Improvement of the service life of mining and industrial equipment by using friction modifiers

Purpose. Enhancement of the performance, service life and sustainability of industrial vehicles, mining machinery and various equipment by reducing the friction coefficient. Methodology. Laboratory research on assessing the interaction of friction pairs under external loading, rolling, and sliding in dry friction conditions, as well as the influence of friction modifiers. Industrial experimental studies on the performance indicators of mining machinery under the influence of friction modifiers. Findings. Actual diagrams depicting changes in the friction coefficient between the contacting surfaces of disc pairs were obtained for four specific loading periods and corresponding pressures of 529, 374, 274 and 187 MPa. These measurements were taken while the discs experienced a 10 % relative slippage and cyclic load interaction during the testing of specimens, with the presence of the repair-recovery compound called “Ideal” and without it, using only dry friction. The new technologies and the new repair-recovery compound “Ideal”, developed at the Institute of Geotechnical Mechanics named by N. Poljakov of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, provide an exceptionally low friction coefficient of 0.04–0.005 and ensure the durability of the protective layer under dry friction before failure, reaching 80–100 thousand cycles at a specific pressure of 529 MPa. At a specific pressure of 187–374 MPa, the protective layer under dry friction provides up to 1 million cycles of interaction. Originality. The unique properties of the combination of the “Ideal” tribotechnical composition, which forms a metal-ceramic, superhard, refractory, and wear-resistant nanostructured layer on a metal base, have been established. This layer provides protection against wear, dynamic loads, thermal and oxidative degradation, and increases the service life of friction units in industrial equipment by 3–10 times. Practical value. Based on the results of experimental and acceptance tests of the “Ideal” repair-recovery compound, a decrease in friction coefficient values and an extension of the service life of highly loaded gear mechanisms in mining and industrial equipment by 1.4–2.0 times have been established. It has been found that the protective layer provided by the “Ideal” repair-recovery compound helps reduce the wear mass of friction surfaces by 20 times in the tested samples, ensuring cleanliness of lubricants in equipment and increasing their operational lifespan while saving on maintenance costs.