OVERVIEW OF MV DRIVE TECHNOLOGIES IN MINES AND FUTURE SCOPE

Abstract

Typical mine has ore processing units at site for grinding of ore. This operation is done at site for making product cost effective. After grinding and processing, only useful material is transported for further processing. Grinding of ore is one of the most power intensive operation in mining. For grinding of ore, various mills are used operating at various speeds like ball mills, Auto-geneous mills, Non-Autogeneous mills and Gearless mills. Bigger the size of mill, more is the power requirement. Presently Synchronous motors are used for geared mills upto the power 9MW, while gearless mill use Synchronous motors upto 38 MW. The power converters in both the cases used are cyclo-converters because of certain advantages. This paper focuses on overview of Medium Voltage Drive (MV) systems for grinding of ores including motors and converters presently reported and alternate options available with latest developments in motors and power converters.