Underground Mining operations have to run smoothly and economically with limited or no downtime to be successful. Unplanned equipment breakdown can often be the most timely and expensive setbacks for mining companies. And a majority of the failures concerns the hydraulic systems of the machines. The components that are parts of the hydraulic systems (Rock drills, pumps, cylinders, valves…) are generally very expensive and difficult to troubleshoot and replace.
Studies provided by suppliers of hydraulic components, show that up to 80% of the hydraulic systems failures are caused by excessive hydraulic oil contamination.
The most efficient solution to reduce dramatically the risk of failures of hydraulic components is to control and limit the contamination level of the hydraulic oil. This means that hydraulic fluids maintenance should be a top priority during maintenance operations.
Sandvik always promotes the best maintenance practices and would like to help his customers to manage the hydraulic oil contamination level. So we have developed a “by-pass” filtration system that clean continuously the oil.
This additional filter is mounted in parallel with the hydraulic circuit, which allow a very fine and efficient filtration (2μm absolute). The filter element has a high retention capacity (240g) that makes replacement interval wide and economical. Electric clogging indicator inform when replacement of the element is needed.
