Empress Catherine II Saint-Petersburg Mining University, Saint-Petersburg, Russia

A. V. Mikhailov, Doctor of Engineering Sciences, Professor, Associate Professor
D. A. Shibanov, Candidate of Engineering Sciences, Associate Professor
A. E. Bessonov, Post-Graduate Student, be5son0v@yandex.ru

Electric excavators are the key members of the process flows in the open pit mining industry, where the productivity of equipment and the smart use of resources have a significant influence on economic efficiency of mines. One of the critical operating parameters of an excavator is its work cycle time as it governs the volume of a production output and the operating speed. A mathematical model of the work cycle time of an open pit excavator is described; it includes the bucket volume efficiency, the physical and mechanical characteristics of the equipment and the possibility of parallel operation. The developed expanded approach to the efficiency analysis ensures evaluation of individual operations and recommendations for the process optimization. Using the energy efficiency coefficient, the earlier proposed approach to the merit rating of excavator operators was updated. The implementation of this approach demonstrates the influence exerted by the main parameters of the excavation process on the excavator performance. The expanded control ratio analysis based on the efficiency evaluation of individual operations within a work cycle, with partial coefficients and weight factors enables detecting stages with maximal loss of time or resources. The proposed approach makes it possible to take into account the actual functionality of an excavator, when a sufficiently experienced and skilled operator carries out intelligent work mix, thereby enhancing productivity and reducing the work cycle time. If design features or safety requirements limit potential of work mix or offer other ways out (for instance, concurrent swing of the deck and lowering of the bucket), then the model allows introduction of adjusting factors to take into account the operations sequentially or with partial overlap. The proposed model and c ontrol criteria possess relevance in practice as they allow objective evaluation of overall productiveness of equipment, and recommendations on professional improvement of operators and on efficiency enhancement of process flows in the mining industry.

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