One of the most traditional plants in Brazil, Usina Batatais, will modernize the sugar mills' drives by replacing the open gears by planetary gearboxes and TGM was chosen to supply the four new sets that include G3 Full planetary gearboxes, RTS parallel gearboxes and TM Flex steam turbines for the 2021 harvest.

The G3 Full planetary gearboxes were designed and configured with technical details that stand out from those available on the market, especially when it comes to sugar mill, as TGM developed its project exclusively for this application considering all the variables resulting from the extraction process, including: greater experience in this market, extremely robust design, high performance hydraulic system, differentiated lubrication system, safe application criteria and tandem installation configuration. These points meet what the customer is looking for to modernize and update the drives already foreseeing a future electrification.

With this modernization in the sugar mills, Batatais plant will have greater security in its operations as well as being prepared for future milling expansions. The TGM solution will allow interchangeability within the reconfiguration and redistribution of equipment in several options that the project may have, always considering that the initial investment is part of future projects.

This WEG solution will drive a sugar mill that works at a maximum speed of 14 rpm. This point was very relevant when choosing TGM equipment for this project, having a thorough analysis by the plant's technical group, with great consideration to the safety factors and useful life of each manufacturer's parts.

The replacement of traditional drives by this TGM solution will reduce maintenance costs, increase operational availability in addition to safety and greater ease during operation. A point that was highly evaluated by the customer was the flexibility of relocation / interchangeability in activating the planetary gearboxes by steam turbines at this time, which will allow changes to the drives in a possible milling expansion or drives electrification.

This project was fully integrated between the teams of WEG and the technical and operational staff of Batatais plant, being an important differential in the choice of solutions to precisely meet current and future customer needs.