Pumping the way to efficiency

In the building and manufacturing materials sector, hydraulic hoses play a vital role by enabling heavy-duty machinery to operate efficiently.
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Behind every great process is even better power transmission

Behind every great process is even better power transmission

In the fast-paced, demanding world of industrial manufacturing, power transmission is what powers nearly every process, and for more than century, Gates Corporation has been revolutionising industrial processing power by pushing the boundaries of materials science.  Read More
misalignment belt

The answer to misalignment on belt-driven machinery

When properly maintained, belts are the most cost-effective and reliable means of power transmission in an industrial application. However, drive problems can occur if belts are not installed or maintained correctly, with one of the most common sources of these being misalignment. 
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bark

Seeding solutions for a Queensland bark mix manufacturer

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: “The creation of a thousand forests is contained in a single acorn.” This is the case for Queensland-based Bassett Barks, who produce potting mix for plants from composted bark that provide healthy soil nutrients for growing operations. At the heart of Bassett Barks’ operations is a philosophy that promotes organic and sustainable processes through advanced bark processing technology.   According to Workshop Supervisor Clem O’Mara, bark has valuable organic properties that retain water, improve the pH balance of soil, and encourage stronger growth rates in plants and micro-organisms. “The bark products we make are manufactured at the Bassett Barks site from plantation timber and recycled milling material,” he says. “Our composting is done on a purpose built concrete treated secure site and we perform rigorous on-site testing to meet strict quality control procedures.”  About a year ago, Clem discovered CBC as a supplier and immediately saw them as a fit for Bassett Barks’ operational requirements. “We have wheel loaders, excavators, mobile screening equipment, trommels and a fleet of trucks that all require bearing and drives to run, and CBC is a one-stop-shop for those type of solutions,” he says. During the manufacturing process, the raw bark is moved from the mills to the Bassett Barks workshop facility where it goes into a megagrinder to be ground into bark chips. At that stage, it is then sorted through screens and trommels and grouped by size for packaging.  Clem maintains, repairs, and services all the equipment on site. “I do a lot of multitasking and prioritising to ensure our machines are always up and running,” he says.  Recently, Clem was experiencing an issue with the belts on his megagrinder — the belts he was using were simply not lasting and causing unnecessary downtime to the most vital piece of equipment in his workshop.  “The megagrinder was running a diesel V12 engine with three belts that were driving the rotor and grinding the bark,” explains Clem. “I rang up David Harwood and his team at CBC and they sent out a Gates® on-site engineer to our site,” he continues. “They did a design for us and suggested a new belt drive solution which allowed us to run less belts on the same megagrinder with even more horsepower.”  CBC Sales Representative David Harwood explains how the right belt drive solution was selected for the megagrinder engine using Gates® Design Flex™ Pro™ software.  “Finding the right belt solution is a constant challenge for any manufacturing environment because every machine has unique service needs,” says David. “Maintenance workers may try to implement the belts they have on hand when a piece of equipment has very specific requirements, which is why we work closely with Gates® as a partner to facilitate better belt solutions and increase the performance of belts on any given piece of equipment.”  “The Gates® Design Flex™ Pro™ software makes drive design solutions much more streamlined by calculating the most efficient and effective belt solution for a particular piece of equipment,” enthuses David. “The software confirms the suitability of the existing drive solutions by analysing maintenance procedures and tension details. It can also survey an entire plants stock management plan to match and consolidate solutions.”  Read More
software

Driving longevity with Gates® software tool

A quarry or mining plant potentially has hundreds of different belt drives. How can a site or reliability manager ensure belts are achieving their life expectancy and that drives are working at optimal efficiency? According to Steve Hittmann, the Gates® Design Flex™ Pro™ free software tool is designed exactly for this purpose, providing real cost savings and benefits to customers.
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belt

Tightening the belt: Continuous improvement for the earth moving sector

Behind every great piece of equipment is a good belt. The humble belt is the understated essential worker of industry, says CBC’s power transmission expert Steve Hittmann. In a refinery or processing plant, failure of a belt can cause unnecessary downtime. This is precisely why manufacturers like Gates® invest their efforts into the research and development of increasingly high-performance belt technology. Gates® is a premium partner in distribution with CBC, so innovations in belt technology are Steve’s business. The Gates® PowerGrip™ GT4™ is the latest in materials science for belt design. Steve explains, “The chemical composition of the GT4™ belt is excellent for torque and tension. The belt is made from ethylene-propylene elastomer rubber (EPR) which is resistant to heat, oxidation, weather, brake fluids, oils and greases. In addition to this, it has a fiberglass layer with tensile cords to reduce the amount of stretch.” “The GT4™ belts are designed around 25,000 hours of life which is the premium standard Gates® maintains with their products. This means a minimum of 3 years of service life. However, I have seen these belts last up to 4 or 5 years on particular applications,” says Steve. “They don’t require any lubrication or tensioning which means once installed, they are relatively hands-free on the maintenance side,” he adds. CBC Senior Account Manager of more than 43 years, Brian Crouch, recently identified an opportunity to put the belts into action at the Viva Energy Geelong Refinery near his branch in Geelong, Victoria. “I’ve looked after the Viva Energy site for 28 years, supplying all the power transmissions componentry there,” says Brian. “I’ve worked on many projects over the years for them. But more recently, I upgraded all their fin fan belt drives.”
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