Engineering & design | Asset management
Dragline operation is critical to mining operations and downtime is expensive. So predicting the remaining life of components and avoiding breakdowns provides high value to an asset owner. FIELD Engineers saw the opportunity for innovation decided to develop a system for measuring both the load in dragline rollers and the machine centre of gravity (CoG). This system would provide data for remaining life calculation and check for overstressed components.
Engineers decided to develop the system using FIELD’s existing wireless data acquisition system, along with existing data that had been collected using conventional strain gauges in previous work. They then designed an instrumented roller that could be introduced into the ring and transmit data directly. Along with gauges in the revolving frame and tub, this produced accurate measurements of the load (and the CoG location) throughout the full roller circle. The data from the system was then validated and a repeatable procedure documented for future use.
The system was successfully deployed after development to test a full roller circle replacement, measuring peak stresses, roller loads and CoG, allowing calculation of the expected life for the new circle before changeout. In this case, FIELD’s expert dragline knowledge and existing data acquisition system minimised development time of a unique measurement system, which can now be used repeatedly for accurate measurements, improved maintenance planning and overstress avoidance.
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