Cranes and lifting leader Eilbeck is benefitting from the safety, reliability and durability of Bonfiglioli drives across several major tunnelling projects in Australia.
Bonfiglioli’s high-quality, rugged drives are engineered and assembled at their headquarters in Glendenning, New South Wales, and are delivered to major projects such as the Melbourne Metro Tunnel, Westgate Tunnel, NorthConnex, Westconnex and Sydney Metro 2, where they power Eilbeck’s cranes and lifting equipment.
“Eilbeck’s market-leading status in Australia is due to our consistently high-quality and robust products, ongoing reliability and outstanding backup service,” says Charlie Eilbeck, Head of Eilbeck Heavy Machining Centre. “Having a supplier like Bonfiglioli that shares these qualities is an asset in ensuring safe, efficient and reliable operations.”
Eilbeck says the company has a strong focus on short delivery times, reliable service and a tradition of never turning down a problem for being too complex. Consequently it’s rewarding to work with a company like Bonfiglioli with similar values and a focus on innovation and problem solving.
“In our business, our cranes are hauling 24/7, so safety and reliability are imperative,” says Charlie. “Clients rely on us for smooth running operations. In addition to hauling products, many of our cranes are equipped with man-riding capacity, so we cannot have any doubt with the safety of the products we use. We have relied on Bonfiglioli for many years now due to its outstanding safety and total standards compliance, high product quality, and reliability of service, backup and support.”
The Bonfiglioli drives supplied to Eilbeck for the tunnelling projects – including HDP and F series parallel helical gear units – are used to power cranes that lower tunnel-boring machines, handle pre-cast slabs and are working 24 hours a day.
“We have competitive timelines on major tunnel projects, and we’re penalised for any downtime,” Charlie adds. “The reliability of Bonfiglioli’s drives means we have one less thing to worry about and we can get on with the efficient running of operations.”
HDP Series parallel helical drives
According to Malcolm Lewis, Managing Director of Bonfiglioli Australia, the HDP parallel shaft helical gear drives are an outstanding range of large industrial gearbox, assembled in Australia to produce exceptional reliability and torque densities to record values. The drives feature excellent torque distribution across their entire ratio range, with gear ratios laid out in close progression and the drives having a rugged capacity to cope with the shock and impact of intermittent loads.
The full range of Bonfiglioli large parallel shaft gearboxes has been extended for the Australian marketplace, with output torque ranging from 5,190Nm to 210,000Nm. Bonfiglioli’s HDP range features a housing made from spheroidal cast iron: monobloc from HDP60 to HDP125; and horizontally split case from HDP130 to HDP160.
Eilbeck uses Bonfiglioli’s HDP100, 110, 120 and 150 three- and four-stage parallel helical gear units to power the hoists on its cranes. These drives are in the middle of the Bonfiglioli HDP range and are ideally suited to a crane’s main or auxiliary hoists, with torque ratings between 25,880Nm and 117,000Nm.
F Series parallel helical drives
Bonfiglioli’s F Series parallel helical gear drives are reliable and easily installed modular shaft-mounted gearboxes in torque capacities from 140Nm to 14,000Nm. F Series drives feature high-efficiency gears, sturdiness, quiet operation and a broad range of sizes, ratios and configurations to fit numerous applications, including many materials-handling and lifting equipment applications.
“High transmission ratios are achieved with only two reduction stages,” says Lewis. “Up to four stages are available in a single gearbox from frame size 25 and above. This flexibility obviates the need to bolt together two separate units, which is a more costly and bulkier option.”
Eilbeck uses Bonfiglioli F41, F60, F70 and F80 drives to power long and cross travel drives on its cranes. These drives span a large portion of Bonfiglioli’s full range and have torque capacities between 1,100Nm and 8,000Nm.
“For us, Bonfiglioli is a trusted partner,” Charlie concludes. “They not only supply world-class products with readily available support, but they do so competitively. This allows us to remain competitive in the market without compromising on quality and safety, which is key to us expanding our operations and continuing to deliver projects to the high standards Eilbeck is known for.”