RAM analysis of mining process: a case study of a Copper Smelting Process in the field of mining, Chile

The performance of mining machines depends on the reliability, availability and maintainability of the equipment used, the operating environment, the maintenance efficiency, the operation process, the technical expertise, etc. As the size and complexity of mining equipment continues to increase, the implications of equipment failure become ever more critical. Therefore, RAM analysis is required to identify the bottlenecks in the system. It is important to select a suitable method for data collection as well as for RAM analysis in this specific field. This paper presents a case study describing reliability, availability and maintainability analysis of a Copper Smelting Process in Chile. In this study, the process is divided into four main subsystems: Drying, Concentrate fusion, Conversion and Refining. The parameters of some probability distributions, such as Weibull, Exponential, Normal and Lognormal distributions have been estimated by using the Matlab Application. The results of the analysis show which subsystems and equipment are critical from a reliability and availability standpoint. Relevant data was collected by the maintenance unit and stored in a spreadsheet database; this data supports the specific modeling for failure and repair processes of the equipment. The data used has been collected over a period of 16 months of the process by using the SAP-PM report.