Power transmission components distributor BMG Drives, a division of Bearing Man Group (BMG), was appointed last month to exclusively represent power transmission components supplier Rexnord’s Falk V-Class drives range of industrial gear units used in the mining industry in sub-Saharan Africa.

BMG mentions that the Falk V-Class drives reflect the latest innovations in gear unit design and incorporate resourceful features, which deliver reliability and durability in the most demanding bulk materials handling applications.

“The conveying of bulk materials almost always takes place in aggressive environments and remote locations. Dust, heat, humidity and corrosive elements, coupled with shock loads, high starting inertias, high-output speeds and external static loads, create a combination of extreme operating conditions, which challenge the dependability of conveyor drives,” says BMG technical director Dave Russell.

He adds that the Falk V-Class gear drives portfolio, which extends the company’s engineering solutions, is a perfect fit with BMG’s core value of providing positive contributions to its customers’ process productivity.

“BMG’s confidence in the reliability and performance of this range is evident in a three year, heavy duty warranty,” Russell points out.

Falk V-Class gear drives deliver higher output torque densities than conventional units, superior thermal performance, enhanced lubrication and optimised bearing life. These gear drives are designed with adjustable installation footprints to simplify swap out of other brands and a horizontally split housing for ease of on-site maintenance.

A heavy duty ductile iron housing replaces the industry standard and less robust grey cast iron benchmark. The housing has an identical top and bottom, making the unit fully invertible, states the company.

Russell highlights that this range, with 29 size increments, takes torque ratings up to 341 000 Nm, enabling the Falk V-Class to more precisely meet application requirements. Devel-opment is currently under way to extend this range to higher torque capacities.

“Nickel chrome molybdenum steel helical gears are cut to a 25° pressure angle to increase shock load sustainability. The case-hardened and ground teeth are produced to an American Gear Manufacturers Association 12 high-quality standard to increase the strength and durability of the gear through pitting resistance. All gearing, including the precision ground spiral bevels, have improved geometry to ensure full contact underload,” he points out.

He notes that the oil feed passages in the housing ensure positive bearing lubrication and enhance the cooling effect achieved by cooling fins cast into the housing. These features, together with axial cooling fans, maintain the lubricant at tolerable operating temperatures. This ensures effective boundary layer lubrication between mating gear teeth and bearing raceways.

The housing design also keeps lubricating oil present at the bearings at all times, including cold starting. Conventional gear unit designs, where bearings start up without lubricant, have the disadvantage of high wear rates and a reduced bearing life.

The horizontally split housing of the Falk V-Class allows easy assembly and disassembly for maintenance of bearings and gearing, with- out having to remove the reducer from its loca- tion. Removable and customisable feet facil-itate easy interchangeability of other gear units.

Russell highlights that the reliable compon-ents, which ensure long-term operation, are standard. These include magnum seals, with a no-leak design. A purgeable grease chamber and contact seal also eliminate oil leaks and prevent the ingress of dirt.

For extreme conditions of ambient oper-ating temperature environments, the patented DuraPlate self-contained cooling system is available as an option. This system requires no external power or water supply, yet has the equivalent effect of an airblast external heat exchanger or water-fed oil sump cooling coil, the company points out.

BMG is able enhance the drive system with a full range of mounting fabrications. These include traditional foot-mounted base- plates, swing base designs, alignment-free lantern versions, top motor mount, motor bracket and integrated International Electro-mechanical Commission motor flange designs. These arrangements can be supplied with a comprehensive range of electric motors and fluid, flexible and rigid coupling drive components.

The company’s 200 kW load test rig, which is located at BMG Park in Johannesburg, has been developed by the technical resources team in response to demand from local industry for absolute reliability from new and reconditioned gearboxes. This energy efficient system uses the latest technology to transmit and apply loads of up to 30 000 Nm, with the lowest energy consumption.

The load test rig has also been equipped with Shock Pulse Method condition monitor-ing equipment to ensure increased energy effi- ciency and total reliability. This system doubles as a ‘true to life’ demonstration platform to prove the power of condition-based main-tenance for plant and machine reliability.