This hot reversing slabbing mill is one of the key plant components of the Rolled Products Division of Comalco Aluminium at Yennora. As part of a mill uprate program, a new main drive gearbox was installed to enable a doubling of the mill drive power capacity to 2 x 2500 kW. The increased power capacity was essential to handle the increased throughput planned for the mill in the years ahead. Substantial cracks were found at several critical locations in the thick bearing support walls of the new gearbox shortly after commissioning. Extensive drilling and grinding operations was needed to remove the cracks. Comalco needed to assess the impact of these conditions on the fatigue life, structural integrity and suitability of the gearcase.
Sinclair Knight Merz was engaged to perform this structural integrity evaluation and undertook both finite element stress analysis and strain gauge testing of the gearcase for the specified continuous and peak torque operating loads. Fatigue evaluations and fracture assessments were subsequently performed to establish the expected fatigue life of the gearcase. Comalco was provided with a timely, independent and fully documented assessment of the expected long term structural integrity of the gearcase. This was later used in negotiations with the German gearcase manufacturer to resolve the outstanding gearcase structural adequacy issues.
The participation of Sinclair Knight Merz in the work at Comalco provides your project with the following benefits:
- fatigue life and structural integrity expertise
- experience in advanced stress analysis and testing.