Achievement of climate protection goals, growth in demand for primary energy sources, increasing dependence on oil and gas from a limited number of politically unstable regions and the resulting supply and price risks, are among the most important challenges facing the European energy supply industry. Both these and other continually changing factors will also in future maintain steady pressure on domestic lignite as a source of energy. In this country, this is also affected by the economic viability of "clean coal technology" that is competing for investment against other energy sources. In order to be able to continue to compete successfully, operators are counting on a continuous increase in the performance of their conveyor systems.
 
A decisive factor in maintaining availability of conveyor systems in mining is secure and safe operation of the conveyors. The large masses of lignite and earth that must be moved require the use of high-performance conveyor systems for sorting (bucket wheel or chain-and-bucket excavators), transport (conveyor belt systems) and tipping (drawers and conveyor bridges).
Within individual open cast mines, the plant is often widely dispersed; much of the production equipment is mobile and must continually adjust to the changing topography of the deposits. In addition, vibration, weather, dust and pressure cause high levels of wear and loading, affecting the operability of the components used.
 
All of this demands large improvements in the maintenance and servicing of plant and components. The main goals are operations free of breakdowns and interruptions and status- and load-oriented servicing of mining and conveying equipment in spite of lower servicing budgets and fewer personnel. 

 

Servicing as an added-value factor

 

Servicing is part of the company's added-value chain and creates measurable value in terms of provision of replacement provision and availability. Servicing concepts and strategies that fit the production process and are status-oriented and predictive are needed more than ever today. Particularly since "the costs for servicing that is not carried out or is carried out in unsatisfactory fashion is 3 to 5 times higher than direct servicing costs are estimated to be".  (Source: H. Neuhaus at the 12th University of Dortmund Servicing Forum, 16 - 17.03.2007)

 

zedas®asset efficiently supports this process with a central database, powerful functions to structure and use customer- and application-specific knowledge bases and a homogeneous and easy-to-use user interface. Results obtained by customers show that intensive scrutiny of the servicing process can bring potential savings of between 5 and 30% depending on the type of plant.