Tajik Aluminium Ball Mill

On-site training from AuCom assists in successful commissioning for MVS starter.

TALCO is Tajikistan’s most important industrial operation, but reliability problems with the ball mills at the Tursunzade facility were incurring maintenance costs and reducing productivity. Working closely with technical experts from AuCom, TALCO installed an MVS soft starter and have improved not only productivity and reliability, but have also improved the mill’s operation.

The Tajik Aluminium Co. wanted to retrofit a MVS soft starter for ball mills 1 & 2 at their carbon plant in Tursunzade, Tajikistan. The ball mills are connected to two 500 kW 6 kV motors supplied by Tiraspol Motor Company in Moldavia.

The application previously used a hydraulic coupling between the motor and ball mill. But this mechanical starter demanded periodic maintenance and reliability problems meant that key staff were often diverted from other important projects.

AuCom’s representative for this project, Stoik, recommended two MVS-0080-V06 soft starters supplied in an IP54 panel with mains isolation/earth switch. The starter used R-rated fuses and was supplied with a main and bypass contactor.

“Our customers benefit from having a man on the ground to listen and provide advice.” says Alexander Zhukov from Stoik, “Then we work together: customer, representative and manufacturer for a successful commissioning.”

On-site training from AuCom has empowered the site engineers to get a good understanding of the MVS starter.

Ultimately the MVS starter resulted in a saving in time and expense related to the removal of the hydraulic coupling. Due to the removal of the hydraulic coupling, the site is now a dry area where once it was a oily mess. But most importantly the ball mill has a much smoother start with shorter time to get the ball mill moving with a 20 second start.

Everyone involved was very happy to see the motor starting at the first attempt.

The Tajik Aluminium Company was very happy with the MVS starter and are in the process of a second order for another on-site application.  AuCom had a solutions approach to the job  - considering the entire mains supply system, motor and connected load  -  to provide a complete starting solution via a quality product.

Key facts:

• The Tajik Aluminium Company runs the largest aluminium manufacturing plant in Central Asia, and possibly the world, and is Tajikistan’s chief industrial asset.
• TALCO produced 416,000 tonnes of aluminium in 2006.
• The ball mills are connected to two 500 kW 6 kV motors.
• AuCom installed two MVS 0080-V06 soft starters supplied in an IP54 panel with mains isolation/earth switch.
• The MVS soft starter has eased mechanical and electrical stresses on the ball mill.