Case Study | Queensland coal mine tackles unplanned maintenance, improves inventory management and reduces CAT Bucket G.E.T cost

Client Profile

Queensland Coal Mine

This legacy Queensland coal mine processes six million tonnes per annum of steaming and coking coal in extremely tough digging conditions.

Exporting into competitive global markets, they are particularly focused on financials and demand reliable and predictable machinery and wear parts.

Equipment

•Draglines
•3 Excavators
•Fleet of 777 and 793 trucks
•5 x 992 Loaders
•10 Dozers
•4 Graders
•Ancillary equipment to support plant

“Inconsistency among G.E.T across different buckets and their incompatibility with the digging conditions was the cause of both the unplanned downtime and the confusion among maintenance crews.”

– Luke Jackson, Manager of Mining Solutions, Cutting Edges

Overview

Due to the challenging digging conditions, this Queensland coal mine was facing high failure rates of ground engaging tools (G.E.T) on their CAT 992k loader buckets, leading to large amounts of unplanned downtime.

“Inventory management issues were also leading to confusion among maintenance crews around what G.E.T system was fitted, leading to the wrong parts being booked out and further contributing to machine downtime,” according to Cutting Edge’s Manager of Mining Solutions, Luke Jackson.

With regular unplanned maintenance having a severe financial impact, the site maintenance team knew they had to reduce or eliminate G.E.T failures and improve stock control systems to ensure machines were back in the field without delay.

Problem

An on-site investigation completed by a Cutting Edges specialist discovered that there were a variety of adaptors and bucket teeth in use across different machines, including some that were undersized and not suitable for the site’s tough digging conditions.

“This inconsistency among G.E.T across different buckets and their incompatibility with the digging conditions was the cause of both the unplanned downtime and the confusion among maintenance crews,” Luke said.

Solution

It was agreed the site would convert one of their CAT 992K loader buckets to use Cutting Edges’ J600 series heavy-duty adapters and loader teeth as part of a trial.

“Easy-to-understand G.E.T parts pages were also created by Cutting Edges to assist the maintenance team easily identify the correct parts to install when change-outs were required,” according to Luke.

After seeing longer service life and reduced unplanned maintenance with the trial bucket, the mine fitted two more 992K loader buckets with Cutting Edges J600 series G.E.T, replacing the Super V51 series and CAT K150 series adaptors and teeth. The rest of the fleet has since followed.

Benefits:

Fitting Cutting Edge’s J600 series heavy-duty adapters and loader teeth lead to excellent reliability and a significant reduction in unplanned maintenance. Other benefits include:

•At least a 30 per cent saving on the cost of purchasing replacement teeth and adaptors
•Teeth were only being replaced when they were worn out, further reducing G.E.T costs
•A reduction in the range of adapters and teeth spare parts that were required on site, reducing inventory costs, supply issues and maintenance confusion