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Ventilated turbo pulley saves on costs

30th September 2016

By: Robyn Wilkinson

Features Reporter

  

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Industrial equipment supplier Bearings International (BI) is enhancing the marketing of its ventilated turbo pulley (VTP), which has the ability to significantly reduce operating costs, in the South African crushing industry.

“This is a very high quality niche product that requires more capital expenditure than a standard pulley. However, it is able to significantly reduce operating costs by substantially decreasing the amount of unscheduled downtime in a plant as a result of equipment failure,” says senior product marketing manager Brian Tillie.

The VTP was developed by BI’s German supplier and introduced onto the South African market in 2013. However, BI is bolstering the marketing of the product in the country by tasking its branches with conducting surveys in the areas in which they operate to identify pulley-related problems being experienced at crushing plants. Thereafter, the company aims to approach these plants and highlight the benefits of the VTP. BI also offers after-sales services should a customer experience any problems with the product.

The pulley features a number of design benefits that make it “the most modern pulley on the market”, according to Tillie. Most significantly, the VTP is designed with grooves that suck in air as the pulley turns and this ventilation helps cool the belts to a temperature more than 17 °C lower than the temperature of belts using standard cast iron pulleys. It also reduces temperature in the ancilliary equipment, such as taper bushes and shafts, and thereby protects motor seals and bearings. In standard pulleys, the belts tend to heat up and this heat is transferred through to its bush and shaft, and, ultimately, to the motor, where it can start to impact on the sealing arrangements and ultimately cause bearing and motor failure, Tillie explains.

The VTP, thus, offers a longer life span compared with standard pulleys, reducing the rate and, therefore, the cost of pulley replacement in crushing plants, while also limiting the risk of costly unexpected downtime. In addition, the ventilation holes on the VTP prevent dust accumulation, which is a common problem on standard pulleys, causing belt slippage and additional heat build-up.

Tillie notes that the VTP is also more efficient than standard pulleys and has been tested at a speed of up to 130 m/s. It runs comfortably at 100 m/s and is balanced to manage this speed, while standard pulleys can achieve a maximum 60 m/s.

The VTP is a lightweight pulley cast made of GGG60 material, Tillie explains, noting that this is a higher grade of casting than the GGG20, which is used on standard pulleys. With significantly fine compact nodular cast iron, the GGG60 produces a pulley that weighs about half as much as standard pulleys, which can weigh up to 1 t.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

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