Abstract
Since coal mining production systems are very complex, repairing equipment is expensive. If a system failure occurs, it will cause disturbances such as inoperable equipment, reduced operating time, increased production costs, and reduced equipment performance. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the availability of the coal mining industry more than ever. For this purpose, the Armored Face Conveyor (AFC) machine failure data was gathered over a period of 29 months from the Tabas Coal Mine. Descriptive statistics, trends, and serial correlation tests of the data were calculated. Then, the system’s mean and point availability were simulated. Based on the results, the mean availability (all events) and point availability (all events) at 360000 h are 96% and 95%, respectively. The mean time to first failure (MTTFF) of the AFC machine was about 23.61 h. The ReliaSoft Failure Criticality Index, ReliaSoft Downing Event Criticality Index, and ReliaSoft Downtime Criticality Index electrical equipping have the largest effect, whereas the main drive subsystem is the least important. Analysis showed that availability has a direct correlation to activity management and improvements in the quality, efficiency, and the product extraction.
Highlights
In the coal mining industry, there are different systems in connection with each other that can be considered as subsystems of the production system
The present study aims to calculate mean and point availability to simulate the availability of an Armored Face Conveyor (AFC) machine
Afterwards, the availability of each subsystem is estimated using the mean time between failure (MTBF) and mean time to repair (MTTR) values, and the simulate availability is calculated
Summary
In the coal mining industry, there are different systems in connection with each other that can be considered as subsystems of the production system. Among the production systems in longwall mines, the Armored Face Conveyor (AFC) machine is one of the main subsystems of the mine that directly affects the production capacity of the underground mine. When systems fail, they cause problems, such as shorter life cycles of systems, decreased product delivery times, decreased level of product customization, decreased product quality, and increased production costs (Beeson and Andrews, 2003; Naghiloo et al, 2011; Dai et al, 2015; Ataei and Norouzi Masir, 2020; Hoseinie et al, 2020). Each failure is followed by a process called maintenance and repair (net) This situation hinders workers’ safety and productivity. Failure, shutdown, and the inability to restore the
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