Gearboxes drop in to upgrade mill capacity

David Brown Engineering has supplied five large gearboxes and pinions to JSW Steel in India in the first stage of a major upgrading of the company's hot strip mill facilities completed during April and May 2006. This initial project will increase capacity by 40% and other planned improvements are designed to progressively double throughput at the facilities. The plant near Bellary in the province of Karnataka has six finishing mills with 5000hp motors and these motors have been upgraded to 7000hp.

The replacement gearboxes and pinions from David Brown Engineering have the same footprint and critical dimensions as the existing ones, enabling a 'drop-in' solution.

This caused the minimum disruption to production when they were installed together with new motors as well as obviating the main obstacle to upgrading given that reorganisation of the mill equipment layout invariably involves monumental cost and long term disruption.

Close co-operation between JSW Steel and David Brown and all the partners in the project has been the hallmark of the operation and experts from the engineering company made a number of visits to the plant to discuss the project, offer technical advise, take measurements and work in conjunction with other major suppliers who were involved in motors and couplings and in overall consultancy.

In fact representatives of David Brown Engineering visited the plant to take measurements and plan for the project five times in conjunction with the other three partners in the project: main contractor VAI (UK), motor manufacturer Siemens, Germany and couplings producer Maina, Italy.

A good example of the spirit of co-operation that characterises the project was the fitting of couplings before dispatch of the gearboxes from Huddersfield.

In the original plan the Italian-built Maina couplings would have been fitted on site in India, but it was judged that critical installation time could be reduced on site by first shipping the couplings to the UK.

Furthermore David Brown Engineering supplied services of commissioning engineering, flying out to India to supervise the installation of the gearboxes, and in the run-up to the operation team meetings are being held at VAI offices in Sheffield.

The installation took place in one planned 5 week shutdown with the actual installation performed by JSW Steel.

VAI and Siemens were also present to oversee the installation of the motors.

The existing plant was purchased in its entirety from the United States a decade ago and the gearboxes were reaching the end of their natural life.

The plant, in the remote province of Karnataka in southern India, is part of the JSW Group, in turn part of India's fourth largest business conglomerate, the Jindal Organisation with interests in mining, carbon steel, stainless steel, power and oxygen and currently valued at US $4 billion.

The group was founded in 1964 by OP Jindal who from humble beginnings, rose to become one of India's leading industrialists and founded a steel making dynasty of world importance.

This particular step in investment and expansion is seen as a major opportunity for the group against the current backdrop of a world steel shortage.