News & events


SA company supplies transformers to Ghana

Second quarter 2006 News & events

Zest secured the contract to supply 10 WEG transformers to Bogoso Mine in Ghana in a lead time of just 20 weeks which included manufacturing time. According to Trevor Naude, projects sales manager at Zest, it was the company's ability to meet the tight delivery schedule that clinched the deal.

"The delivery lead time was a major challenge, particularly for 10 such large transformers, however it was essential that these were on site by the end of January 2006, as the entire project depended on them," Naude explains. These transformers were shipped in one consolidated shipment directly from WEG's manufacturing plant in Brazil to Ghana.

Six 2,5 MVA WEG transformers will supply the low voltage WEG electric motors on the plant, while two 15 MVA 34 kV/6,6 kV WEG transformers will supply the SAG and ball mills. Two 10 MVA 34 kV/6,6 kV WEG transformers will supply six 1,5 MW aeration blowers used in the gold extraction process at this mine. Included in the contract is a WEG neutral earthing resistator (NER) rated at 34 kV.

In addition to the WEG transformers, a 3 MW 6 pole 6,6 kV mill drive motor and approximately 300 low voltage motors are being supplied. The latter will be used to drive various applications pieces of plant including conveyors, screens and pumps. Naude says that Zest and WEG have an established reputation for the supply of large mill motors in West Africa and have several references in this region.

Naude travelled to Ghana where he conducted training and skills transfer with the customer's personnel as part of Zest's value-added offering. The training was to facilitate optimum performance of the equipment on the mine and to ensure minimum maintenance costs. This is considered particularly important by Zest for its customers in such remote regions. The training covered motor maintenance and variable speed drive (VSD) theory.

Zest extended its product offering to include WEG power transformers in October 2004, and according to Naude has been able to assist numerous customers in securing transformers within short lead time.

WEG's transformer manufacturing facility employs highly skilled and experienced design engineers who focus on producing high quality. WEG has an established reputation for the manufacture of distribution transformers, power transformers and furnace transformers. The company has been producing transformers since 1981 and has an extensive global reference list. WEG is ISO 9001:2000 accredited by BVQI.

Zest distributes WEG electric motors, WEG variable speed drives (VSDs), WEG switchgear and WEG transformers to 24 countries on the African continent and has branches in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Richards Bay, Rustenburg, Trichardt and Port Elizabeth. It also has distributors in Botswana, Mauritius, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. All products are manufactured to ISO 9001:2000 quality standards.

For more information contact Chris Chryssoulis, Zest Electric Motors & Drives, +27 (0) 11 723 6000, www.zest.co.za



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