Power Transmission Engineering Magazine
www.powertransmission.com/articles/4460

Holcim Relies on Nord Drivesystems Technology

December 19, 2012
Holcim, one of the largest producers of construction material worldwide, relies on drive technology from Nord Drivesystems. In its cement plants and concrete factories in Croatia, geared motors of different performance classes are used. Heavy duty is no problem for the Nord products - they are ready for any challenge. That is why both companies have now completed a three-year-contract for the exchange of older drives. Holcim Ltd.,for a good ten years, the corporation has been represented in Croatia with six concrete factories, a cement plant and three quarry systems. From the beginning, Holcim Croatia has mostly used drive solutions from Nord Drivesystems for the belt conveyor systems used in these facilities.

Nord drive systems are suitable for all types of conveyors and for almost all grades, lengths and speeds. Variable speed geared motors with frequency inverters are used for small bucket elevators, whilst unregulated single speed geared motors provide the higher performance required for larger systems. With an efficiency of about 95 percent, the gear units are available in a shaft, foot or flange mounted versions to suit the application. The maximum capacity is up to 200 kW with a maximum torque of 50,000 Nm.

Nord drive solutions are used for all transportation and conveyor tasks in cement production. Some of the drives are designed for operation in explosive environments according to ATEX Zone 21 or 22. Primarily mid-size geared motors are used: Helical, parallel and bevel geared motors up to 45 kW, mostly with protection class IP55, depending on the respective task. A plus point for the difficult requirements is the UNICASE concept from Nord: All bearing seats and sealing surfaces are machined in a single stage on the latest CNC machining centers. The benefits include extremely high reliability and exceptional sealing with safe handling of even the largest torques combined with high axial and radial load bearing, quiet running, low maintenance and exceptionally long operating life.