High-power grinding mills are used in the cement and mining industries to crush clinker or copper ore and grind these materials to fine powder. The multimegawatt speed-controlled mill drives operate at a very low angular speed. Synchronous motors with a high number of pole pairs are used as the prime movers. They are traditionally fed by load-commutated thyristorized cycloconverters. These are prone to failure modes that can lead to excessive torque pulsations and high overcurrents. The huge stator, which was built as a separate ring-shaped structure around the tubular mill, may then get mechanically displaced, and the operation of the plant is interrupted. A novel and reliable direct drive uses a voltage source inverter that operates at the unity power factor for increased efficiency. Synchronous optimal pulsewidth modulation ensures a low harmonic current distortion and reduced switching losses at a very low switching frequency. The optimization of the pulse patterns takes the anisotropic magnetic properties of a separately excited synchronous motor into account. The implementation in a 23-MW semiautonomous grinding mill installed in a Zambian copper mine is intended.

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