Faculty Publications

Purpose: Load haul dumper (LHD) is one of the main ore transporting machineries used in underground mining industry. Reliability of LHD is very significant to achieve the expected targets of production. The performance of the equipment should be maintained at its highest level to fulfill the targets. This can be accomplished only by reducing the sudden breakdowns of component/subsystems in a complex system. The identification of defective component/subsystems can be possible by performing the downtime analysis. Hence, it is very important to develop the proper maintenance strategies for replacement or repair actions of the defective ones. Suitable maintenance management actions improve the performance of the equipment. This paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach: Reliability analysis (renewal approach) has been used to analyze the performance of LHD machine. Allocations of best-fit distribution of data sets were made by the utilization of Kolmogorov–Smirnov (K–S) test. Parametric estimation of theoretical probability distributions was made by utilizing the maximum likelihood estimate (MLE) method. Findings: Independent and identical distribution (IID) assumption of data sets was validated through trend and serial correlation tests. On the basis of test results, the data sets are in accordance with IID assumption. Therefore, renewal process approach has been utilized for further investigation. Allocations of best-fit distribution of data sets were made by the utilization of Kolmogorov–Smirnov (K–S) test. Parametric estimation of theoretical probability distributions was made by utilizing the MLE method. Reliability of each individual subsystem has been computed according to the best-fit distribution. In respect of obtained reliability results, the reliability-based preventive maintenance (PM) time schedules were calculated for the expected 90 percent reliability level. Research limitations/implications: As the reliability analysis is one of the complex techniques, it requires strategic decision making knowledge for the selection of methodology to be used. As the present case study was from a public sector company, operating under financial constraints the conclusions/findings may not be universally applicable. Originality/value: The present study throws light on this equipment that need a tailored maintenance schedule, partly due to the peculiar mining conditions, under which they operate. This study mainly focuses on estimating the performance of four numbers of well-mechanized LHD systems with reliability, availability and maintainability (RAM) modeling. Based on the drawn results, reasons for performance drop of each machine were identified. Suitable recommendations were suggested for the enhancement of performance of capital intensive production equipment. As the maintenance management is only the means for performance improvement of the machinery, PM time intervals were estimated with respect to the expected rate of reliability level. © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Unexpected occurrence of uneven breakdowns and their consequences have a significant influence on the equipment life. Hence, there is a need to discover the motives for the happening of critical potential failures and required repair or replacement action to control. Reliability analysis is utilized to approximate the performance of the equipment. In this study, the performance of the underground mining machinery known as load haul dumper (LHD) has been estimated with reliability analysis. The best-fit distribution of the data sets was selected by testing the numerous statistical distributions using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov (K-S) test. The percentage of reliability of each subsystem of the LHD machine was computed based on the best-fit approximation. The overall system reliability of the equipment was estimated using a series configuration-based reliability block diagram (RBD) approach. The reliability-based preventive maintenance (PM) time intervals were also computed for estimated 90.00% reliability. To accomplish the desired level of reliability, a review on maintenance programs should be made. Possible recommendations were made to the maintenance department in the industry for improvement in equipment. © 2020, ASM International.

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