Posted by Daniel Gleeson on ninth September 2024
At Colombia’s Carbones Del Cerrejón mine, which faces intervals of utmost warmth and humidity, a Hitachi EX3600-6 excavator has surpassed expectations, clocking over 100,000 hours of operation.
This feat, which far exceeds its anticipated lifecycle, is uncommon, with lower than 1% of machines reaching such limits, but the Cerrejón mine achieved it via a sturdy preventative upkeep technique, in response to Hitachi Development Equipment.
Assembled in December 2008 at Cerrejón, the EX3600-6 was chosen for a life extension trial. The mine’s “annual shutdown” technique was pivotal, specializing in thorough monitoring and analysis of key structural elements. This included crucial areas just like the bases of all beds, the primary body, the monitor body and the aspect frames. Parts recognized with a 20% margin remaining on their common life expectancy have been scheduled for main shutdowns each 6,000 hours.
Aligned with this established upkeep technique, a sturdy path of predictive strategies can also be being applied for the excavator. These strategies are scheduled at frequencies decided by Reliability-Centred Upkeep (RCM) methodologies and outlined via information evaluation, enabling the upkeep of a proactive scheme for well timed detection and intervention. The predictive strategies embody structural inspection of all principal elements, ultrasonic testing at crucial factors primarily based on historic information from the entrance attachments, finite factor evaluation simulations, vibration exams on energy transmission elements and the applying of thermography strategies as per the inspection technique.
To reinforce this strategy, new applied sciences are being built-in, comparable to using drones to watch the operational behaviour of elements. These drones generate information that assist predict part failure by monitoring temperature traits in hydraulic programs.
All through its greater than 100,000 hours of operation, the EX3600-6 has maintained an availability fee averaging between 84.7% and 86.5%, excluding the months designated for main shutdowns. Moreover, over the past 36,000 hours of operation, the excavator has demonstrated a reliability metric of 63.3 hours of mid time between failures, additional highlighting the effectiveness of the upkeep methods in place.
Essentially the most important discovering from this examine is that making certain the extension of the tools’s helpful life has relied closely on the creation, monitoring and execution of particular upkeep actions outlined via RCM, HCM says. These actions have been enriched by varied upkeep methodologies, with lean manufacturing standing out, a technique broadly utilized by Cerrejón. The appliance of those methodologies is encapsulated within the operation chart often known as the “upkeep technique”, which is periodically adjusted and improved primarily based on the fleet’s or particular belongings’ failure historical past.
Moreover, a taxonomic evaluation of the failure hierarchy has allowed for the clear identification of asset vulnerabilities. This course of has enabled the institution of focused actions to make sure sustainability in efficiency throughout the tools’s operation.
Over its lifecycle, the EX3600-6 required full substitute just for its aspect frames – a testomony to the effectiveness of Cerrejón’s upkeep routine, HCM says. Throughout the annual shutdowns, important repairs have been carried out within the excavator’s inside workshop, together with routine reconstruction and automotive physique repairs. Non-structural elements have been repeatedly monitored and changed as wanted, making certain the machine operated at peak efficiency all through its prolonged life.
