Quartzelec win major South African contracts worth over £1 million
Work on two major projects worth more than £1 million is being carried out at Rugby for two South African mining companies.
The first project, which will take about 10 months to complete, is for the Lonmin Western Platinum mine shaft near Johannesburg and is designed for man winding duty; raising and lowering personnel from the working mine face.
“The original machine was supplied by GEC in the 1970s without a spare, and the existing equipment is now coming to the end of its life,” said Neal Parkin, Quartzelec’s DC sales manager.
“The customer’s plan is to install the new spare armature at the earliest opportunity so that the original armature can be taken out and refurbished.”
The spare armature has a 9 feet diameter and 25-inch core length to fit a DLC 108/50 motor. “We have got the original design so we are updating it to bring it into the 21st century,” said Neal.
“It has to conform to the existing parameters such as the length, diameter, and the electrical configurement, but we are changing other areas where technology has moved on.
“For example, we are redesigning the coils with more copper which gives the ability for more power. We shall also supply new connections and provide kapton covered conductors.”
The second project is for an even bigger spare armature for a man-and-rock winder designed to bring both men and ore from the bottom of Northam Platinum’s shaft north of Johannesburg.
The original armature, for a DLC 120M99 machine, was built by GEC in the late 1980s and has a 10 feet diameter and 39-inch core length. As with the previous project the brand new machine is being built from the original designs but will be uprated by implementing new technologies.
TS Metals are also involved in part of the manufacturing work.