Coal Age

DEC 2014

Coal Age Magazine - For nearly 100 years, Coal Age has been the magazine that readers can trust for guidance and insight on this important industry.

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shift and the time between when the opera- tor parks up at the end of the shift. At most operations, this is a concern for production foremen and superintendents. In many cas- es, because of all of the inspection duties required by foremen and superintendents, the actual managing of FPST is oftentimes left off as a management priority. By using a fleet monitoring system, this FPST can be tracked and reported. A report showing FPST performance can be generated for each shift and lost time can be analyzed and eliminated. In many cases, just the awareness of this metric and the fact that it is being tracked can improve performance significantly. On a 10-hour shift, or 600 minutes, if an operation can improve FPST by 12 min- utes (6 minutes getting off of the line and 6 minutes at the end of the shift), that results in a 2% increase in productive effi- ciency. Simplifying Maintenance While many of the newer-model surface mining equipment offers telematics pack- ages that enable users to monitor a vast array of built-in on board diagnostics, many of the older units in operation do not. By tapping in to the on board diagnostics of older units and sending them back to an office using the preferred method of telematics, the mainte- nance department can be armed with much more information that can be used to make intelligent decisions that enhance repair before failure, safely extend periods between preventive maintenance, and reduce unplanned downtime and repair costs. One major best practice that has been seen as of late is remote tire pressure monitoring. By using various tire pres- sure sensors currently available on the market today, coupled with a telematics solution, surface miners have the capa- bility of remotely determining working tire pressures and temperatures in near real time. This accomplishes a number of differ- ent things: • By monitoring working tire pressures and temperatures, catastrophic sud- den tire failures caused by severe under-inflation or increased tempera- ture can be eliminated. • Alerts can be generated any time a tire is operating outside of set pressure or tem- perature specifications, and these can be addressed by the tire man accordingly. • Maintaining optimum pressures extends tire life. Some tire manufactur- ers claim that every percent that a tire is over- or under-inflated from the opti- mum level results in an equal reduction in tire life. On a fleet of 20 trucks run- ning $50,000 tires, a 10% cost savings can be significant. One user in the Central Appalachian coalfields recently reported extending their tire life on their s u r f a c e m a i n t e n a n c e c o n t i n u e d December 2014 www.coalage.com 41 The air intake sensor detects sudden rises in air pressure on the intake line to alert the maintenance depart- ment that there is a clogged air filter.

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