HELMKE - A company that loves a challenge

 
The commitment to service and quality are the driving forces behind Helmke, which has led them to build up an enormous stock of motors and ancillary equipment. It is still very much a family company founded 87 years ago by Johann Helmke and his wife in Hannover in 1922. Dr. Horst Norbert Helmke joined his father in 1954 and became the sole proprietor in 1970. He still comes into the company on a regular basis, even though he is now in his eighties. Titus Helmke is the third generation to join the family company. He joined the company in 2000, and has been Managing Director since 2007. The company is unusual in that it is
still a private family company, not a GmbH or “limited liability” company, which has probably helped them to take a long term view on investments and carry a huge range of stock. The company currently has a turnover in the region of 75 million Euros.
 

In 2006 Helmke moved their head quarters to a new 4,300 m2 logistics and production centre in Sarsted just outside Hanover. The centre houses a large stock of motors with a capability of up to 5,200 pallets. Stock motors or motors received for special orders can be modified here and tested before despatch. They carry a large stock of spares to meet customer’s potential requirements for modified stock motors. If required they have a load test facility for up to 200kW att his site, giving improved flexibility and a fast turn round.

In 1973 the company founded its French Subsidiary in Pulversheim, Sarl. They extended their production and storage facilities here in 2000. They updated their load test facilities to become the company’s main test facility. It runs with frequency converter feed to cater for 1,500 kW at full load, up to 2,000kW at partial load, and 10MW at no load, with rating voltages up to14 kV at 50Hz to IEC test standards. They are also able to test at 60 Hz and have a frequency converter capability up to 100 Hz. On DC machines they can test up to1,000kW. In 2008 they added a watercooling facility to the test bed to meet the increasing demand for water cooled machines. The Pulversheim facility is now supported by a French sales office in Lyon.Throughout this period they also strengthened their distribution network throughout Europe with stock being held at the sales offices in Vaassen in the Netherlands, and in Milan. They opened sales offices in Sweden (1990), Spain(1997), Switzerland (2001), Russia (2003),and have a partner in Romania.

 
All of their stock is under one stockprofile so that all branches can see what is in stock. Motors are stored and palletised under random locations with part of the location number representing the facility that is holding the stock. Their stock is HUGE, carrying up to 50,000 motors from 0.18kW fractional horse power up to 8 MW. This includes 180 varieties of their own High Voltage machines. As well as their own machines, they work closely with Siemens and carry a large stock of their machines up to 8,000kW and also stock machines from other manufacturers so that they can meet customers ’preferences. They are also particularly strong in Hazardous area equipment.
 
In low voltage technology they have their own modular range of motors consisting of three-phase squirrel cage motors from 2 - 8 pole in IP55. These span the power range 0.18kW up to 1,000kW. Most are available ex stock and can bemodified before dispatch to customers’special requirements.
They manufacture a range of modular slip ring motors in speed ranges of 500rpm to 1,500rpm, from 75kW to 12,000kW in IP54. The higher power motors are particularly suitable for crushers
 
and kneaders. Their range of Hoist motors cover outputs from 1.5kW to 400kW with integraleddy current brakes. These can replace AEG, Schorch, and Siemens machines without modification.
 
They carry a large range of DC machines made by Helmke, Siemens, ABB, AEG-LDW, including explosion proof versions. They can adapt motors to replace older designs with special mountings, shafts, flanges, various cooling methods and monitoring equipment. They are suitable for rolling mills, the paper industry, mixers and kneaders, foil production, cranes and traction. The range covers frame sizes 71 up to 800, with some special applications up to frame size 1000.
 
However it is their High Voltage technology that is hard to beat, with a huge investment in off the shelf stock. They also use this stock as a basis to modify equipment to customers’ requirements where necessary. Their ranges cover from 200kW and go all the way up to 12,000kW. They stock 2 and 4 pole mainly for pumps, compressors and Blowers, and 6 and 8 pole for fans, chippers and mills, and even 10 and 12 pole for piston compressors and blowers. Their largest motors are suitable for refiner drives, crushers and shredders, mills and ventilation.
They have a range from 200kW to 1200kW suitable for hazardous areas. As you walk round their stock Matthias Deicke, their Sales Manager, remarks that this motor is held forshredders, or that one kept for the cement industry etc. They will construct special drives for special tasks to provide a total motor package. Helmke are an ABB Drives Alliance Partner for frequency converters, and a Siemens Automation Solutions Partner for large drives. Together with their own drives they are able to quote on specific manufacturers and also suggest alternatives when looking at changing from DC motors. They can offer a complete solution for variable speed drive units and frequency converters up to 3.0 MVA.

 
Helmke produce a range of fibre optic controlled medium voltage soft start units, which, among other advantages, provide motor and starter protection. To be able to provide a complete package they also stock a range of cast resin and oil transformers for power distribution and conversion up to100 MVA.
 
They manufacture their own High Voltage Coils and are able to make these for any type of motor, as well as their own High Voltage machines. This also supports their High Voltage repair department, which repairs all makes of machine. They carry a large stock of spares for the types of machine that they supply and service, and supply spares for all makes of machine to their customers.
 
As if managing this range of stock was not challenging enough, they are always willing to custom design and engineer motors, or, where necessary, adapt a machine to supply a tailor-made customised solution. This is especially applicable to duplicate machines for an existing drives design, or when constructing special drives with mechanical and electrical modifications to include reduced losses for optimised efficiencies, and designs for low noise emissions.
 
So where do these special motors land up, literally all over the world. The list is endless:
 
  • A 6MW motor modified to replace adamaged 5.3 kW extruder motor; it required modified cooling, modified bearings, and mounting plus recertification of the modifications for Zone 22. The motor was modified tested and delivered within three weeks.
  • They supplied four 600 kW compressor drive motors for a polypropylene plant in Saudi Arabia, with special sleeve bearings and noise-damped design.
  • A 4,700kW 991rpm 6.6kV, was supplied for a cement mill drive in Sweden with a 2nd shaft end for rated torque.
  • Supplying a 2,500kW, 6kV, pump drive for Yukos Oil in Russia certified to EExde II CT4.
  • Adapting an 800kW 10kV 596rpm motor for an oxygen-reciprocating compressor in a smeltery in Belarus with water cooling.
  • Supplying 1,850kW 6.6kV 992rpm Raw Mill Drive with two shaft ends and special mounting construction for a Cement Plant.
  • A 430kW 4.16kV 60 Hz 708rpm special slip ring motor design for a vertical Pump drive for the main cooling circuit in a power plant in Columbia.
  • A 3,270kW 6kV 742rpm vertical drive roller mill specially designed with an additional hydrostatic installation to raise the rotor in the sleeve-bearing shells for acement mill drive in Germany.
  • Supplying and adapting a 3,600kW 5kV1,485rpm slip-ring sinter blower drive to match the original mounting for a steel plant.
 
Helmke originally started nearly 90 years ago by merchanting second hand machinery, which demanded a great deal of adaptability, and ensuring that machines were customised and tested before being sent out to customers. This philosophy seems to have stayed with them. They are not a box pusher or just interested in manufacturing, but fully understand what they are supplying and with a full design team to back up their products. They have a wealth of experience in all sizes of motor and have gained a reputation for being able to come up with the impossible.
 
Service has always been paramount and they offer a 24 hour emergency service for heavy industry world wide. They have honed their logistics to treat even the largest motor with the urgency that a customer demands. Recently they had arranged for a 38 tonne 8MW motor to beairlifted by Russian transporter plane to acement works in India to overcome a critical breakdown. All in a day’s work (maybe a bitlonger) and another very satisfied customer!
 
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