Reliability Study of 42 Cum Rope Shovel under Diverse Geo-Mining Parameters : A Case Study

Abstract

Today’s mining industry demand large-capacity shovels and dumpers for mega production and low-cost operations. While increased mechanization and automation make considerable contribution to mine productivity, unexpected equipment failure prohibit the maximum possible utilization of sophisticated mining equipment and require significant amount of extra capital investment. With regard to productivity, till date reviewed literature does not indicate any bench mark nor it could be established for the shoveldumper based production equipment system in Indian mines due to varied working conditions, different geo-mining profiles and deployment methodology. High equipment reliability is a choice of globalised competition. High equipment reliability is achieved by ensuring the minimum chance of incidents that cause failures of equipment. To maintain remarkably long and trouble-free equipment lives, it becomes dire necessity to keep parts and components at comparatively low stress levels and within suitable operating geo-mining conditions prevailing inside the mines.

On the other hand, technological changes, market depressions, increasing labour and maintenance costs and the uneven operating environments have driven the economies of scale towards low-cost bulk production method. The natural environments of surface mining operations create different challenging conditions which include limitation of space, weak overburden material, weathered soils and rocks, drainage, weather conditions etc. Thus, the industry faces enormous challenges in the selection of appropriate mining equipment to meet technical, operating, safety, environmental and economic requirements. The need for understanding the real issues that affect the real choices for bulk surface mining operations is critical for achieving economies of scale. Thus it has become eminent to study the reliability of machinery under the given geo-mining conditions in order to keep down time to a minimum.

In this paper reliability analysis of 42 cum shovels and its prediction under different geo-mining parameters with an emphasis on compressive strength of overburden material is presented with a case study of Gevra mine, being the largest coal mine of Asia. Availability and reliability of HEMM are the functions of geo-mining conditions, so there is a need to study and formulate a guideline in this regard. In this study failure data of 42 cum shovel has been correlated with compressive strength of overburden material as one of the prime parameter of prevailing geo-mining conditions. The reliability is evaluated using Weibull Analysis method.