With the increased trade with Asia and the growing Australian economy, port facilities have greatly expanded in recent years. Stacker reclaimers are playing a key role in this, allowing stacking, blending and reclaiming of bulk material. This typical application involves long work hours in harsh environments and extremely heavy handling, so the choice of a resistant, efficient drive solution is critical. 

Thanks to its local Customer Application Engineering team, Bonfiglioli Australia has helped its customer develop a customized solution that can boost the machine, consume less energy and provide ultimate reliability. 

The two slews use three Bonfiglioli 316 planetary bevel gearbox slew drives, with one spare always available to minimize downtime and production loss. Installed to power a stacker reclaimer for the stockpile area at a major Australian ship loading facility this solution delivers safety, durability and performance.

“Despite the engineering complexity and specifying nothing but top-quality parts from Australia and Italy, Bonfiglioli’s drives were still more cost-effective than the older drives they were replacing,” says Bonfiglioli Lead Project Engineer, Harry Singh.

The slew drives are vital to operational efficiency, and to ensure smooth operation at all times, Bonfiglioli’s slew drives offer double backup for enhanced safety.

“In addition to the usual torque limiter found on most drives, these custom-engineered slew drives have a secondary encoder on the bevel stage. This has sensors to measure the drive at slow speeds and send data to the PLC [programmable logic controller], which will stop the drive if any problems are detected,” says Singh.

To provide additional safety for hassle-free operation, these drives feature a secondary sensing device (proxy sensors) that can identify any marginal speed errors between the motor and gearbox shaft. The sensors and all component parts of the drive were sourced from globally proven and ISO-certified brands.

Thanks to its highly qualified local team and its global capacities, Bonfiglioli has supplied extremely customized slew drives to suit the customer’s unique application requirements. “When designing these drives, our Customer Application engineers built upon a safe, durable, reliable base – the 316 slew drive – and added additional safety and efficiency features to suit the customer’s requirements,” says Bonfiglioli Australia Country Manager, Malcolm Lewis.  

All Bonfiglioli slew drives are easy to install and have precise torque control to ensure smooth, accurate performance in a wide range of applications.