This is real power.
3,300 V
Just what I did for a living.
4 Likes
What were they used for?
Can you explain what that is, Besoeker?
@Besoeker , Looks like a controller for volts and amps to me Besoeker ??
Perhaps we can use it to replace these power supply companies that
are going broke at the moment ??
Donkeyman! 
Mags, Pixie and Donkeyman
This was in a cement works. It’s for controlling the speed of an electric motor - a pretty large one. The disk is one semiconductor component of it. The generic term is variable speed drives. It’s a bit like a washing machine motor - but about 3,000 times larger…
2 Likes
Ooh that’s quite interesting! So how many did you use in one mixer?
Just one. And it was a fan. There were a few other larger units on that site Also fans. On some sites we had compressors that were about 7,000 kW. To put it in context a washing machine is typically 0.5 kW. Or 14,000 washing machines.
3 Likes
Wow, that’s impressive…! Thanks for putting in context, I didn’t have any idea of the sheer power involved 
Thank you kindly, Pixie.
Well, I don’t suppose a lot of people would understand the scale - why would they even need to?
Just my forte I guess. And I enjoyed it - still do.
2 Likes
I’m all for people doing what they love!
Yes. I have been lucky I suppose. I have travelled the world more than many have experienced. Not all a bed of roses but that comes with the territory. Freezing in the frozen lakes and the Sahara desert at 40C. All good fun…
2 Likes
You must have some stories to tell, I bet!
Visitor, is this similar to the Dragline stuff that you worked with in South Africa?
Did a lot of things there. The earliest was a paper mill in Mondi Valley about 1976. There were others but mostly it was electric drives fot the gild mines.
1 Like
Oh ok. It all sounds very interesting and deadly when you compared to a washing machine!
Serious business- electric stuff!
I suppose it beat a guy on a fixed peddle cycle peddling faster or slower to drive a generator
Explosive environments, I believe. Did you have to take extra care with electrical motors & switches?
1 Like
There were explosives in the quarry. But not in the mill. Most of the environment industrial - IP44 for the most part. One of the main motors was IP55 - it was in the rain.
Yes, serious it is. You automatically take all the correct procedures. Or should. In the heat of the moment I have known two incidents. The first was a fatality. I don’t know much about that one. The other was closer to home. A dear friend of mine. He simply didn’t follow the correct locking procedure. He survived but was never the same.
Just too but still too many.
1 Like