Upbeat about drum motors
March 1st 2005

In connection with the planning of a large meat processing plant, Danish Crown, BDL Drum Motors and Carnitech have completed tests to determine the efficiency of drum motor conveyor drives made by BDL when compared to conventional geared motor drives from a German supplier.

Tests were carried out using 12m centres belt conveyors fitted with 180mm wide modular acetyl belts that each carried a load of 50kg. Drum motors and comparable geared motors were installed, each with a power of 0.70kW and producing a belt speed of 0.25m/sec.

Tests were made with and without load and measurements were taken every 5min during a 24h period.

BDL says results showed drum motors used 32% less energy when loaded and 47% less energy when unloaded than the geared motor drives. The lower energy consumption of the drum motor was due in part to its motor efficiency factor of 0.60 (compared to 0.47 for the gear motor) and to the drum motor’s higher transmission efficiency of 95 to 97%.

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