Abstract
M.Ing.
Until very recently reactive maintenance was still used in the mining industry. Equipment failures occurred without warning and resulted in catastrophic breakdowns and large production losses and maintenance cost.
As a result, the mining industry turned to preventative maintenance that focused on changing parts before they fail. Although preventative maintenance was an improvement over reactive maintenance practices, equipment reliability did not necessarily improve. Next came predictive diagnostics, which monitored the health of components within assemblies, and thereby predicting the life expectancy of assemblies through vibration analysis, infrared thermography, lubrication and oil analysis and ultrasonic detection.
However, the level of success could not be achieved. Many hours and a lot of money are spent in developing and implementing a maintenance management system, but without the correct approach, efficient maintenance might not be achieved. The overall objective of this dissertation is to introduce a logical approach to managing the maintenance of mining equipment over the economical life of the equipment. This concept can be defined as Life Cycle Management.
The research included in this dissertation is partially aimed at developing the Life Cycle Management program for P&H MinePro Services A division of Joy Global (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd.
The dissertation also includes case studies on the P&H Mining Equipment (Blast Hole Drills) and their alliance partners (LeTourneau Front-end Loaders).
The dissertation focuses on the cradle to grave approach of maintenance for mining machinery, referred to as the Life Cycle Management of Mining Machinery.