CG Drives and ankong's service save the day for chalco in china

CHALCO (Aluminum Corporation of China Limited) is China’s largest alumina and primary aluminum producer and the world’s second largest alumina producer. CHALCO is a customer of Ankong, CG Drives’ exclusive partner in China. Ankong has offices in Shenyang (HQ, sales, support and cabinet building), Jinan (sales and support), Beijing (sales) and Shanghai (sales).

 

failed drive at chalco factory halts production

In the CHALCO factory concerned which makes electrodes for the melting process, one of the drives failed on a vital extruding machine. The drive, a 315 kW model supplied by a competitor, could not be repaired or replaced, so the factory ground to a halt.

first response: find a temporary solution

Ankong were contacted, and they decided to modify a used 690V, 1200kW model,

which was all that was available at the time. Ankong stepped in and rebuilt the cabinet the same day as a 600A, 400V drive, and quickly dispatched it to the CHALCO factory for installation and commissioning. Unfortunately, CHALCO were unable to tune the replacement to their SCADA system. Telephone support was not successful either, so Ankong decided to send a team – including visiting engineers from CG Drives in Sweden – to troubleshoot.

The team traveled by car, bullet train, bus, plane, and car again in an 11-hour journey across China, finally arriving at the CHALCO factory at 22:00. By 03:00 the next morning, the signals had been successfully tuned to the SCADA system, and the factory was back in action.

Final action: Supply new CG Drives equipment

A new 315 kW Emotron VFX was ordered the same day from Sweden. CG Drives’ VFX Direct Torque Control technology is the perfect match for the extruding machine’s high-dynamic/high-torque demands. Shipped by air the next day to China, the completely new cabinet quickly replaced the temporary solution in the factory. All this was achieved within two weeks of the very first service call.

Summary
Customer CHALCO factory, China
Challenge
  • To replace competitors drive that caused halt in production
  • Difficult logistics
    		•
    Solution
  • Rapid response from team of Ankong and CG Drives engineers
  • Emotron VFX, 315kW
    		•
    Benefits
  • Factory rapidly back in action
  • Reliable CG Drives VFX cabinet installed as replacement