Nigeria: Loesche has released details on its order for the United Cement Company of Nigeria (Unicem) cement plant at Mfamosing, near Calabar in Cross River State, which was commissioned in September 2016. The order was for two vertical roller mills (VRM): one type LM 60.4 for grinding cement raw material and one LM 70.4+4 CS, the biggest Loesche VRM built for grinding cement clinker.

Loesche worked with Renk to develop the Compact Planetary Electrical (COPE) drive due to the high power requirements of the LM 70.4+4 CS mill. This mill was designed for a capacity of more than 370t/hr to a fineness of 4700 Blaine that required a drive system that could power it up to 8800kW. So the COPE system was designed for mill drive powers ranging from 4000 – 15,000kW. The COPE gearbox is also equipped with eight individual drive units, which are each designed for a capacity of 8800kW, allowing for redundancy in case of unit failure.

Other notable highlights of the installation that Loesche have highlighted include the equal size as standard drive units for VRMs that allow for the exchange of conventional gearboxes with the setup. The installation is also the first usage of an eight-drive unit in a VRM gearbox and the first time a multiple drive in a VRM can operate with or without a variable frequency drive.

Delivery of the order started in October 2015. First production of cement on the new production line began in September 2016. The new line increased the plant’s cement production capacity to over 5.5Mt/yr from 2.5Mt/yr. It was built by China’s CBMI Construction.