ABB announces that it has won an order for the first gearless mill drive (GMD) system ever to be installed in an Indian manufacturing plant. The order was placed at the end of October, by the Indian cement manufacturer Lalitha Cement Ltd. (LCL), located in Hyderabad, the capital of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.



The GMD system will power a 4.8MW, 15 feet cement mill at Lalitha Cement’s greenfield plant, which will have a capacity of 1Mta of clinker. Once the mill is in operation, it will deliver a daily output of 3600t of cement.



As a variable speed drive, the GMD allows the mill to start smoothly, without any mechanical stress, and fulfills the customer’s requirements for flexibility and adjustability of the process, enabling maximum control over the grinding process.

Furthermore, ABB gearless mill drive systems feature several benefits when compared with conventional geared drive systems: superior reliability,
availability, extended life span and improved energy efficiency. ABB delivered the world’s first gearless machine drive in 1969, which is still operating at the Ciment Lamberg-Lafarge cement plant in Le Havre, France.