Super-speedy service
When gearbox failure brought the main conveyor to a halt at a Roadstone quarry in Waterford, Ireland, operators faced a 16-week wait for a replacement unit. However, due to the modular design concept of their gearboxes, David Brown were able to supply a new unit within just five days.
Quarry engineers had shut down operations at the plant for routine maintenance checks on a Friday afternoon. When they came to restart the main conveyor, however, they found the mechanism inside one of the gearboxes had virtually disintegrated. Urgently seeking a replacement gearbox, Roadstone engineers contacted The Reliance Bearing and Gear Co. in Cork, a David Brown Swift gearbox centre. To get the plant operating again a large gearbox was required (operating to a ratio of 25:1) that could be fitted immediately. The normal delivery time for such a gearbox is between 14 and 16 weeks. However, engineers at David Brown in the UK undertook to build a replacement gearbox over a weekend, tailoring a Series G bevel helical right-angle drive gear unit to fit the specifications and replace the original 17in right-angle worm reducer.
The order was placed on a Friday, the gearbox was finished on Sunday, shipped to Ireland on Monday and on site by Tuesday morning, with the quarry back in operation by noon the same day.
