Additional to the Hepburn Engineering news in the article, the company recently secured the order for a new 1,865 kW twin AC induction motor service hoist with Unity Power Factor. This follows the successful installation and commissioning of the production hoist supplied to the same mine in Papua, Indonesia in 2008.

The double drum modified Blair hoist will be used to transport up to 250 people at a time. The design will include HEPBURN Compensating head sheaves and a sheave compensation control system. The hoist will be fully assembled in Canada to minimise assembly problems in the remote mine location.

Hepburn selected two Unity Power Factor medium voltage AC induction motors and drives rated for 932 kW at 3,000 m elevation from TMEIC (Toshiba Mitsubishi-Electric Industrial Systems Corp) to drive a conservatively sized fully enclosed gear set.

The hoist uses a heavy gear type clutch with a full-complement internal gear mating with a full-complement external gear. The drum design is based on a heavy shell design that does not require additional stiffeners. The hoist is designed with a design line-pull of 82,000 kg and 4.83 m/s hoisting speed. The service hoist will be fully automated, allowing an elevator-style of control from shaft operation boxes positioned at each level.