Van der Graaf kicks off educational event series in Texas
Van der Graaf hosted the first of its industry networking events Wednesday in Texas.
The company’s kickoff event took place in Fort Worth, Texas. Van der Graaf’s Texas Aggregate Networking Event series continues Thursday in New Braunfels, Texas.
“With Texas being the largest, single-producing state for stone, sand and gravel in the U.S., we’re going around promoting our Extreme-Duty series, which is going up to 350 hp and 36-in.-diameter drives,” says Matt Lepp, heavy industry drive specialist at Van der Graaf. “These are specifically designed for heavy industry applications.”
Lepp led a seminar during the Fort Worth event on the company’s Extreme-Duty drum motors. Lepp and Van der Graaf President Alexander Kanaris discussed the benefits of the series, including enhanced safety.
“Typically, where you’re going to see guarding in a normal, conventionally driven application is around belts, chains and rotating shafts,” Lepp says. “With an internally driven drum pulley, your motor and gearbox are inside the drum. So there are no belts or chains outside of the conveyor frame that require any sort of guarding. Also, we have static shafts – we don’t even have a rotating shaft that requires guarding.
“Basically, the only pinch point is between the actual conveyor belt and the drum, which is present in any conveyor application,” Lepp adds.
Lepp also discussed the advantages of the drum motor series from an energy-efficiency standpoint.
“Our units are 96 percent mechanically efficient, which is significantly higher than most conventionally driven pulleys,” he says. “What that means is, through use, we’ve seen energy savings of as much as 30 to 35 percent over conventional units.”
Van der Graaf sees opportunities for OEMs to incorporate its drum motors on portable processing equipment, Lepp adds.
In the portable market, OEMs like drum motors for a number of reasons,” he says. “Number one, of course, is space savings. On mobile equipment, you’re dealing with very tight constraints as far as trying to fit in a motor and gearbox. With a drum motor, the only thing outside the conveyor frame is a junction box.”
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