Dust Control & Environment, Mining and Heavy Industries

Kinder keeps motors clean

A dirty motor can suffer from overheating, increased maintenance requirements and constant breakdowns, which is why Kinder Australia has designed a cleaning solution.

A dirty motor can suffer from overheating, increased maintenance requirements and constant breakdowns, which is why Kinder Australia has designed a cleaning solution.

Ensuring motors clean on a bulk handling site is often easier said than done. Dust, spillage and other potential messes can easily clog up a motor’s air flow fins and reduce its efficiency.

This was the case for a major paper mill that supplied around 600,000 tonnes of paper to publishers and commercial printers throughout Australia.

Located in Boyer, Tasmania, the mill produces around 40 per cent of the paper used in Australian news print production and aims to provide innovative in logistics and services systems.

“In the past, the mill had used a custom metal covering to prevent the pulp building up on the motors, which in turn would reduce airflow over the cooling fins, resulting in the bearing temperatures increasing significantly,” Neil Kinder, CEO of Kinder Australia says.

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“When one of the motors overheats, it needs to be rewound twice as frequently as a clean motor with free airflow. It was a necessary but inefficient manpower issue.”

In addition to the constant maintenance stoppages, the metal covers required regular washing, which lead to rust build up. This meant the covers needed to be replaced on an ongoing basis and became a costly option.

The mill reached out to Kinder Australia, a manufacturer of conveyor products, which installed its K-MotorShield Motor Covers at the site.

The K-MotorShield is designed out of lightweight and durable materials that can withstand a wide range of conditions common in bulk materials handling operations. They help prevent environmental debris and particles from destroying bearings, windings and brushed on drive motors, improving the overall motor longevity.

“The K-MotorShield Motor Covers are simple to install. Because they are made of fibreglass they are very lightweight and easy to manoeuvre,” Kinder says.

“They were put to good use at the mill, keeping the motors pulp-free and stopping them from running hot. They are a really fantastic low-maintenance and long-term return on investment product.”

The K-MotorShield motor covers have been used in hundreds of sites around Australia and across the globe.

Victoria’s Maryvale Mill is another example of a site taking advantage of the motor covers. The mill is Australia’s largest integrated fine paper-making and packaging papers complex, capable of producing more than 500,000 tonnes of paper a year. It operates three pulp mills, five paper making machines, a bleach plant, a pulp lapping machine, a finishing facility, and a waste paper processing plant.

Before it reached out to Kinder, the mill was not using any sort of cover for its motors. Because of the facility’s high material spillage rates, it began to experience regular winding failures, bearing failures and counterproductive motor temperatures due to the pulp contamination on the motor frames and air intakes.

Kinder says maintenance stops were becoming time-consuming and costly for the company.

“Installing the K-MotorShield Motor Covers couldn’t have been easier. It was a one-man job to fit because they are so lightweight and simple to snap on,” Kinder says.

“They have been very effective in minimising the pulp getting in the end covers and clogging up the fins that was causing the previous overheating problems. I predict significant cost savings for the mill in terms of money spent on the maintenance and repairs of the motors.”

Heavy duty for heavy industry

Kinder’s K-MotorShields are ideal for use on sites with demanding production needs that require equipment to operate at peak performance for as long as possible.

One such site is a quarry located in North Western Victoria, which specialises in producing high-quality basalt products, and was processing more than 100 tonnes of material per hour.

Routine site inspections found the motors under the secondary and tertiary crushers were unprotected, leading to a build-up of dust, rock and other debris. Over time, this resulted in the motor drives overheating, reducing the operating life of the motor.

The environmental factors also meant that in order to ensure maximum efficiency, maintenance work was required to manually clean the motors each day.

Kinder provided a number of K-MotorShield Motor Covers for installation at the site as a preventative measure to protect and improve the operational efficiency of the motors.

Following the installation, the quarry site found the motors were cleaner. This made maintenance easier, and reduced clean-up costs and downtime.

“The protective motors have reduced the amount of environmental debris building up on the motors, destroying bearings, windings and brushes on drive motors,” Kinder says.

“This effectively creates efficiency in airflow of up to 140 per cent through the cooling fins. Prevention of motors from overheating improving profitability through extended motor life was also a highlight for this installation.” 

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