Coal Age

JAN 2013

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o p e r at i n g i d e a s Gearbox Stocking Program Gets Barge Conveyor Up and Running Louisiana Mid-Stream One transloads coal from barge to ocean-going vessels. Baldor launched the Dodge MagnaGear instock program, designed to help coal operators quickly replace units. By stocking the most common sizes and ratios of this power-dense, heavy-duty large gearbox, mine and plant managers would no longer have to wait weeks and weeks to get a replacement unit. The timing of the program could not have been better for the owners of the Louisiana Mid-Stream One (LMO), a unique barge-mounted conveying system located on the Mississippi River near New Orleans. Working in tandem with a separate barge-mounted unloader, coal from a barge is directly fed into the receiving hoppers of the LMO. After the coal is com- bined, it travels up a series of conveyors to a retractable loading boom that feeds an ocean-going export vessel. The LMO, a brand new rig, was scheduled to start loading vessels in early September 2011. But, during the final test prior to the first load out, a catastrophic failure of one of the three gearboxes on the conveyor system shut the rig down. Company representative Andy Matherne said they already had vessels booked in anticipation of the LMO start-up, and every day they couldn't load coal was going to cost his company a great deal of money. "We are allowed a certain amount of time to load a vessel, but once we go beyond The Louisiana Mid-Stream One (LMO) is a unique barge-mounted conveying system with quality control features not found in other midstream loading operations, including a magnet, mechanical sampling system, belt scale and water drainage. The LMO can simultaneously feed and combine product from multiple barges to meet quality specifications, enhancing the quality of export coal. 44 www.coalage.com that, we have to pay a penalty," said Matherne. "Typically it's about $20,000 per day, but in this particular circumstance, with so many vessels on anchor waiting to come in, we were sitting on $50,000 a day. Obviously the longer it took for us to get running, the more money it was going to cost us." The situation was frustrating to the LMO team because, according to Matherne, they couldn't get the kind of help they needed from the gearbox manufacturer. With a $50,000 a day penalty hanging over their head, they could not afford to wait eight to 10 weeks for a replacement. Matherne says that's when they decided to call Jim McLain, co-owner of Allied Bearing & Supply. "I have had a long relationship with Jim, and he has provided equipment and expertise for us on many other projects," said Matherne. "When it comes to conveying equipment and gearboxes, Jim knows more about this kind of equipment than anyone else I know. We were confident that if anyone could help us out, it was Jim." McLain said he received an email with a photo of the failed gearbox asking if he Not only did LMO get the MagnaGear reducers in three days, but Jim McLain, with Allied Bearing & Supply, said the coal transloader got a product much better suited for this application. The MagnaGear reducers provide twice the output torque than the boxes they replaced, plus the right-angle configuration of the reducer is a perfect fit for this conveyor design. January 2013

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