Shell lubricants demonstrate how it has produced significant financial savings for customers in the mining industry

Citation

(2010), "Shell lubricants demonstrate how it has produced significant financial savings for customers in the mining industry", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 62 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilt.2010.01862eab.001

Shell lubricants demonstrate how it has produced significant financial savings for customers in the mining industry

Article Type: Industry news From: Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Volume 62, Issue 5

Shell, one of the global leaders in lubricants and fuels technology, has achieved an estimated US $2,287,300 saving for one of the world’s leading mining and exploration companies. This multi-million dollar saving was a result of the introduction of Shell Malleus Grease GL 500 which has helped to extend the life of bearings in a number of excavators by 100 per cent.

The customer was operating a fleet of eight excavators with an operating life expectancy of 60,000 h but the current life expectancy of the machine’s slew bearing was currently 37,000 h. Approximately US$300,000 to replace a slew bearing Shell was keen to identify ways of increasing its lifetime. After assessing the customers operation, Shell recommended the use of the grease, Shell Malleus GL500, which has exceptional physical and mechanical stability as well as excellent anti-wear performance.

The introduction of Shell Malleus GL500 has achieved a number of benefits for the customer. The extension of the slew bearing life now matches the excavators overall operating life of 60,000 h, delivering an immediate increase in production time of 930 h by eliminating the time needed to change the slew bearing. In addition, grease consumption reduced by 50 per cent and HSE risks were also significantly reduced through avoiding the 3,240 man hours of associated maintenance and lubrication tasks.

Shell’s expertise has also proved to be very valuable to Barrick, the global gold mining company. Shell Tactic EMV, an automatic grease dispensing system has produced estimated savings of US $167,000 per annum. The introduction of the units has transformed the lubrication of the production belt, helping to eliminate unscheduled stoppages due to belt bearing failures. At Barrick’s Lagunas Norte mine in Peru, one of the few gold mines in the world with the capability to produce over one million ounces per year, premature bearing wear caused by irregular greasing was causing reliability issues with the production belt. The cause of this was the manual re-greasing schedule that was not always completed combined with the grease in-use deteriorating following unavoidable contamination with dirt, dust and water. The potential impact of a bearing failure was significant, with unscheduled stoppages as a result of a bearing failure bringing the flow of production to a halt for 3 h. After thoroughly assessing the situation, Shell recommended the installation of Shell Tactic EMV pre-filled with the grease Shell Stamina EP 2. Shell Tactic EMV comprises two primary components: a small electro- mechanical drive unit operated by batteries and a replaceable grease canister. The drive unit pumps precise small quantities of grease at timed regular intervals to ensure bearings remained lubricated. Shell Stamina EP 2 incorporates the latest grease technology which reduces bearing failure rates due to the products excellent anti-wear properties.

A major mining customer in Australia has seen a $50,000 annual saving through the introduction of a built-for-purpose Shell Bulk Grease Truck. The introduction of the specialist vehicle helped to address the customer’s issues with excavators running out of grease while in operation, resulting in costly downtime and additional labour costs.

The customer, one of the world’s major diversified mining groups, was restricted to replenishing excavators with hydraulic oil and diesel during scheduled crib breaks. This led to some machines running out of grease prior to crib breaks, resulting in unplanned shutdowns. In addition, the grease bins were removed and transported off site to be refilled at a lubricant supplier terminal, which further increased downtime and operating costs.

To help this issue solving the Shell technical team recommended the excavator grease bins to be filled on a fortnightly basis using a built-for-purpose Shell Bulk Grease Truck. The grease truck has an on-board pumping facility, grease hoppers and adaptable piping and hosing arrangements that allow grease bins to be replenished in almost any situation. As well as delivering savings of over $50,000 per annum, the introduction of the Shell Bulk Grease Truck has helped to reduce health and safety risks during the refilling.

Comments Tom Crockford, Global Mining Sector Marketing Manager, Shell Lubricants: “As part of our ongoing commitment to our mining customers, we are constantly working on sites to identify ways of delivering additional savings and increase productivity. These are clear example of how mining companies can achieve significant overall savings by investing more in their lubrication spend. Lubricants on a mine site account for a minor part of total operating spend but can deliver significant savings as in this case.”