Tag Archives: maintenance

BMA Daunia met coal mine cuts truck service time

Equipment maintenance, Mine operation news, Mining equipment, Mining maintenance, Mining safety, Mining services, Steel and iron ore, , , , , ,

The maintenance team at BHP Mitsubishi Alliance’s (BMA) Daunia metallurgical coal mine has introduced a new service approach for the haul trucks running at the Queensland mine, in the process, cutting the average truck downtime for a regular service from two hours to just 40 minutes.

The haul trucks at BMA Daunia shift around 226 t of coal or overburden every load, with the fleet of 16 running 24 h/d. This means each truck needs to be serviced every 250 hours, or about every two weeks, according to BMA.

“The time it takes our maintenance team to service trucks is critical to our mine efficiency and productivity because it directly impacts how long they are out of action,” BMA said. “And it is vital they are serviced safely, effectively and consistently.

“That’s why we are excited about some recent improvements in the service time for the truck fleet.”

BMA did three things to transform its work:

  • Introduced a dedicated service bay;
  • Allowed maintainers time to set up tooling and service kits before the truck enters the workshop, and;
  • Introduced technology to design, monitor and improve the way it works.

The results have exceeded the team’s expectations, BMA said.

“We reduced the average truck downtime for a regular truck service from two hours to just 40 minutes. That’s a saving of one hour and 20 minutes for each truck a fortnight, or a potential 10 hours of extra work each week for the fleet.”

Not only that, the service process is safer for BMA’s maintainers and more consistently delivered.

BMA says it is about to roll out a similar approach for its larger 363 t payload trucks and will shortly progress to bulldozer servicing, it said.

This work is all part of the BHP Operating System (BOS), according to BMA, a process that also includes standardised work.

“This empowers frontline teams to solve problems and design solutions to streamline their processes,” BMA said. “It also encourages greater collaboration to reduce waste, overloading and variation, and produces more effective and consistent results.”

The company continued: “We started applying standardised work to truck maintenance at Daunia a year ago. We used technology to track our work and then analysed the process to find ways it could be improved. We then helped build a custom app that runs off an iPad or iPhone that walks a maintainer through every aspect of this scheduled maintenance in the most efficient, safe and effective way.

“The app means we complete the service the same way every time and it is interactive, so we can continue making suggestions through it to improve what we do.”

Using a standardised work approach to this important scheduled maintenance process has made BMA’s work quicker, safer, easier, and more efficient, consistent and collaborative, according to the company.

“Best of all, the truck service improvements and the associated technology are transferrable. It is being trialled at two other BHP mine sites and, with a few tweaks to suit each site, looks set to be implemented across all BHP-operated mine sites.”

Metso enters new territory with development of Truck Body

Mining consumables, Mining equipment, Mining maintenance, Mining services, , , , , ,

Metso has launched its haul truck body at the Bauma 2019 show in Munich, Germany, showcasing the expansion of its product portfolio into new territory.

“The Metso Truck Body is a ground-breaking innovation that combines the benefits of rubber and high structural strength steel, enabling mines and quarries to haul more with less,” the company said.

Lars Skoog, Vice President, Mining Wear Lining & Screening, Metso, said: “Hauling is one of the most cost-intensive components of a typical mining or quarrying operation. In addition to fuel and labour, there’s plenty of maintenance involved too.

“To ensure cost efficiency, a haul truck should carry as much payload as possible on every round. At Metso, we set out to tackle this challenge and designed a truck body that requires minimal maintenance while maximising payload. The result is a lower operating cost per hauled tonne.”

The Metso Truck Body is a lightweight, rubber-lined tray designed for off-highway trucks. The elastic rubber absorbs the energy of every impact, preventing it from reaching the frame and thus allowing for a lighter-than-usual, high structural strength steel frame beneath the rubber. Thanks to this, the body can absorb maximum shock at the lowest possible weight.

Metso has been supplying its tried-and-tested rubber lining for haul trucks for several decades with outstanding results both in reducing the need for maintenance and improving the working environment for truck drivers.

Metso said: “The proven benefits include up to six times more wear life compared to traditional steel lining, half the noise, and 97% less vibration. Our latest innovation, Metso Truck Body, takes this concept to another level by combining the wear protection and working environment benefits of rubber with the payload-maximising abilities of a lightweight body.”

Skoog added: “Many mines prefer lightweight truck bodies because they enable the carrying of more payload. However, the problem with these traditional lightweight bodies is their lack of durability – they often have to be replaced in every one or two years, or repaired, which gets expensive.

“The Metso Truck Body provides an unprecedented solution that is both light and durable. The rubber lining and high structural strength steel frame have been engineered in a seamless process, utilising the best qualities of both materials.”

A typical Metso Truck Body weighs 20-30% less than a traditional steel-lined truck body, according to Metso. Depending on the application, this translates into a payload increase of several tonnes.

The Metso Truck Body is available globally for all major off-highway truck models used in mining and quarrying. Several lining options ensure application-specific fit, even in operations that struggle with problems such as carry-back.

Anglo readying predictive maintenance solutions following Barro Alto implementation

Automation, Base metals, Equipment maintenance, IoT, Mine operation news, Mineral processing, Mining equipment, Mining maintenance, Mining services, Mining software, , , , , , ,

Anglo American has highlighted its predictive maintenance efforts on equipment at its Barro Alto nickel mine in Brazil in its recently-published annual report.

The company said it is developing predictive models so it can make better informed operational decisions. These models, built by data scientists and often powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, contain advanced algorithms that leverage the power of data to generate predictions, according to the company.

“At the operational level, we are using customised learning algorithms across a range of different applications,” Anglo said. “In one such instance, we monitor equipment health at a number of our operating sites, with the aim of improving operational performance through predictive maintenance.”

The company said at Barro Alto, which has two rotary kilns and two electric furnaces that smelt nickel ore, it is focusing its predictive maintenance efforts on key pieces of high-power equipment.

Anglo said: “By building a comprehensive data platform that monitors 38 major elements of the Barro Alto operation, we are increasing our knowledge of the performance of the equipment and we are using data to accurately forecast failures before they happen.”

Soon, the company will be able to “dynamically manage” maintenance intervals – only replacing parts when required – Anglo said. This ensures greater operational uptime and product throughput, according to the company. “The implementation is expected to improve furnace reliability, as well as realise cost savings for the nickel business,” Anglo said.

The learnings from Barro Alto are also being applied to fixed-plant assets in other operations, Anglo said. “This nascent project is on track to deliver considerable value from just one data analytics application.”

On the technology in general, Anglo said: “Data analytics augments the intelligence in our people by helping them make better, confident data-driven decisions. Remote monitoring of assets takes people away from physical equipment and helps avoid high-energy failures, which leads to a safer working environment. Reducing unplanned equipment failures can also bring significant environmental benefits owing to the reduced likelihood of spillages.”

Anglo plans to extend the reach of its data analytics platforms to all aspects of its value chain and extend operational decision support to the mining and processing phases of its assets, it said.