The mining industry and the lubrication of installations and vehicles

The mining industry is the sector that handles all the processing regarding the extraction and transformation of mineral raw materials.  

Surface mining extraction includes 90% of the world mineral production, and consists in removing the minerals that have formed in or close to the surface, leading to the creation of mineral quarries using machinery that cut, split or break.

The open mine extraction materials, done on softer minerals such as clays and phosphates, are removed using complex, large-scale machinery such as bulldozers, tracked bulldozers and front loaders, drag-line excavators and the bucket excavators, the diamond wire saw and the chaincutting machine.

These machines undergo demanding operating conditions as the result ofmoving large quantities of material in environments marked by the presence of abrasive dust, 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 this industry as well, the lubrication, often undervalues, contributes a lot to improving the life of the parts of the machines such as the bearings, and to improve the maintenance activities which are often dangerous for the employees.

Usually the grease lubrication (with progressive systems or with DL injectors depending on the type of machine) is considered the best solution to get around this type of problem.

The mining lorries are some of the most used vehicles in the mining industry for the transport of material excavated from the mine to the processing centres.

The parts involved are subject to strong stress and require constant lubrication to ensure the maximum operating response to favour the movement of the machinery.

Based on these machinery requirements, we have developed an automatic lubrication system that is able to provide the right quantity of grease to the lubrication points, such as bearings, bronze bearings and bushings.

Another type of vehicle used in this industry is the construction machinery, used to handle, accumulate and recover materials such as limestone, carbon, minerals.

The operation anticipates the sliding on two tracks and movement in at least two directions, horizontally along the track and vertically making the arm rotate, which can even go down and go up.

These movements involved many parts such as wheels, orientation roller bearing, bucket-wheel, cables, bearings and conveyor belts, which because of the frequent activity generate friction and require constant grease lubrication to prevent wear, which entails the extension of life with a resulting decrease in the maintenance costs of the machinery.

To provide a complete solution for the lubrication of all the parts of the machinery, certain additional accessories and 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 are lubricated less frequently than others, and centralising these points including a manual pump or a greaser with safety filter guarantee the reduction in greasing and maintenance times.