Quartzelec receives commendation for vital 70-tonne motor upgrade at Tata Steel works.
The upgrade involved the removal and replacement of an F6 main drive / field frame motor located in the Hot Mill motor room. The replacement core was rewound and designed to increase power efficiency by 20%.Originally planned to take 4.5 days over 9 shifts, Tata required the replacement to be in place within just 8 shifts. Tata turned to Quarztelec as a trusted partner to complete the project, because of the extremely ambitious and time critical nature of the project.
“We pulled out all the stops on this one. To deliver the upgrade on time called upon our engineers from across the UK coming together with the on-site staff at Port Talbot,” stated Simon O’Leary, Key Account Manager at Quartzelec who headed up the project. “To Tata’s amazement, we actually completed all work within seven shifts. It was a fantastic achievement and gave Tata the time to complete commissioning of the machine ahead of schedule.”
After the initial installation, the hefty components, required adjustment and dowelling, with each adjustment being both complex and time consuming. Although Quartzelec has delivered similar installations at the site previously, this was the first time a new field frame had been installed in the Hot Mill for over 30 years. It required teams of engineers to work around the clock throughout the project.
“We knew that Quartzelec had all the necessary technical capability to complete the full scope of the project. Even when we upped the ante in terms of delivery timescales,” explained Kevin Chappell, Tata Steel’s Engineering Manager at the Port Talbot facilities in South Wales. “They have an immense product knowledge due to their extensive library of historic data. Their ‘can-do’ attitude and meticulous preplanning were all vital elements for the successful delivery of this project. For any unforeseen problems, Quartzelec had additional support on-hand and were able to address and solve almost any electrical problem, meaning everything went faultlessly! For their attention to detail, careful and safe working practise, Quartzelec are worthy recipients of this commendation.”
Over recent years Quartzelec has worked closely with the in-house Tata Steel facilities team at Port Talbot. They have delivered several vital upgrades to improve the efficiency, safety and output capacity of the site. They have all the necessary heavy lifting equipment readily available on-site and easy access to an array of key ancillary materials.