SKF Overcoming market challenges through technology

Phil Burge looks at how dedicated component technologies can reduce mining costs

With mining plants operating in some of the harshest conditions, it is difficult to maintain equipment, with unplanned downtime and worker injuries posing a constant risk. Consequently many mines often operate below optimum efficiency. For example, it is common to run larger vehicle fleets than necessary in the expectation that at least one vehicle will always be out of service. Maintenance itself severely impacts on cost and recent research indicates that this could be between 20-50% of total costs in the mining sector.

At a time when mining companies are seeking to reduce costs whilst improving productivity greater attention is being placed on machine performance, reliability and efficiency. In particular focus is being placed on the smaller components such as bearings and seals; for if they fail there will be an overall system failure and downtime is inevitable.