Girth Gear Maintenance

The Life Line Of The Mill

The appropriate maintenance of girth gear is another area of the mill’s drive train that can be neglected by the maintenance department, again quite unintentionally. This oversight can result in failure or excessive wear – or both – which causes unplanned, costly mill down time. And because of the high capital cost of purchasing and holding a replacement girth gear, it is generally unlikely to find any mine site that holds a spare girth gear in their stores department. For any mill that uses and open gear drive, the girth gear is frequently considered the life line of the mill.

Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late!

As is the case with pinion maintenance, the girth gear requires a frequent inspection program to ensure that any damage that may occur is found – and attended to – before it becomes irreparable. Should any damage be left unchecked, this could result in excessive down time due to the long lead time for replacement items.

The Simple Solution

Fixed Plant Maintenance Solutions (FPMS) can carry out routine inspections and recommend Preventative Maintenance (PM) schedules, along with recommending appropriate lubricants, installations and misalignment adjustments, all of which will ensure much greater reliability from your equipment.

Do You Know Your Girth Gear’s Operational Limits?

Some may consider the open gear drive as an 'agricultural piece of equipment' that requires little to no up-keep. However, it may be a surprise to know the operation limits these vital pieces of equipment operate at. For instance, a girth gear with a diameter of around 7 metres needs to have an axial runout of no greater than 0.35mm or 0.014''. And depending on the face width, it must be running with a temperature differential across the pinion contact surface in the area of no more that 6 to 8 degrees. That leaves very little room for variations… or errors.

Prevention For YOUR Girth Gear

To make sure your girth gear is operating optimally or for further information about alignment set ups and adjustments or installations, please contact FPMS at brent.dangerfield@fixedplantms.com.au.

Because FPMS is solely independent of any of the large gearing manufacturers, we can also provide an unbiased opinion on the recommendation of suppliers for equipment replacement or the supply of new equipment.