New Danfoss VLT® Decentral Drive E cient, reliable and powerful

Mechanical drives
factory moves to Leeds
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SIEMENS IS moving its mechanical
drives (MD) factory from Bradford
to a new purpose-built site in
Leeds, with more space and
improved facilities.
Since Siemens bought Flender’s
gear and gear-motor business for
€1.2bn in 2005, it has been
investing in the operation. The
new 4,645m 2 (50,000ft 2 ) factory
Nadin: relentless commitment
has 30% more production space,
making it easier to optimise
production cell layouts, as well as materials and handling flow. The
site, in Stourton, will be used to assemble gears, geared motors,
motors and couplings.
The move has been overseen by Simon Nadin, who was
appointed general manager of the MD division in July, replacing
Nick Garthwaite, who has left the Siemens group. Nadin, who has
been with Siemens since 1998, was previously based at the
company’s drives factory in Congleton.
“Siemens is committed to manufacturing in the UK and the
mechanical gears aspect is a key element in the drive train,” he says.
“This new facility will not only enhance our manufacturing capability;
it will also be used to train apprentices and hold technical seminars.”
Nadin believes that with the right strategy and investment, it is
possible to be successful in the current economic climate. “A
relentless commitment to process improvement is an essential part
of our business DNA,” he states. “Without this focus, we open the
door to competition.”
The factory will be opened officially in early 2011.
MV inverter is ‘world’s most efficient’
THE BRAZILIAN
manufacturer WEG
has produced a
medium-voltage
inverter which, it
claims, is the world’s
most efficient and
reliable, with a 99% efficiency and a 22-year
MTBF (mean time between failures). The 8,000hp (5,996kW),
4.16kV system is also WEG’s largest-ever MV inverter.
The 12-pulse inverter has been supplied to Weir Pumps,
which is using it to drive a 7,500hp (5,593kW) WEG motor
used to test mud drilling pumps at its laboratory in Dallas,
Texas. These tests, which ensure that the pumps will support
real loads during operation, have not been performed before,
because of their complexity, risk and high costs.
“In a single stroke, we have doubled the output of our MV
inverter range to 8,000hp,” says Marek Lukaszczyk, WEG’s
European marketing manager. “The 99% efficiency is an
average 1% more efficient than that delivered by any other MV
inverter on the market – and this can mean an economy of up
to $50,000 per year for this user.”
The MVW voltage-source inverter drive has two layers of
control, rather than the usual three or five layers. It is driving a
four-pole 46Hz motor, rotating at 1,371 rpm.
www.weg.net
8 November/December 2010 www.drives.co.uk