Giant gearbox reconditioned

Fourth Quarter 2005 News & events

In what is believed to be one of the heaviest and most complex gearboxes to be reconditioned in South Africa to date, Hytec has overcome challenges ranging from a five-day delay to the daunting logistics involved. With a replacement value of about R15 million, the 32t gearbox belonging to Mittal Steel was repaired to original specifications for just under R2,2 m over 28 days.

To make this groundbreaking task feasible, Hytec established a complete workshop on site with comprehensive facilities that ranged from gear and bearing heaters to presses, a tool container, office container and washing machines. The project involved an astonishing 3500 loose parts, including 1300 bolts, 320 bearings, 56 spur gears at 50-80 kg each, 15 geared shafts, 15 hollow shafts, 22 planetary drive assemblies and 236 geared parts in total.

"We had to pay particular attention to strict quality control, especially in terms of bearing assembly tolerances before and after mounting," says Hytec Inland engineering director, Ulf Hassdenteufel, pointing out that the 4x90 kW unit is once again in full operation in a tube milling process.

"Our biggest achievement was to complete the task within the specified 33 days, despite that initial delay of five days," he comments. "It was rewarding to finally find a project that could really showcase the unrivalled capabilities of our engineers and the world-class equipment at their disposal."

For more information contact Willem Gijzelaar, Hytec Holdings, +27 (0) 11 979 4630.

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