Reliability Analysis of Draglines' Mechanical Failures

Abstract

In modern mines that use different types of sophisticated machine/equipment with high production capacity and investment such as draglines, it is important that the machine should be operated in a reliable way in order to maximize profits. In this manner, the reliability analysis is essential to assess mission reliability and frequency of failure so that this information can be used to plan maintenance activities to help for keeping the machines at operational state. In this paper, mechanical failures of the two draglines have been modeled on the basis of Renewal Process (RP). Whether or not the data is independent and identically distributed which is the basic assumption of RP has been checked by use of Autocorrelation Function Plots. Reliability estimates for different time intervals have been made according to best-fit distribution which was found as Weibull. Additionally, the distribution has been also used for estimating the maintenance intervals of the machines. Finally, the draglines have been compared in terms of reliability.