In 1999, the first order for two tilt drives came from a customer in France. These huge pieces of equipment have since become a familiar sight in our workshop and a flagship product in our drives portfolio. Besides the advantages of having a sole supplier for process technology, design, and manufacturing, our customers quickly recognized the unparalleled reliability of our converter tilt drives.
The tilt drives have the main task of tilting BOF (basic oxygen furnace) and AOD (argon oxygen decarburization) converters into the charging, tapping, and sampling positions. Our tilt drives are especially renowned for their high quality and durability, with each drive designed and manufactured with the utmost precision and in compliance with the strictest quality standards. The continuous improvement of our design and manufacturing processes includes the implementation of novel design solutions. A unique feature is our in-house developed and patented hydraulic torque retaining system for AOD converters. This solution limits the dynamic loads from the AOD process to a minimum and, when retrofitted, even improves converters supplied by other manufacturers. By reducing the dynamic loads, the hydraulic torque retaining system not only increases the service life of gears and bearings but also reduces the maintenance requirements of torque retainers. Together with our innovative gear solutions, our converter-tilting drives can also help to make savings in the substructures.
We specialize in offering tailor-made solutions using our unique expertise in the design and manufacture of drive units. This includes gear manufacturing up to a diameter of 6 m, case-hardened gears up to a diameter of 4.5 m, with tilting moments up to 7,500 kNm and emergency torques up to 17,600 kNm. Our customers’ specific requirements regarding the installation situation are addressed by offering single or multi-piece housings, variable drive configurations, and customized torque retainers. Further configurability options include add-on modules such as oil-lubricating units or pneumatic emergency drives and selectable interfaces to the converter aimed at drastically reducing installation times.
The 100th converter tilt drive is an important milestone, but only an intermediate step in terms of innovation and new concepts. With our tilt drives for TBRC converters, we already have our sights set on new markets with innovative drive ideas. Service activities in the field of converter tilt drives are also constantly growing and have become an integral part of our daily business.
