A new hydraulic drive unit for a 2.13 m crushing mill

Victoria Mill embarked on a major expansion in 1993 to increase crushing rate capacity from 830 tonnes/hour to 1230 tonnes/hour cane. This expansion required major changes in the crushing station area, which involved additional mills to each milling tandem. Prime mover drive units for the new mills were a major factor in the overall project design. Conventional gearing and hydraulic drive units were the two major contenders to be considered. Hydraulic drives have been used for heavy drives in many other industries and also in recent times as pressure feeder drives in the sugar industry because of their ability for variable speed control in comparison with the fixed ratio geared unit. This paper describes the general features of the high torque/low speed hydraulic motor unit installed as a complete drive on a new conventional milling unit at Victoria Mill.