The 43rd edition of the Australian Society of Sugar Cane Technologists Limited (ASSCT) Conference takes place from 19-22 April 2022 in Queensland. This year’s conference will see leaders in the sugar industry gathering under the theme of “future proofing a resilient industry.”
Amongst its exhibitors is Bonfiglioli. As a global leader in gear motors, the company can offer a vast amount of experience gained from sugar cane processing plants across the globe.
As Alan Young, sales manager from Bonfiglioli Queensland and Northern Territory, explains: “Sugar cane is attracting great interest as a result of heightened global demand for food grade sugar and using ethanol as an alternative to fossil fuels. In fact, sugar producers could soon find themselves needing to improve their productivity and efficiency to keep up in a competitive market.”
He adds that sugar producers require extremely reliable components – able to withstand the very demanding environment in which it operates.
“Queensland is responsible for 95 per cent of Australia’s raw sugar,” Young said.
Production is worth around $2.3 billion and remains Australia’s second largest crop for export. In addition, the industry employs more than 3,700 Queenslanders.
Why Bonfiglioli?
With extensive experience in the sector – Young believes that ASSCT is the ideal platform to showcase the company’s solutions – such as the 300 series planetary gear unit.
“Our 300 series is compact and powerful. Its planetary drive train makes it the ideal choice for all severe duty applications where shock loads and impacts are more the rule than the exception,” he said.
“The product configuration is highly versatile due to several options for mounting, gear layout, output shaft and motor interface. All the features are available for each of the 20 finely spaced frame sizes, with a torque range of 1,000 to 1,100,000 Nm.”
Young shares a recent success story in the sugar industry, and adds that the conference is the ideal platform to help more companies “problem solve” through quality automation.
CBC Success
With the sugar mills working full steam ahead and accelerating production efforts to meet demands and recoup profits, the need for reliable suppliers and on-hand support has never been more critical to the industry’s success.
CBC Power Transmission application engineer, Brad Shepherd, said CBC’s unique services to the sugar industry could best be exemplified by a recent scenario where CBC experts, in partnership with their supply partner, Bonfiglioli, helped resolve an urgent gearbox replacement at a major Queensland sugar mill, helping the mill to resume production with minimum delay.
Upon receiving the enquiry, the CBC power transmission application engineering team in Brisbane analysed the drive details, noting down details such as the hours of operation, ambient temperature, mechanical and thermal ratings and the best and easiest method of retrofitting a new gear unit based on photos and dimensional information available from the old unit.
The robustness of the Bonfiglioli 300 series planetary gear units comes from the product’s unique spheroidal cast iron design, Young said.
“The units come with four basic output designs to suit all applications. The versatile means the units can be assembled to many ratios to be used in both industrial and mobile applications, with an electric or hydraulic power source,” he said.
Visit Bonfiglioli at ASSCT Conference in Mackay, Queensland from 19 to 22 April 2022 (booth 19).