Australia’s largest gearbox load test rig unveiled in Rockhampton

Siemens’ Nevzat Oezcan, Rockhampton Mayor Margaret Strelow and Siemens Australia’s Kareem Emara

Siemens has invested $5 million into the state-of-the-art Rockhampton Service Centre in the heart of Queensland’s mining community.

This investment means the facility now has Australia’s largest and most advanced test rig for mining, wind power and other core industries.

The gearbox test rig will provide a much-needed service capability for the region and beyond as it is capable of a full load test of wind turbine gearboxes that can be performed up to 2.8MW – enabling the testing of wind turbines as fully functional equipment.

Rockhampton Mayor Margaret Strelow said the investment helped strengthen Rockhampton’s ability to support the mining and renewables industries with technology that can leverage capital investments already made.

“I’d like to thank Siemens for continuing to invest in Rockhampton and the region. This announcement is important for the local economy,” she said.

“By having a leading global technology company putting the largest gearbox test rig into this site means a lot for the mining industry and future growth of the renewable energy industry.”

Head of Siemens Digital Factory and Process Industries for Siemens Australia and New Zealand Michael Freyny said the market and customer needs are substantial enough to affirm the investment.

“More than ever, our core industries now need their equipment performing at peak efficiency and without the threat of outages,” Mr Freyny said.

“Siemens’ investment into the new test rig for industrial and wind turbine gearboxes reiterates our commitment to bringing in the latest global technology to our customers – technology can help the state of Queensland continue being a global resources powerhouse.

“We are leveraging our strength in mining and investing in technologies that could support a broad range of industries – especially newer ones such as wind.”

The 1500sq m service centre, which opened in 2013, is one of only a few Original Equipment Manufacturers’ (OEM) workshops within the vicinity of the Bowen, Galilee and Surat Basins to service its large Flender and Winergy gearbox installed base, in mining and wind – both important brands of Siemens.

The test rig at Rockhampton is capable of performing load tests on industrial gearboxes such as those used in the mining vertical up to 500KW.

The centre is also equipped with a 50-tonne crane for servicing over-sized equipment, such as full drive systems for conveyors and larger mill gearboxes.

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