ABB India provides Electrification, Drives andAutomation solutions to world’s longest conveyor systems, thereby helping JSWsave nearly 3000 road trips, and reducing carbon emissions significantly. 

To ensure timely, cost effective, and safetransportation of iron ore with minimal impact on the environment, JSW, one ofIndia’s largest private sector steel companies, set up the world’s longestconveyor system at one of their plants in Bellary, Karnataka. ABB India hasbeen commissioned to provide complete electrification, drives and automationsolutions for this conveyor system through its ‘Made in India’ productsmanufactured in the local factories.

Through this pipe conveyor system, JSW has cutdown nearly 3000 road trips required for the transportation of the iron ore. Thisnot only solves the critical issue of transportation of raw material frommining to processing sites but also makes the process more sustainable by significantlyreducing carbon emissions caused by road transportation.

The key requirement of the project was systemdesign, product reliability and life cycle support. The system consists of threeflights of pipe conveyor to transport iron ore from Nandihalli yard to JSW siteat Toranagallu in Bellary, Karnataka. For the project, ABB supplied completeMedium Voltage switchgear panels for their four substations, ACS880 low voltagehigh power single drive, and parallel connected drive, engineered AMI series oflow voltage motor, converter duty transformer and hot redundant PLC and SCADAsolutions for the conveyors, through OEMs Macmet, FLS, and LNVT.

ABB’ssolutions for conveyor system help improve efficiency and sustainability

Transportation of iron ore by road resulted inhefty costs, unavoidable delays and loss of material due to breakdowns andslippage. The pipe conveyor system has achieved reduced inbound logisticscosts, contained material losses, improved safety, and minimized carbonfootprint. There have been zero road accidents after this pipe conveyor gotcommissioned.

Talking about the project, Sunil D Kathariya, ExecutiveVice President (Projects), JSW India, said, “This unique and challengingproject had to be delivered in a year’s time, against all odds. The advancedconveyor system has resulted in significant advantages, both in terms of costreduction as well as enhancing our contribution to the environment.”

Commenting on the project, Ganesh Kothawade, Sr.Vice President of Distribution Solutions, Electrification, ABB India, said,“ABB’s electrification solutions are designed to significantly improveperformance while also ensuring safety and sustainability.”

“The project execution was quite challengingwith the 24km stretch being executed by three conveyor OEMs,” said Anoop Anand,President, System Drives, Motion Business, ABB India. “Our team had packagedthe complete solution for the conveyor system, including low voltage motors,drives and overall control automation. Implementing some of the project'sspecial automation requirements at our test facility and replicating them onsite for the customer's satisfaction was a very enriching experience for theteam.”