Operating on a mine leaves little room for error or downtime. In a harsh environment, robust, long-lasting solutions ensure continuous operations and peace-of-mind. 

As a proud supplier to the mining industry, Varispeed understands the need for high performance and proven reliability and takes great pride in providing the most robust solutions for the most demanding applications. 

Varispeed has spent years sourcing only the best quality products for the quality for the local market and is the approved distributor for leading brands such as Yaskawa, Solcon, OBO and Motrona in Southern Africa. 

In a recent success story, Varispeed supplied a Solcon soft starter (600kw, 525V) to a mining conglomerate in South Africa. This unit is installed underground and are used to start/stop the dewatering pumps. According to M.A Mashilo, Regional Manager for Varispeed Gauteng, the company looked to replace its previous components with new state-of-the-art technology. 

“The solution was required to operate in a dusty environment, filled with condensation,” he notes.

The team opted for the Solcon RVS-DN soft starter for this particular application. “This heavy-duty soft starter is robust, reliable and is designed to operate in the most demanding environments. It is therefore ideal for applications in the mining and marine industries”. 

Features include: a robust construction, advanced start/stop characteristics, a user-friendly set up and operation. “It’s able to operate in temperatures up to 60°C with a 45-65HZ auto-tracking frequency range and can be operated without the need for a bypass contractor (at 50°C up to 820A),” says Mashilo.

In the end, the RVS-DN received the stamp of approval. “To date, the project has run smoothly and the RVS-DN is proving itself in this demanding application. Based on the results, the customer is replacing all their pumps with the RVS-DN range of soft starters.”