Mining Engineering Keeps The Mining Industry Mining

Weekly inspection schedules all on heavy mining equipment is an essential part of the overall mining engineering maintenance requirements of vital and very expensive mining machinery.

The particular focus of these inspections is always on those key high stress parts and areas of the machines that have a history for stress and fatigue fractures.

Repairs and or refurbishment of a stressed or fractured part are always less time consuming to complete the earlier the problem is detected.

Case in point

A  390 ton Terex RH170 excavator on-site at a Boggabri coal mine in Central NSW goes through is usual weekly maintenance inspection and is found to have an obvious stress fracture in the critical H link. The machine is immediately taken off line. Every hour of down time is money lost for the mining company.

The Engineering Unlimited team is called out to the mine to assess the problem and get on with the business of getting the machine back on line as quickly as possible.  The five man Engineering Unlimited Mining Engineering Fast Response Team has the fractured 2.4 tonne H link removed from the machine and a replacement fitted to the manufacturer’s specs in five hours flat.

The machine is re-certified and back on line within six hours of the Engineering Unlimited team arriving on site. But that is the easy part. The Fractured 2.4ton H Link is loaded and transported back to the Engineering Unlimited facility where the team does a thorough inspection on the fracture and confirms the best course of action to repair and refurbish the H link.

Backed by years of experience the Engineering Unlimited team is well versed in what needs to be done to successfully repair the cast and grade steel H link. Although this 2.4 tonne part is sizable, the Engineering Unlimited team has at its disposal a considerable range of heavy lift equipment and all of the necessary tools to get the job done quickly, effectively and safely.

A well established and step-by-step process of cleaning, grinding, pre-heating and air arc gouging lays bare the fractures and prepares them for the all important cross and blend 81NI MIG welding that will not only repair the fractures, but will actually strengthen what are known to be weak or potential failure areas.

Engineering a world’s best practice repair on this vital piece of equipment requires both the skill and focus of the Mining Engineer and the adherence to a highly technical process of pre-heating, gouging, run off plates, grinding and layering of the 81NI MIG welds.

The final result is a fully refurbished H link that is completely repaired, cleaned, repainted, re-certified and returned to the mining company, ready to be swapped out to another machine should the need arise.

The Engineering Unlimited 24/7 fast response team members pride themselves on providing mining engineering services that get high value mining machines back on line in the shortest possible time, ensuring any down time and subsequent loss of income to the mine is keep to an absolute minimum.