Largest ever compressor motor constructed at VEM Dresden
For LDPE plant in India
The largest compressor motor ever constructed at the VEM Dresden location is destined for an LDPE production plant in India. Weighing in at 196 tonnes, the motor has an operating speed of 200 rpm while consuming 30 MW from the grid. The first parts of this enormous motor set off on their voyage to India at the end of September.
The synchronous motor is to be used as a hyper compressor drive at a chemicals plant in India – specifically, towards manufacturing low-density polyethylene or LDPE. This completely recyclable raw material is used in products such as plastic bags, cosmetics bottles and children’s toys. VEM constructed the compressor motor on commission from the Swiss company Burckhardt Compression.
The motor was to be shipped by sea freight. Logistics specialists had their work cut out for them in getting the motor to Dresden’s inland port on the first leg of its journey – the colossus was too big to pass under the bridges in Dresden on its way to the Alberthafen port, so it had to be divided up into thirteen consignments of assorted sizes sent over a period of two nights. The heaviest consignment was the 103-tonne rotor; it took a low-loader and a lot of minute precision on the part of the team to nudge this forty-metre behemoth along the road underneath the ancient Augustusbrücke bridge. Even so, everything went to plan, and the giant was good and ready to embark on the next leg of its journey.