Introduction

A downtime analysis of a conveyor clearance system was completed along with management of improvement actions for a series of underground and surface belts and associated equipment for an underground longwall coal mine re-start. 

Mandate

Palaris was engaged by a longstanding Client to undertake detailed analysis of its coal clearance system’s performance after the recommencement of operations at one of its underground coal mines.  

The aim was to analyse downtime data and highlight specific and repetitive issues. From this, actions were to be provided for short term opportunities along with determining further investigations required for longer term solutions.  

The review covered a total of five underground and surface conveyors along with screening and rotary breaker units.

Approach

Palaris provided its in-house mechanical engineering team to the project.  

Initial desktop analysis of downtime for the overall system and by the individual components was undertaken. To do this firstly Palaris ensured it understood the Client’s time reporting model and nomenclature. From the data a first pass analysis of unique delay events by type and duration were identified for the whole system before dropping down to secondary analysis at the equipment level. Further analysis was undertaken to assess the impacts of throughput rates (tph) on specific equipment and delay events. 

Palaris’ mechanical engineer undertook inspections along the routes to verify and validate the identified issues. An onsite workshop was then facilitated with both the site conveyor and engineering teams to present and discuss the findings by Palaris.  

The short-term action plan was then updated as well as recommendations for further analysis in key areas.  

Outcome

The review allowed the Client to focus their efforts on the top five downtime issues. The site implemented the findings and Palaris provided training presentations to the site personnel for implementation.