Methodology for refined calculation of mean time to repair of mining dump truck suspension elements with account of mining and technical conditions of their operation

Abstract

Suspension of mining dump trucks currently accounts for the largest share in the total number of sudden failures. In this regard, determination and further clarification of the rational replacement age and the mean time to repair of elements of this particular unit of mining dump trucks is one of the extremely important tasks that are faced by both their manufacturers and the maintenance teams of mining and processing plants. Currently existing methods are based on two main approaches, i.e. accumulation and analysis of the failure statistics for the same type of operations and assessment of the remaining lifetime. However none of them takes into account the influence of the mining conditions in which the equipment operates, and these conditions can also change significantly during its operation. To solve the presented problem, it is proposed to specify the existing methodology for determining the rational mean time to repair by establishing a comprehensive optimization criterion, which in addition to the mean time between failures shall include various types of economic costs and a coefficient reflecting the relationship between the influence of mining operating conditions and the mean time between failures. The result of clarifying the mean time to repair of the dump truck suspension elements is a decrease in the average recovery time of this unit, which leads to an increase in the maintainability of the entire machine.