Worsley Alumina is a Western Australian operation comprising a bauxite mine located near Boddington and an alumina refinery near Worsley.
Prior to HMR’s involvement, the power station coal mill gearbox rebuilds took up to 6 months to complete. HMR now carries out and completes the same works in just two weeks.
HMR also achieved greater efficiency for the removal and installation of the gearboxes.
Previously this work would be undertaken in 6-8 weeks, whereas HMR is able to execute this work in 2-3 weeks.
HMR has provided additional support capabilities to the operation in the form of reverse engineering major equipment and parts supply. HMR reverse engineered the gearbox and all of its components and is now able to supply parts that did not have an OEM supply and therefore did not previously exist. HMR has also supplied a complete rotable spare gearbox, allowing for change out of the machinery instead of repair in situ.
The majority of HMR supplied parts are locally made in Australia and this, coupled with the rotable spare, has decreased the downtime of the machinery. In previous years repairs required removing the gearbox from service, stripping and assessing required parts, and a prolonged downtime of 2 months or more whilst waiting for parts to arrive from overseas.
