Dragline maintenance engineering

Abstract

[Abstract]: This research project ‘Dragline Maintenance Engineering’ explores the maintenance strategies for large walking draglines over the past 30 years in the Australian coal industry. Many draglines built since the 1970’s are still original in configuration and utilize original component technology. ie electrical drives, gear configurations. However, there have been many innovative enhancements, configuration changes and upgrading of components. The objective is to critically analyze the maintenance strategies, and to determine whether these strategies are still supportive of optimizing the availability and reliability of the draglines. The maintenance strategies associated with dragline maintenance vary, dependent on fleet size and mine conditions; they are aligned with the Risk Based Model. The effectiveness of the maintenance strategy implemented with dragline maintenance is highly dependent on the initial effort demonstrated at the commencement of planning for the mining operation. Mine size, productivity requirements, machinery configuration and economic factors drive the maintenance strategies associated with Dragline Maintenance Engineering.