ABB drives and motors keep China’s tyres turning24 August 2010

ABB is helping reverse the flow of manufactured goods from China to the UK by supplying two variable speed drives and motors to Rochdale-based Farrel.

The company – which manufactures processing equipment for the plastics and rubber industries – is installing the drives on its Intermix batch mixer machines for two Chinese customers that produce compounds for tyres.

Ian Wilson, Farrel's sales director, explains that its Intermix is designed for technical rubber products.

"One of the Chinese customers specified the use of ABB drives. They are a repeat customer for us and they are very satisfied with ABB's support in China," he says.

ABB is providing two ABB industrial drives and motors, one set of 1,400kW and the other of 1,000kW. They were chosen to provide the high torque needed in mixing rubber compounds, as well as the very high current overload duty, of up to 200%, in case of early onset rubber curing or hardening.

Both motors are water-cooled to provide maximum output power per unit of weight. "Noise levels are also important to our customers," says Wilson. "We find the water jacket cooling on the ABB motors prevents the development of resonant frequencies and helps us keep the noise levels within the 85dBA range specified in many of our contracts."

Brian Tinham

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