Application of vibration analysis of mining shovels for diggability assessment in open-pit operations

Abstract

Over the past decades, technological advances and mining requirements have led to larger, more complex and more costly equipment. This trend in mining equipment has resulted in changing maintenance strategies from unplanned and scheduled maintenance to a condition-based maintenance (CBM) strategy. However, condition monitoring techniques used in CBM programmes are more than a maintenance management tool; they can provide the means to improve machine performance, production capacity and overall mine production. Vibration monitoring is usually the dominant technique of CBM programmes for critical machines such as electric rope shovels. It has been demonstrated that abnormal machine behaviour can be diagnosed using vibration monitoring techniques. However, this article aims to show the applicability of vibration monitoring of electric rope shovels for post-blast assessment rather than maintenance management. As a result, an electric rope shovel’s vibrations experienced by its boom during different operating conditions are measured by a tri-axial accelerometer mounted inside an enclosure on the side of shovel’s boom. The results show that the amount of apparent energy experienced by the tri-axial accelerometer can be used as an indirect measure of muck-pile digging conditions. Additionally, instantaneous and/or averaged vibration can be used as part of a system to monitor operator performance which potentially leads towards a machine with higher reliability, availability and maintainability and with higher productivity.