Hansen gear units speed up Corus line

Steelmakers Corus (Port Talbot) had been experiencing problems with their 42” edger drive system. The existing gear units were only providing 41 rpm when a drive speed of 59 rpm was required. Added to this, Corus’ Area Engineer Craig Dummer stated that “they were experiencing heavy vibration and ultimately, damage to the gear units”. When the gears failed, this left Corus vulnerable to transfer bar loss, due to large section gaps in the rollers preventing delivery of the slabs to the down stream process.

Hansen were called in and provided a new split drive gear system running the rollers at 59 rpm. Craig Dummer confirmed that “as the Hansen solution was to split the drive, utilising a matched pair of gearboxes, it is now far more economical than the original concept with a larger, single gearbox”. The operation is now running smoothly with higher efficiency units in place providing peace of mind to the whole operation.