ABB Case Study Note ACS 1000 Variable Speed Drive Enhances Process Control at Mining Plant

Case note ACS 1000 variable speed drive improves process control at mining plant

ABB‘s ACS 1000 variable speed drive was retrofitted to a conveyor belt at the Mine Los Colorados in Chile.

With the existing gearbox, the nominal motor speed was not high enough in or- der to reach the required speed for the conveyor.

By installing the ACS 1000 variable speed drive, the existing gearbox did not need to be replaced and the speed could be increased by almost 25 percent.

View of the conveyor driven by an ACS 1000 retrofitted to an existing induc- tion motor of 400 k W located on a platform at the top end of the conveyor.

Background Highlights The Mine Los Colorados is situated 700 km north of San- Improved process control tiago/Chile. It belongs to the mining company CAP Mineria – Motor problems eliminated Compañia Minera del Pacifico S.A. (CMP). Operation started Longer lifetime of conveyor equipment in 1995. The actual reserve of iron ore with 46.3 percent iron Minimized downtime content is 223 million tons, which corresponds to a resource Lower impact on electrical network of more than 30 years.

After crushing up the material it flows to a deagglomerator and through a magnetic concentrator which finally separates the material in rejection and product material. The product material is loaded on trains and then transported to the pel- letizing plant.

The ACS 1000 drives a conveyor belt which takes material from the stockpile and lifts it to the platform from where the train is loaded.

Challenge With the existing gearbox, the nominal motor speed was not high enough to reach the nominal throughput of the conveyor belt which takes material from the stockpile and lifts it to the train platform. The motor needed to operate over 50 Hz in or- der to reach the required speed for the conveyor. This speed was achieved at a frequency of 63 Hz.