ABB's ring motor achieves environmental certification
The gearless mill drive ring motor drives large grinding mills for the mining industry.
An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is a standardised document with detailed information about the environmental impact of a product throughout its lifecycle.
The company analysed the environmental impact of a ring motor from supply chain and production, to usage and end-of-life disposal. This was conducted for a ring motor of a semi-autogenous grinding mill of 24MW with a service life of 25 years.
The Life Cycle Assessment was conducted at ABB's factory in Bilbao, Spain, and was externally verified and published in accordance with international standards ISO 14025 and ISO 14040/14044, which the company declares will be valid for five years.
The ring motor is a drive system without any gears, where the transmission of torque between the motor and the mill is done through a magnetic field in the air gap between the motor stator and the motor rotor.
It is said to optimise grinding applications for the minerals and mining industries by enabling variable-speed operation.
