Is There a Relationship Between Failure Behaviour of Mining Equipment Components and Orebody Geology?

摘要

This research explores the hypothesis that the failure behaviour of mining equipment is influenced by the physical properties of the ore and waste. We describe a method of examining this relationship and apply it to the lift and tilt cylinders of three classes of mobile equipment: excavators, loaders and dozers. Failure data for the analysis are drawn from maintenance work orders on 14 sites mining haematite iron, nickel sulphide, coking and thermal coal, and aluminium.The results show that the distributions of the estimated life parameter for tilt and lift cylinders on dozers, excavators and loaders are distinctly different for haematite iron, coal, nickel and aluminium sites. Analysis of the relationship between selected physical properties identified the influence of rock impact hardness number, abrasion index and unconfined compressive strength as significant factors for the tilt and lift cylinders. Their effects are significant when parameters are considered in combination, for example, rock impact hardness number and abrasion index, and vary according to the cylinder and asset class. The physical implications of these results are considered with respect to known failure modes of the cylinders.This is a preliminary analysis of a specific set of components and further work is needed to extend the work to other components on mobile equipment and fixed plant asset classes.