Engineering at work: How FLS used our ring gear innovation to improve a mining operation in Chile

In our 140 years of history, we have challenged conventions and explored new opportunities, providing valuable solutions for our customers' operations, through our expert knowledge and developing the most advanced technologies that set us apart. In line with these guidelines, our purpose today is to keep on building the mining industry for a sustainable world, facing the challenges of the future. This is possible through a new strategy showing a clear path to becoming an even stronger player in the mining market, improving our profitability. 

But our most outstanding feature is that our specialists combine years of experience on engineering, introducing important updates in design and modernising existing equipment to guarantee security, quality, reliability, and productivity to our customers. 

Where is the benefit? 

Because it is made of a forged material, the risk of having defects — such as pores in the material, which is usual in ring gears made out of casted material, and other casting defects — is reduced. "This way, many problems, or issues with the material after being installed are avoided, such as what happened with the original ring gear that experienced premature failures during operation," our Site and Service Sales Territory Manager states. 

Structured ring gear: our innovation

Considering that more than 90% of ring gears in the market are casted, at FLS we went further and stood out for our manufacturing process. This way, we provide the customer with a structured ring gear, that is, one that is not cast and has a rim. This means structural steel and a forged ring, which are welded together and are a different process compared to casting. 

From A to Z: supply across the whole value chain

Although engineering and manufacturing were challenging, the customer was very satisfied with our job and service performance.

“In FLS we have the necessary capacities to implement this kind of solutions, as the one developed for this important mining operation, covering all the stages, from A to Z, across the whole value chain,” says Nilton Herrera, FLS’s Head of Mining Aftermarket Sales South of America. 

"The manufacturing was the most outstanding aspect, and it is a milestone for FLS, because it was the second ring gear of this size we manufactured through this process. ",  says Alvaro Alvarado FLS, South America 

"There, we applied all the lessons learned during the manufacturing of the first one. It was a very valuable learning we will continue applying to improve our customers' productivity. On the other hand, in terms of security, we fulfilled all the standards, because we had no accidents during the installation", Alvaro Alvarado says.

Finally, we highlight the close collaboration relationship we had with our customer to achieve the successful result we had. In this line, we emphasise the application of our "FLS Service Experience" (led by our Site & Service Sales area), based on a value proposition through which we seek to provide our customers with specialised support through simplifying our operational model to reduce risks, improve efficiency, and guarantee a more robust and excellent execution of our services. 

With this successful case, we can tell we continue strengthening our position as the comprehensive vendor of process and product technology with world-class sustainable offers across the plant, supporting our sustainability goals and the green path set by our customers.