Drives, water and compressed air can be led through the gear unit and low speed coupling into the mill body.

Testing Extensive testing has been conducted before all load calculations and gear unit ratings could be confirmed. The picture below shows two Central Mill Gear reducers at a 7.500 kW back to back test bench, undergoing a full load long term test run of 2 times 24 hours at 100% nominal load and 150% of nominal load.

The gear reducers shown were operated with a Generator along with the order related oil station at a speed of 990 rpm. The maximum testing torque at the output shaft was 3.600 kW, equalling 150% of the gear reducers nominal torque. The specific items recorded during the test run where: oil temperature (over time), oil pressure, oil flow, speed, torque, load distribution factor among the planetary wheels as well as the load distribution factor over the width of the individual tooth flank, contact patterns, and noise behaviour of the gear reducers. 100% contact pattern was achieved as shown in these pictures

The results of the load test also confirmed all measured conditions to be within normal operating tolerances for Central Mill Drive applications.

The concept for Vertical Roller Grinding Mill Drives In a further effort to optimize plant effeciences, the same design technology for the low speed, 6-planet planetary stage has been incorporated both into the central mill and vertical roller mill drive designs. This standardization allows for more common parts for a given cement plant which will reduce the overall maintenance costs. Further to these features, the new Vertical Roller Mill Reducer design is more compact and smaller in diameter than conventional VRM drives with a long coupling Sleeve which provides less relative movement. The gear reducer flange and the planetary carrier are cast in one-piece eliminating costs and making the final component design stronger. Conclusion This new concept for high torque gear reducers means that the gear industry has developed a generation of powerful drives for ball mills and vertical mills The new gear units are characterized by the fact that they are based on proven components which in every case are now defining the state of the art. The complete series have been standardized which, in addition to production advantages, also entails advantages in the availability of parts.

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