Mining Oil Condition Monitoring Case Study

Mining Truck

Cut oil consumption and maintenance costs by up to 30%

Tan Delta’s off-highway monitoring system helps you to cut oil consumption and maintenance costs by up to 30%. Planned and un-planned downtime are a significant proportion of operational costs for a mine, and avoiding breakdowns is especially critical when operating remote or unmanned assets.

OEMs cautiously prescribe aggressive maintenance schedules that ignore the actual equipment status and result in significant unnecessary maintenance and oil wastage. Tan Delta’s mining and mineral processing monitoring solution uses advanced real time oil analysis to tell you the actual status of your oil and thus when equipment maintenance is really needed. Instantly optimising maintenance programs whilst maintaining engine reliability and continuous oversight.

Case Study Summary

CUSTOMER
A large open-pit copper mining operation in the United States, with 60 trucks, 10 shovels, and 15 auxiliary units, mining over 20,000 tonnes per day.

PROBLEM
Downtime of a dump truck can cost up to $1000 per hour. Rigid service intervals cause excessive routine downtime and miss early warning signs for breakdowns. Operators must minimise maintenance costs whilst maintaining or even increasing reliability.

SOLUTION
Each fleet unit is easily retrofitted with a SENSE-3 kit, transmitting real-time data on oil condition. Our sensors can individually track the engine, gearbox and hydraulic oil systems, with the data sent via WiFi or 4G to be monitored by the maintenance team. They are informed when to undertake servicing based on actual equipment need instead of operating arbitrary schedules.

RESULT
Changing to a condition-based maintenance schedule using Tan Delta has enabled the service interval to be increased from 500hrs to 678 hours, resulting in a 26% reduction in maintenance costs and oil consumption. The operator experiences fewer unexpected breakdowns as the Tan Delta system will detect any equipment anomalies or contamination before damage, enabling preventative maintenance.