keeping things on track at greenbushes
DESCRIPTION
Greenbushes Lithium mine is located adjacent to the town of Greenbushes in Western Australia, approximately 250 kilometers south of Perth. In the expansion project of the mine, VACON® NXC Low Harmonic AC drives were chosen to control new primary and regrind ball mills. VACON® Start-up services were also needed.TRANSCRIPT
Vacon case study Greenbushes Lithium operations
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Photo by Martin Versluis
Keeping things on tracK at greenbushes
cLient name: Greenbushes Lithium OperationsseGment: Mining & Metalsproducts used: VACON® NXC Low Harmonic / VACON® Spare PartsLocation: Fremantle, Western Australia
Vacon case study Greenbushes Lithium operations
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Key facts of cLient: • Greenbushes mine owned by Talison Lithium, a global leader in the field• Greenbushes mine currently being expanded to double production to 740,000 tonnes of lithium concentrate / 110,000 tonnes per annum of lithium carbonate equivalent • This amounts to 1/3 of world’s production of lithium• Production capacity will be equivalent to entire global market in 2010 m
Vacon case study Greenbushes Lithium operations
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chaLLenGe: • Primary and regrind ball mills delivered to Greenbushes in March 2012• Automation Alliance (the system integrator) chose two VACON® NXC Low Harmonic drives to control the speed of primary ball mill motor and regrind ball motor• Soon emerged that one of the AFE filters in the drive was tripping out on a fault
Vacon case study Greenbushes Lithium operations
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soLution:• VACON Service team bought in to get to bottom of problem• LCL Capacitors in AFE solution related to ‘V’ output discovered to be the issue• Filter had to be completely removed and sent to Vacon Pacific’s head office in Melbourne. Drives were able to continue operating as usual without affecting commissioning and production• LCL filters replaced by a VACON® Spare Parts team. Installation took place within 3 hours, minimizing down time.
Vacon case study Greenbushes Lithium operations
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testimoniaL:“We are very happy with how the Vacon drives are performing. In particular, the fact that the problem with the LCL filter only resulted in a minimum of downtime was a relief.”
Malcolm barnesPrinciple Electrical EngineerAutomation Alliance
for fuLL story:http://www.vacon.com/Vacon/media/References/Keeping-things-on-track-at-Greenbushes/
Story first published 8th April 2013