Dragline Parts Boost Productivity

Existing machines can be upgraded for improved performance and longevity

By Jesse Morton, Technical Writer

At MINExpo and elsewhere, equipment OEMs half-admitted they may not sell another dragline. The bottom line is the population in existence is sufficient for the work envisioned for the foreseeable future. Those machines, however, will require maintenance and parts. Some of the aftermarket parts now available, they say, are better than the originals and give customers additional capability to unlock optimal productivity.

Pyramid Parts Beat Original Standards

Komatsu said some of the P&H draglines currently in operation now will likely be operating for decades. “Six of the seven P&H 9020 draglines continue to operate as critical movers in major coal operations, with the intention of being used as life-of-mine equipment,” said Jamie Soto Chavez, general manager of Pyramid Parts and global remarketing.

“Globally, the largest concentration of these units is in Australia,” he said. “Some customers have timeframes ranging from 2038 to 2050 as potential operating windows for current draglines in operation.”

Several have already “exceeded the 150,000-hour mark and continue to provide exceptional reliability,” he said. “Some have been in operation for over 25 years.”

During that time, the draglines “have demonstrated remarkable reliability compared to the competition,” Chavez said. For example, several have their original walk-shaft bushings and gearing.

“All the draglines continue to operate their original tub without any notable issues with the T-joint in the tub or deck,” he said. “All the major structures of the 9020 draglines continue to operate reliably.”

Elsewhere, “the 2355 dragline fleet continues to provide reliable operation in Florida and Morocco in aggregate and phosphate applications,” he said. “We also see strong, reliable performance of the Page dragline and dredge fleet across various applications in North America and the Middle East.”

Komatsu supports dragline operations with rebuild services and with Pyramid Parts offerings. “We have multiple customers undergoing major shutdowns to keep the draglines running for the next 10-plus years,” Chavez said. “These jobs include planetary transmission overhauls and structural repairs.”

Component rebuilds help “maintain operational draglines to OEM standards,” he said.

The supplier “continues to work collaboratively with our customers to improve equipment reliability,” Chavez said. “Examples include structural upgrades to the fairlead structure and working with our regions to lower cost while maintaining the reliability of planetary transmissions, which regularly achieve over 100,000 hours of operation.”

Komatsu’s Pyramid Parts provides parts, components, and replacement structures. “Customer feedback has shown that Pyramid Group’s performance has been able to meet and exceed expectations and extend the lifespan of draglines and other products,” Chavez said.

“Pyramid Group has always focused on draglines, supporting P&H, Page, and other competitor brands and models,” he said. The supplier “can assess customers’ needs for repair parts and machine overhauls and provide various solutions for competitors’ equipment.”

The supplier can “deliver mechanical parts, components and structures manufactured and designed to OEM standards and warranty,” Chavez said. “Our final product meets the same OEM standards and quality, along with competitive costs.”

Pyramid Parts “has strong engineering, purchasing, and quality groups capable of taking on challenging projects,” he said. It “is also capable of product and design improvements and updates.”

Pyramid Parts products come with the same warranties as those guaranteeing Komatsu Mining Equipment Parts. “Pyramid can match and, in some cases, exceed OEM warranty coverage,” he said.

The supplier’s dealer network has locations in most mining countries.

“We see our existing draglines running globally for the extended future,” Chavez said. “New draglines in the market are not what the world requires, but the current running fleet life expectation extends out for many more years,” he said. “Some of these machines are being moved to different applications, but the good news is that plenty of earth-moving applications still require draglines.”

Pyramid Parts also supports mining shovels and blasthole drills.

“The developments in this market have been constant for many years,” Chavez said. “Our engineering teams have a wealth of industry knowledge and experience creating solutions for our customers in multiple areas.”

ProSeries Rigging Ups Bucket Capacity

The ESCO Division of Weir announced new rigging packages designed to deliver productivity improvements. “We have continued to expand our offering of ESCO ProSeries rigging and have released full rigging packages for 1370/8050- and 1570/8200-class dragline machines,” said Dustin Ashford, global product manager, rope shovel and dragline products.

“ProSeries rigging incorporates a hammerless and hot-work-free retention system, providing our customer with a safer to use and more reliable system,” he said. “The new full rigging packages complement our ProFill and ProFill Delta buckets and help our customers increase the performance and reliability of their draglines.”

The release coincides with increased sales of the ESCO ProFill Delta dragline bucket due to its optimized design and capabilities. “The elimination of the lower spreader bar and associated rigging components reduces the rigging weight by up to 15%,” Ashford said. “The reduced rigging weight allows our customers to decrease the stress on their machine, increase bucket capacity, or enhance bucket wear life, depending on their operational goals.”

Increased bucket capacity translates to increased bucket productivity. “ProFill buckets have faster fill times, increased fill factors, and consistently manage higher payloads,” he said. “The increased performance that ProFill buckets offer, coupled with the weight reduction that ProSeries rigging components provide, allow our customers to produce more per operating hour.”

ESCO buckets and rigging offer increased reliability and uptime. The combo also delivers “increased production from customers’ existing equipment,” he said.

“ProFill buckets running with the ESCO Nemisys tooth system benefit from its increased reliability and superior wear life,” Ashford said. “Increased reliability delivered by ESCO products helps our customers eliminate unplanned downtime that can cost them thousands of dollars an hour.”

With a cast structure, ProFill buckets and ESCO rigging require comparatively less maintenance. “The decreased maintenance results in a longer service life for the buckets, which means our customers can run the buckets longer between rebuilds,” he said. “Producing more with lower bucket rebuild frequencies means our customers are using less energy during their operation.”

The cast structure also means the bucket “typically has lower rebuild costs compared to market alternatives,” Ashford said.

The reduced maintenance frequency “decreases employee exposure to things like hot work, working at heights, large material handling and more,” he said. “ProSeries rigging components use our Nemisys locking system, which provides hammerless installation and removal of rigging components.”

The ESCO Nemisys tooth system enables hammerless point and shroud removal for both fewer and faster component replacement. The system “eliminates GET hot work,” Ashford said. “This reduces mine personnel hazard exposure while maintaining their bucket GET.”

Customers report ESCO buckets and rigging exceed expectations.

For example, “a North American coal mine was interested in extending the life of their hoist chain and reduce unplanned downtime over the previous installation,” he said. “The local ESCO Supply and Service representative suggested the ProSeries hoist chain to help address their need for improved performance.”

Made of ESCO alloys, ProSeries chain offers “a 12% increase in useable bite material and a 14% increase in bite area over the competition,” Ashford said.

“ProSeries hoist chain provided the longer wear life they were looking to achieve,” he said. “Working over 11 months, the new hoist chain lasted over three times longer than the previous installation.” The chain lasted 5,300 hours and “helped the mine reduce maintenance costs and kept their rigging running for longer.”

With feedback like that, “ESCO Division will continue to focus on helping our customers do more with less,” Ashford said.

The company is researching new materials “that are stronger or more wear resistant so we can help our customers run their buckets longer,” he said. “On the design side, we are working to further improve bucket and rigging performance.”

More dynamic and accurate digital simulations allow for new designs to be trialed before prototypes are built. “This means we can iterate on new designs more quickly,” Ashford said.

“We use a discreet element method software to simulate dragline buckets digging in various applications,” he said. “We are able to use our 3D CAD bucket models in combination with various material properties to analyze our buckets digging.” The simulations show “the effects of design changes on bucket digging performance.”

Such research is one example of how “ESCO Division will keep innovating to bring our customers leading-edge mining technology for a sustainable future,” Ashford said. “We look to continue to partner with our customers to solve the problems that they face.”

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Study: Computer Vision System Measures Dump Height

A study¹ published by Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk, said a computer-vision analytics system is a quick, inexpensive means of “secure dump pile profile detection and height measurement.” The authors, from the Indian School of Mines and the University of New South Wales, found the system improved dragline mining efficiency “with stable and safe dump heights as per design.”

The system used the software trifecta of Tensorboard, PyTorch, and OpenCV. TensorBoard was the “visualization tool for monitoring and debugging PyTorch-based models.” OpenCV “contributed to height calculations of spoil piles using image processing and object detection.”

Data to train the models was captured using tripod-mounted cameras. The study said other techniques can be used. For example, the camera could be mounted on equipment.

After the system assimilated the photo-based data into its models, it could instantly analyze a photo of a dump pile and provide some of its dimensional information, such as height.

The field validation studied dragline dump spoil piles in Nigahi Opencast Mining Project of NCL mines in Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh, in central India. The analytics system was “thoroughly trained” on “detailed datasets” from the NCL mines and then trialed at real-time dump shape detection. “The first findings are encouraging, show good accuracy and only minute variations.” While “reducing the requirement for human intervention,” the system enabled “real-time assessment of dragline operational condition, specifically the dump height.”