Our Electrical team in Trondheim, Norway has long standing experience with the development of most powerful electric machines and power electronics. These machines can be used to rotate large ship thrusters under water, they power electric valves of deep sea oil and gas pipelines, and their latest development was even designed to power a regional aircraft.
One of the newest applications of their products marks another next step on our way to Net Zero. The team is custom-developing a an electric motor for a drill that is used in the construction of small hydro power plants. With the tunnel boring machine, tunnels are created to lead the water to the plant instead of using external piping. While water power is a cleaner source of energy in itself, this boring technique limits the impact on the environment further: the need to bring equipment to the dam is limited, and external piping with its potentially negative effects can be avoided.
We have previously provided Norhard, the drilling company in this hydro power project, with electric motors to power other drilling equipment. The "TBMI1200" motor is a next generation version of our proven design – it provides 6.000 Nm continuous torque and is six times stronger than its predecessor.
The motor is situated right behind the drill head and inside the tunnel – this means it needs to bear toughest environmental conditions and a lot of vibrations. So far, the drilling motors we have delivered, have had a longer than expected life with minimal service and maintenance required – and our latest model is laid out to continue this success story.