Mining Equipment

Maintenance
Fundamental Concepts

Old Underground Coal Mines

Modern Longwall Mine

The effect of Mechanisation on Productivity

25000

20000

Tonnes/Man-Year
Produced in Queensland
Coal Mines

15000

10000

5000

19
16
19
20
19
25
19
30
19
35
19
40
19
45
19
50
19
52
19
55
19
60
19
69
19
72
19
75
19
80
19
85
19
88
19
95
20
03

Maintenance Costs
30-50% of the operating costs
Annual bill is about $10 billion
Equally significant is the cost of lost
production when the machine is down
Every 1% improvement in equipment
availability or productivity improves the
company profits by up to 3.5%

Objective Function for

Maximising Company profits
The Annual Production for a given
investment is a suitable objective function

Total Annual Production

Is this total annual production ?
Tonnes/Hour x Total Hours
More realistic prediction is
Tonnes/Hour x (TotalHours - Downtime)
Probably the following is more illuminating
Tonnes/Hour x (TotalHours -Scheduled Downtime
- Breakdown maintenance)

Total Hours of Possible

Production

Subtract Planned
Maintenance

Subtract Breakdowns
This is the time available
for production. Obviously,
you want to maximise this
time. That is why the ratio
of this time to the total
time is a very important
KPI.

Availability
TH - PM - BM
A=
TH
TH
PM
BM

Total Hours
Planned Maintenance
Breakdown Maintenance

Availability
TH - PM - BM Operating Time
=
A=
TH
Total Time
Is also expressed in terms of MTBF and MTTR as

MTBF
A=
MTBF+MTTR

Availability
TH - PM - BM Operating Time
=
A=
TH
Total Time
Is also expressed in terms of MTBF and MTTR as

MTBF
A=
MTBF+MTTR
This is the textbook
definition of AVAILABILITY

Availability
Operating Time = N x MTBF
Downtime = N x MTTR
Total Time = N x (MTBF+MTTR)

Operating Time
N x MTBF
A=
=
Total Time
N x (MTBF+MTTR)

Maximise the Return to the Company

The aim for the company is to maximise the return from its
productive assets.
Let us keep it simple and express this as maximising the
production through the year.
To achieve this,
(a) The machine availability must be high
(b) The machine must be producing at a high rate when it is
operating
The solution is a compromise between the two.
We will see this in an example.

Optimum Bucket Size

The recommended suspended load for your dragline is 150
tonnes. A competitor put a larger bucket on a similar unit
and they are running it at a suspended load of 170 tonnes.
Your Manager wants you to install an even bigger bucket,
taking your suspended load up to 210 tonnes. You know
that the safe static load for this dragline is 250 tonnes.
-Does a larger bucket necessarily mean higher production?
-Why not increase it to 250 tonnes if this is the safe load?
-How would you determine the optimum bucket size?

Question

A=

TH - PM - BM
TH

Present Production Po = 9000 t/h.

Total Mine Operating Time in a Year = 8640h
12-hour planned maintenance shift every month.
Breakdown maintenance downtime is expected to
vary with the production rate as

BM = 336 R

P
where R =
Po

P is the production rate with the bigger bucket.

Find R that maximises the annual production.

Lo
Br st p
ea ro
k d du
ow ct
n m i on
ain du
te e t
na o
nc
e

Solution

Optimum Point

Dependence on MTBF

Maintenance
Maintenance must be considered in the
context of asset utilisation
Mining is an asset-rich industry
Optimum utilisation of these assets is the
only way a company will stay competitive
This is a task for both production and
maintenance engineers.

Some Basic Concepts

Failure
Loss of ability
of an item to
perform its
required
function

Failure
Broken teeth
on shearer
downdrive gear

Failure
Cost associated with
this failure:
Lost production when
the machine was down
Replacement gear
Maintenance labour

Failure Rate, MTBF, MTTR

Failure

MTTR

MTBF

100

Re
pa
ir

Re
pa
ir

MTBF

Re
pa
ir

MTTR

200

Hours

Failure Rate, MTBF, MTTR

MTTR

MTBF

100

Re
pa
ir

Re
pa
ir

MTBF

Re
pa
ir

MTTR

200

Hours

MTBF = Mean Time Between Failure (100 h)

Failure Rate = Number of failures per unit time (0.01 h-1)
MTTR = Mean Time To Repair (20 h)

Historical Records
Failures occur randomly. The repair time is also not constant.
How do we find MTBF and MTTR?

If we treat failure as a random event, then we can use the

well-established tools of probability and statistics to model
the uptime, downtime and availability for our equipment.

Random Failure?
All nature is but art, unknown to thee
All chance, direction thou canst not see
All discord, harmony not understood

Alexander Pope, Essay on Man

Poisson Process
Poisson distribution is commonly used in forecasting to
represent the number of occurrences of a specific event in
a given continuous interval.
Ships arriving at a dock on a given day
Traffic accidents on the SE freeway in a month
Mad cow disease breakouts in the world in one year
Typos per page in a long report typed by Hal Gurgenci
Cable shovel failures in one day of operation

Poisson Distribution
p ( x) =

( t )

x!

This is the probability distribution of the Poisson random

variable X representing the number of outcomes occurring in
a given time interval t. The parameter is the average
number of outcomes per unit time.

Reliability
Assume failure events follow a Poisson distribution.
What is the probability of having NO FAILURES in a
given time interval t?
This can be found by substituting x=0 in the Poisson
distribution function:

p (0) =

( t )
0!

=e

This is referred to as the survival probability or the

reliability

Reliability
R (t ) = e

Reliability is the probability that a product will

operate throughout a specified period without failure
when maintained in accordance with the manufacturer's
instructions; and
when not subjected to the environmental or operational
stresses beyond limits stipulated by the manufacturer

The value of e
Two centuries ago, a Polish Statistician, Ladislaus
Bortkiewicz, investigated the Prussian army fatalities
caused by horse kicks. According to army reports, the rate
was about one fatality every 1.64 years. Ladislaus
collected the reports for one year. These were 200 reports
and 109 recorded no deaths at all.
Can you estimate the value of e using the above data?

Example
A major piece of equipment fails twice a day on average.
Consider its reliability over a period of month.
What is the probability of failure at any time during that
month?

Reliability
R = e 2t

Zoom In
R = e 2t

Failure Probability
If the reliability, R(t), is the probability to survive through
time t, then the probability of failing through that period is
1 R(t)
or

F (t ) = 1 R (t ) = 1 e
Let us plot this

Failure Probability
This chart gives the probability of
the failure from 0 to time t. In
other words, it is the Cumulative
Distribution Function for failures.
How would we find the probability
density function or p.d.f. This is
sometimes useful.
We differentiate the cumulative
distribution function.

Failure Distribution Function

Cumulative
Distribution Function

F (t ) = 1 R (t ) = 1 e

The time-derivative of the c.d.f. gives the Probability

Distribution Function or p.d.f.

dF
t
= e
f (t ) =
dt
This form of p.d.f. is called the Exponential Distribution.
It represents the case when the hazard rate or failure rate, ,
is constant over time.

Failure p.d.f.
The probability of failure through a
unit time interval is given by
p=

t +1

f (t )dt

Let us zoom into the p.d.f.

The probability of failure through a unit time interval is
given by the area under the curve

p=

t +1

1
1
f (t ) dt f (t + ) 1 f (t + ) f (t )
2
2

Hazard Rate
The hazard rate is the conditional probability of failure in a
small time interval (t, t+dt). It is conditional on there being
no failure until t:
f (t )
h(t ) =
R (t )

For exponential failure distribution, the hazard rate is

constant:

f (t ) e t
= t =
h(t ) =
R(t ) e

Constant Hazard Rate

The exponential
distribution corresponds to
a constant failure rate a.k.a.
constant hazard rate

Is always constant ?
Failure p.d.f.

f (t ) = e

The constant is the failure rate

(= 1/MTBF)
So far, we treated as constant

Reliability function

R (t ) = e

This is called the exponential

distribution
Is this always true?
Let us first give an example

Uniformly Increasing Rate

Assume the failure
rate is increasing by
the formula 0.1t
where t is measured
in days
It starts from zero and
at the end of the
month, the hazard rate
is 3 failures per day.
How do we generate the reliability function for this
component?

Reliability with varying

m=0.1
hazard rate
In a sample of N, dN will fail in a time interval dt

dN = Nmtdt

N = Ce

mt 2 / 2

2
t
dN
= mtdt ln N = m + ln C
2
N

= Noe

mt 2 / 2

Then the reliability function is

Where N is the value of N at t=0

N
mt 2 / 2
=e
No

This corresponds to a Weibull distribution

Weibull Reliability

R=e

The probability of surviving through time t

Shape factor

Scale factor

Weibull Distribution Curves

c.d.f.

p.d.f.

Hazard Rate

F (t ) = 1 R(t ) = 1 e
dF
f (t ) =
= t
dt

t

1

f (t ) 1
h(t ) =
= t
R (t )

Weibull curves with different

hazard functions
R=e

1
h(t ) = t

Failure Rate, %

Bathtub Curve
Infant
Mortality

Useful Working Life

Falling
Apart

Optimum Point to Replace

Life in operation, hours

Actual Failure Patterns

These curves are the failure
patterns observed on
aircraft components in a
study completed in 1978 by
Nowlan and Heap.

4%
2%
5%

This shows that only 4% of

the components go through
a bathtub curve.

7%
82%

(68% of this with infant mortality)

RELIABILITY OF SYSTEMS
Series Systems
Parallel Systems (Redundancy)

Series Systems
A series system is a chain of components. When one of these parts fails,
the entire system fails.

Series Systems

R = RA RB RC

Parallel Systems
The failure for a parallel system means the failure of each
individual component. The system failure probability is then the
product of individual failure probabilities (1 R).
A

R = 1 (1 RA )(1 RB )(1 RC )

Most mining machinery

systems are series
systems. In other words,
the failure of one
component fails the
entire system. The
redundancy in mining
can be provided by
having multiple systems,
eg spare trucks or
shovels.

Managing Reliability
Optimum utilisation of its capital investment in
equipment is essential for company profits
Equipment reliability plays a major role in this
Therefore, managing reliability is a core business
for a mining company
This is a task for both production and maintenance
engineers. In the rest of this presentation, we will
talk about the maintenance function.

Maintenance Function
Preventive Maintenance
Prevent failures by performing a set of maintenance
tasks at periodic intervals
Service
Inspection
Replacement

Corrective Maintenance
Repair after a failure to bring the machine back to an
operating state

Which one delivers higher overall system

availability?

Corrective Maintenance
We assume that corrective maintenance
brings the system to as new state.
Then it has no effect on system reliability
Its impact on system availability is measure
by the Mean Time To Repair (MTTR)

Mean Time To Repair

Fault Identification
What caused the failure? What needs to be repaired?

Set-up time
Find and bring the right person to the job
Actual repair

Logistic delays
Waiting for the spare part

Restart time
Time spent to bring the system back to normal
operation after the fault is repaired

How to minimise MTTR

Identify the failed components quickly.
This is achieved by experienced operators,
on-line fault detection tools
For frequent failures have the repair crew
with the right skills on standby
Ditto for the frequently failing spare parts
Design the equipment and the operating
procedure to minimise re-starting time

PM Trade-Offs
The cost of failure
MTTR
The cost of the repair and the replacement

The cash cost of the planned maintenance

action (salaries, consumables, etc)
The opportunity cost (lost production)

Preventive Maintenance
Issues
Service
Effect on System Reliability

Inspection
P-F time (between potential and actual system
failure)

Replacement
Failure distribution curves
Effect on System Reliability

Would inspections help?

The time when we can recognise
Potential Failure

P-F Interval

Failure
Time

Scheduled inspections help when

Potential failure condition is clearly defined
The P-F interval is consistent
It is practical to inspect at intervals less than
the P-F interval
The P-F interval is long enough to
implement corrective maintenance action

Scheduled replacements help when

The component breakdown has costly
consequences (eg chain of failures, distance
from the workshop, etc)
The dominant failure mode is age-related
with the hazard rate consistently increasing
above an acceptable value at around the set
replacement period

Weibull curves with different

hazard functions
R=e

1
h(t ) = t

Periodic replacements - 1
= 0.5

Decreasing Hazard Rate

Scheduled replacement
increases failure
probability

Periodic replacements - 2
=1

Constant Hazard Rate

Scheduled replacement
has no effect on failure
probability

Periodic replacements - 3
=2

Increasing Hazard Rate

Scheduled replacement
decreases failure
probability

Reliability Research
A significant part of the academic and research community
has been continuing to develop increasingly complex
mathematical models of the engineering systems and the
expected modes of failure under various loading
assumptions.
While the intellectual rigour in these studies and the amount
of effort that go into them cannot be ignored, the
applications to real manufacturing and mining processes
have been limited primarily for the lack of data needed to
support these models

Industry Data
Analysis and Representation Tools

Site Maintenance Records

job_no

DaJob ojob (s job_title

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date_act_end

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HOIST BRAKES
R29

R 432

Hoist Motors - George Gilbert & Co. -ED Petersen Report (Shutdown

11/04/96

18/03/96

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86,387.00

R29

R 432

Hoist Motors - George Gilbert & Co. -ED Petersen Report (Shutdown

11/04/96

18/03/96

22/04/96

86,387.00

R29

R 432

Hoist Motors - George Gilbert & Co. -ED Petersen Report (Shutdown

11/04/96

18/03/96

22/04/96

86,387.00

R29

R 432

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It is usually necessary to process 100000+ lines from

multiple sources of sometimes questionable accuracy

Pareto Analysis
Pareto Principle : Significant few and
Insignificant many
In any application, a large part of the
failures are due to a small number of causes
A Pareto plot helps to identify the most
significant causes
The benefit is incurred only by attending the
significant issues

Pareto Chart
Pareto Analysis for Longwall
Face Equipment Failures

Shearer Drive Shaft

Scatter Plot Diagrams

A scatter plot is a logarithmic plot of
MTTR against the number of failures N.
Since the total downtime associated with
each failure is NxMTTR, constant
downtime curves appear as lines on
logarithmic axes.
Downtime
MTTR =
log MTTR = C log N
N

Longwall Scatter Plot

Lines of
Constant
Downtime

Reliability Analysis
Pareto Analysis and Scatter Plots are good tools to
identify the reliability sinks in the equipment
The next step is to calculate the failure probability
distribution curves for all critical components.
The MTTR statistics may also be required if
MTTR is not reasonably constant for each item
This step requires high quality data

Features of High Quality Data

Large enough set to have at least 4-5 failure
events for each target failure mode
Cover a sufficiently long time period to
eliminate local effects
Uniform operating conditions over this
period
Accuracy free of collectors bias

Failure History Example

Suppose that we have the failure log for a
component as 180, 216, 930, 990, 1300 and
1850 hours.
Estimate the MTBF assuming an exponential
probability distributions.

Failure Data (example)

Failure times
180h

36

990h
1300h
1850h

714
60

216h
930h

36

714
310
60
310
550

550

36 + 714 + 60 + 310 + 550

MTBF =
= 334
5

Curve Fitting
The failure log was 180, 216, 930, 990, 1300 and 1850 hours.
The TBF array , TBF = {36, 714, 60, 310, 550}.
i

TBF

36

60

310

550

714

Fi

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

This is cumulative probability distribution data. We can then compare it

against exponential or Weibull distributions. For example, use the
following form to try an exponential distribution:

1
t
=

t
F
t
e
ln
1
(
)

1 F (t )

Estimate the Failure

Distribution
TBF, h
36
60
310
550
714

Rough
Median
Estimate Estimate
20%
10%
40%
30%
60%
50%
80%
70%
100%
90%

Exponential Fitt
F (t ) = 1 e

= 1 e

334

Longwall Equipment
Failure Probability Distribution
Functions for some Critical Items

AFC Blockage/Overload (2002 only)

1
ln

1 F (t )

Exponential

AFC Blockage/Overload (2002 only)

Weibull

AFC Chain Failures

1
ln

1 F (t )

Exponential

AFC Chain Failures

Weibull

BSL Chain Failures

1
ln

1 F (t )

Exponential

BSL Chain Failures

Weibull

Shearer Cable Failures

1
ln

1 F (t )

Exponential

Shearer Cable Failures

Weibull

What is to be done?
Increase overall availability
Minimise the time spent on PM
Decrease number of breakdowns
More effective PM
Condition monitoring with long enough P-F time
Engineering changes
Design changes
Changes to the operating procedure

Decrease MTTR

Do all this while maximising the profit

Learn lessons for next equipment purchase

The Reliability Function?

Failed =0

t=0
Failed=8

t=4

Failed =2

t=1
Failed=10

t=5

Failed=4

Failed =6

t=2

t=3

Failed =12

Failed=14

t=6

t=7

Is this best represented by a Weibull or an exponential distrubution?