Long-term service agreement for GMDs

Keep production running at Boliden's Aitik mine

Grinding applications are important components in the mining process and the demands on these assets are raising constantly: higher speed, bigger drives, heavy load and stringent environmental challenges. A smoothly running mill is a must to meet your economic goals. And to keep your mill operating on an optimal level you need a strong service partner like ABB. For two years now Boliden Aitik relies on ABB as preferred service partner.

Our grinding solutions are developed to meet our customers’ needs – no matter which challenges their mine is facing, like extreme conditions and high environmental demands. Boliden faces both challenges in their open-pit Aitik copper mine which is located near Gällivare, in the arctic Lappland region of Sweden. With our life cycle service we help Boliden’s grinding systems (in total: 2 gearless mill drives (GMD) and 2 dual-pinion drive systems) to perform optimally.

The long-term service agreement covers the entire range of ABB services with life cycle services, scheduled maintenance and remote services. Thanks to this broad service approach ABB is always available when support is needed – either via remote connection or via phone. Furthermore, to run a mine on an optimal level you need skilled staff: ABB teams in Sweden and Switzerland perform the services for Boliden. With these experienced teams we guarantee the customer availability directly on-site within 4 hours.

If service efforts are concentrated on specific areas only (e.g. drive system), possible failures of other components could be overseen. Therefore, life cycle services are the ideal solution to have a complete overview of your system’s condition. Thanks to this service approach our ABB experts were able to alert Aitik of a temperature related transformer problem during planned maintenance which would have gone undetected otherwise. This comprehensive service contract provides Boliden 99% availability of its grinding applications.


 “The service agreement with ABB is of great benefit for us – especially the life cycle services. When we had problems with the GMD system, ABB detected that the transformers did cause the problem. This case proved to us again that ABB has the right skills, the right staff and the right processes to perform its services. We always get appropriate support when we need it. Therefore, we are very satisfied with our ABB service agreement.”

Mikael Burck, Head of Electric Division, Boliden Aitik

 

Main data

 Customer:  Boliden Aitik
 Site:  Gällivare, Lappland region of Sweden
Customer need:  - Reliable and efficient operations in remote location
- Demand for improved return on assets (ROA)
- Extend life of equipment
Scope:  − Life cycle services with dedicated life cycle manager as
single point of contact for the customer
− Scheduled maintenance
− Remote services including SupportLine and remote
diagnostic
services with 24/7/365 availability
Features:  − Preventive, predictive and corrective maintenance for GMDs
− Remote support and diagnostics
Customer benefits: − Access to a wide range of  technical and process experts

− Long-term support for highly used assets
− Predictable maintenance costs
− Reduced down-time
− Improvement of entire grinding systems


Comissioning year 2014

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