Up-Rating of Electrical Drives in Mining Installations

Up-rating of electrical drives employed in mining installations, like mills and conveyors, is gaining interest for providing additional production capacity, process optimization in an effective way considering time, efficiency and economic factors while keeping reliability. This paper presents a review of the technical issues to be faced, concerning conceptual analysis, decision-making and different technical aspects, as well as the interaction between end users, consultants and manufacturers. After analysis of new operating conditions and trade-offs, decision making has to keep the margin factors for safety and reliability. For illustrating the main issues related with an uprating of an electrical drive, an example for a grinding line with a gearless mill drive is shown.