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Need for Speed: Hydraulic motor boosts efficiency in potash mine |
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Written by REM Staff
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Work output in a potash mine is dependent on machines with high
mobility and production efficiency. As the world’s demand increases for
potash that is used primarily as an agriculture fertilizer,
Saskatchewan’s PotashCorp has stepped up production at the company’s
Rocanville, Sask., mining facility with a continuous bore mining
machine that extracts some 1,200 tons of potash ore per hour.
 Propelling the massive four-rotor mining machine, weighing in at 250 tons, are two Eaton
Hydrokraft 250-cc motors that are the heart of the hydraulic system on
the X CEL 44 Series miner built by Prairie Machine & Parts
Manufacturing Ltd. in Saskatoon.
PotashCorp has relied on Regina’s HyPOWER Systems Inc., an Eaton
distributor, to provide hydraulics muscle and hydraulics commonality
for its mining machinery. When the need for an additional miner became
evident, PotashCorp asked HyPOWER to redesign hydraulic circuitry for
the machine and to work with Prairie Machine on fit, functionality and
integration requirements.
Delving into the project, HyPOWER technical sales representative Ken
Pagan and mechanical engineering technologist Cal Ganshorn called on
Eaton’s Lyle Meyer, Hydrokraft product manager, for a two-speed
hydraulic motor recommendation.
“We explained to Lyle that the motors would need to increase tram speed
over PotashCorp’s current miners that move at a snail’s pace through
the mine,” Ganshorn says, “plus fit into a tight envelope on the miner.
“In addition, the motors would need to default to maximum displacement,
in the event that hydraulic system pilot pressure was lost.”
Meyer proposed Eaton’s compact Hydrokraft two-speed motor for the
application, after confirming with Eaton’s Wehrheim, Germany,
manufacturing facility that a customized version would default to
maximum displacement, not minimum displacement, as does the standard
version, when pilot pressure is lost. Ganshorn specified the custom
Hydrokraft motors into his hydraulic system design proposal that also
included Eaton DG4S4 valves, V Series vane pumps and a Series 2 piston
pump that would operate auxiliary functions.
PotashCorp liked the design proposal and gave HyPOWER its endorsement
to design the miner’s hydraulic system around the custom Hydrokraft
motor.
Following assembly and testing, the miner was completely disassembled
in order to be transported down the mine shaft. Simultaneous with these
projects was the task of carving out rock 3,200 feet below the
Saskatchewan prairie in order to build a shop in which to reassemble
the 38-foot-long by 22-foot-wide miner piece by piece. Overall, the
multimillion-dollar investment is already paying off for PotashCorp.
The machine has been up and running since November 2009 and is
significantly faster than the elder PotashCorp miners.
“Our hydraulic system design with the Eaton Hydrokraft motors has
enabled the new X CEL miner to increase tram speed by 40 percent,”
Ganshorn notes.
The increased tram speed saves two hours of tram time and more, says
PotashCorp’s Cecil Huber, general maintenance foreman underground. “The
time savings frees up the operator to help with setup sooner and allows
us to move the electrical set that much sooner as well,” he says.
“Eaton’s Hydrokraft motors give us twice the drive torque to the
tracks, which results in better control. Tram pressures are lower,
resulting in lower operating temperatures in the hydraulic system.”
PotashCorp plans to add five more X CEL miners equipped with Eaton products to its Rocanville machinery lineup.
This is an edited article provided by Eaton’s Hydraulic Group. For more information, visit www.eaton.com.
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