The broken gear that forced the Guyana Sugar Corporation’s (GuySuCo) Uitvlugt estate to call off its first crop for 2022, has been replaced and successfully installed, the corporation stated on Monday.
In a brief post on its Facebook page, GuySuCo informed that the estate’s mechanical team had completed the installation of the new gearbox and conducted steam trials.
It noted that with the factory ready to resume operations, management will consult with workers in preparation for burning the fields this week, after which grinding is expected to commence, should favourable weather permit.
Since March of this year, the estate’s factory has been shut as a result of being unable to rectify mechanical issues, despite the corporation’s best efforts. This meant that for the first crop, from a target of 4,000 tonnes, the estate was only able to produce a mere 66 tonnes.
Uitvlugt estate had been given the target of producing at least 25 per cent of the sugar expected from this crop.
When the turbine gear broke, the factory halted operations resulting in grinding operations being left at a standstill.
Estate Manager, Yudhisthira Mana, had said that US-based, Nexus Engineering, was commissioned to fabricate parts to replace the broken turbine gearbox.
A source had previously told this newspaper that the gear had to be replaced but sourcing its replacement proved a challenge since the part was manufactured decades ago and the manufacturer has since gone out of business.
According to Mana, “The part that was damaged in the factory is one that is over 50 years old. It is one that normally don’t be on ordering and safe keep because [it has] rarely been damaged, and so to say just have one on standby to replace, we don’t normally have that.”
The estate manager disclosed that Nexus Engineering had to engage in reverse engineering to construct the spare part since there was no blueprint to guide the fabrication.
“They had all the parts to repair the unit and they said they will assist us and started the process… we are looking to have some parts to ship in the country… we will be having it soon in a very short space of time. It is very challenging to have this unit repaired,” the manager added.
From a production target of 20,261, metric tonnes, the corporation has only managed to produce 13,076 metric tonnes of sugar. The bulk of the production has come from the grinding estates in Berbice as the Uitvlugt estate on the West Demerara experienced mechanical issues.
