The mining industry and the lubrication of installations and vehicles

The mining industryis the sector that handles all the processingregarding the extraction and transformation of mineral rawmaterials.  
Surface mining extraction includes 90% of theworld mineral production, and consists in removing the minerals that haveformed in or close to the surface, leading to the creation of mineral quarriesusing machinery that cut, split or break.
The open mine extraction materials, done onsofter minerals such as clays and phosphates, are removed using complex, large-scalemachinery such as bulldozers, trackedbulldozers and front loaders, drag-line excavators and the bucket excavators, the diamond wire saw andthe chaincutting machine.

These machines undergo demanding operatingconditions as the result ofmoving large quantities of material in environments marked by the presenceof abrasivedust, contaminating agents and extreme temperatures.These situations make the maintenance activities on the machinery used complexand dangerous, subjecting the vehicles to regular shut-down. In thisindustry as well, the lubrication, often undervalues, contributes a lot toimproving the life of the parts of the machines such as the bearings, and toimprove the maintenance activities which are often dangerous for the employees.
Usually the grease lubrication (with progressivesystems or with DL injectors depending on the type of machine) is consideredthe best solution to get around this type of problem.

The mininglorries are some of the mostused vehicles in the mining industry for the transport of material excavatedfrom the mine to the processing centres. The parts involved are subject ostrong stress and require constant lubrication to ensure the maximum operating response to favour the movement of the machinery.
Based on these machinery requirements, we havedeveloped an automatic system that is able to provide the right quantity ofgrease to the lubricationpoints, such as bearings, bronzebearings and bushings.

Another type of vehicle used in this industry isthe constructionmachinery, used to handle,accumulate and recover materials such as limestone, carbon, minerals. Theoperation anticipates the sliding on two tracks and movement in at least twodirections, horizontally along the track and vertically making the arm rotate,which can even go down and go up.
These movements involved many parts suchas wheels, orientationroller bearing, bucket-wheel, cables, bearings and conveyor belts,which because of the frequent activity generate friction and require constantgrease lubrication to prevent wear, which entails the extension of life with aresulting decrease in the maintenance costs of the machinery.
To provide a complete solution for thelubrication of all the parts of the machinery, certain additional accessoriesand components are necessary such as panels for the lubrication of chains,filter, branch boxes, greasers, dedicated connections and pipes.
In fact, some parts of the machinery arelubricated less frequently than others, and centralising these points includinga manual pump or a greaser with safety filter guarantee the reduction ingreasing and maintenance times.