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By J. J. Jonas, G. R. Stewart, N. Pokutylowicz, S. Yue, R. Varano, A. Elwazri

Differing thermal histories in and around a weld can lead to differences in grain size, phase composition and morphology of precipitates; mechanical properties will vary accordingly. Hardness testing gives limited information and the machining and testing of tensile and/or impact specimens that would reveal these variations (which may occur over very small distances) is not practical. Therefore, in this investigation, shear punch testing was applied to measure the variation in the room temperature mechanical properties of a welded pipeline steel.

Jan 1, 2005

By Robert E. McIvor

"“Classification System Efficiency (CSE)” is a powerful, emerging tool that can be used to increase grinding circuit efficiency. It is defined as the percentage of the ball mill energy being used to grind target, oversize particles. The discovery, validation and current use of CSE, including how it was manipulated, are described through seven plant case studies. These resulted in efficiency improvements ranging from 3 to 30 percent, along with major reductions in over-grinding. The achievable CSE for any given circuit is described. This paper demonstrates both how, and how much, every plant can benefit from increasing grinding circuit CSE.DEFINITIONS: BALL MILL CIRCUIT “CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM EFFICIENCY (CSE)”, “EFFECTIVE MILL GRINDING POWER”: “WASTED/OVER-GRINDING MILL POWER”The closed ball mill circuit is shown in Figure 1. The extreme importance of the circulating load ratio in determining circuit productivity was demonstrated by Davis (1925) and re-published by Guadin (1939), as shown in Figure 2. The circuit production rate increases with increased circulating load ratio, rapidly so at first and continuing to increase more gradually with higher and higher values of circulating load ratio.The underlying cause of this relationship was seen when comparing the ball mill feed and product size distributions from two different ball mill circuits, one with a low circulating load ratio, and one with a high circulating load ratio (Figure 3). While the F80’s and P80’s of these two circuits were close to the same, the mill feed and discharge size distributions were quite different. The ball mill in the circuit with the higher circulating load ratio contained a substantially greater fraction of material coarser than the target P80, as indicated by the respective mill feed and discharge size distributions. This fraction represents the fraction of the mill power being expended on “coarse” (in this case, plus P80 size) material, or the circuit “classification system efficiency.” The “effective mill grinding power” is the total mill power multiplied by the CSE. The compliment of CSE, the remaining fraction of “fines” in the mill, is the fraction of the mill power being wasted, and spent on over-grinding of material already finer than the circuit target product size. This is the “wasted/over-grinding mill power”"

Jan 1, 2013

By Jas. G. Ross

Introduction Asbestos, a mineral known and used in ancient times, has become an article of commerce only during the life of the older asbestos miners in Quebec. The diversified uses of this adaptable substance are now numbered by the hundreds. Wherever insulation or resistance to heat may be required, asbestos, either by itself or mixed with some other material, may be employed to advantage. Regarded as a curiosity for centuries, it is now in such common use that it is familiar to all. The demand for long fibre for use in the manufacture of textiles and brake-lining, and for shorter fibre for making shingles, paper, and insulation materials, serves to support the industry of mining asbestos-bearing rock and milling the fibre from it in Canada, South Africa, Russia, Cyprus, and the United States. The commercial use of asbestos dates only from 1876, in which year large deposits were discovered in the Province of Quebec, Canada. Prior to that year a small amount of long fibre amphibole asbestos was produced in Italy. Occurrence In Canada In the Eastern Townships of Quebec, along the line of the Quebec Central railway, is an area of serpentine rock. It extends westerly into Vermont and easterly to Gaspe. A part of it, the section from Danville to East Broughton, contains areas in which occur deposits of commercial asbestos fibre of the chrysotile variety. Pits have been opened on some of these deposits at Danville, Coleraine, Black Lake, Thetford Mines, Robertson, and East Broughton. Thetford is distant 68 miles from Quebec city, East Broughton lies 25 miles to the northeast of Thetford, while Danville is 45 miles to the southwest of Thetford.

Jan 1, 1927

By H. B. Sahu, N. M. Mishra, D. C. Panigrahi

The paper presents the development of a spontaneous heating liability index (SHLI) of coal based on a mathematical approach. The parameters for the calculation of this index have been determined by differential scanning calorimetric studies. Thirty-one coal samples representing both fiery and non-fiery coal seams of different ranks have been collected from different Indian coalfields and their SHLI values have been determined. In addition, the susceptibility of these samples to spontaneous combustion has been ascertained by standard crossing-point temperature measurement. The moisture percentage of all the samples has been obtained by proximate analysis. A comparative study between SHLI and crossing-point temperature, along with moisture percentage, indicates that SHLI predicts the proneness of coal to spontaneous heating more accurately.

Jan 1, 2008

By D. A. Rhys, M. Sieb, M. A. Prefontaine, C. L. Swanson, S. R. Frostad, H. Q. Smit

"Gold-silver mineralization at Red Mountain (1992 resource of 2.5 million tonnes grading 12.8 g/t Au and 38.1 g/t Ag) occurs within several discrete zones within a folded sequence of Middle to Late Triassic Triassic sedimentary rocks, Early Jurassic volcaniclastic and pyroclastic rocks, and Early Jurassic intrusions. Three phases of Early Jurassic sills and stocks collectively comprise the Golds/ide intrusions: (1) irregular bodies of medium-grained hornblende monzodiorite (Hillside porphyry); (2) hornblende-biotite + quartz porphyritic monzodiorite to quartz monzodiorite (Golds/ide porphyry; U-Pb zircon ages of 197.1 + 1.9 Ma); and (3) biotite porphyritic hornblende monzodiorite sills (Biotite porphyry). Contact breccias and igneous breccia dikes are common features of the Golds/ide intrusions. Chemical similarities and equivalent ages of volcanic rocks and intrusions, and the presence of intrusive clasts in volcanic rocks suggest that the intrusions are feeders to overlying volcanic units.Hydrothermal alteration affects all pre-Tertiary rocks on Red Mountain, including all phases of the Golds/ide intrusions. Several shallow-dipping alteration zones are developed sequentially above a propylitic quartz stockwork/molybdenum zone. These include: (1) sericite-quartz-pyrite alteration (pyrite-dominant alteration); (2) chlorite-K-feldspar-sericite-titanite alteration with disseminated and vein pyrrhotite (pyrrhotite-dominant alteration); and (3) brown to black tourmaline veins and K-feldspar-pyrite-titanite-actinolite alteration. Anomalous gold(> 0.3 g/t) mineralization is developed at the transition from the pyrite to the pyrrhotite dominant alteration over a > 1 km2 area. Within this anomalous zone, high-grade (3 g/t to 20 g/t Au) gold-silver mineralization occurs in 5 m to 29 m thick, semi-tabular pyrite + pyrrhotite stockworks with intense sericitic alteration and surrounding disseminated sphalerite + pyrrhotite.Stratigraphic, spatial and geochronologic relations and alteration zoning indicate that mineralization formed in a subvolcanic environment at the top of the Golds/ide intrusions and at the base of the Early Jurassic volcanic pile. The Golds/ide porphyry is interpreted to be the mineralizing intrusion. The alteration zoning, molybdenum-copper mineralized quartz stockworks, extensive Ksilicate and tourmaline alteration, and the relationship with a hypabyssal porphyritic intrusion show similarities to many porphyry systems."

Jan 1, 1995

By Lawrence Melis

Fission Uranium Corp.’s Triple R Uranium Deposit at its Patterson Lake South Project is located in northwest Saskatchewan in Canada’s Athabasca Basin. As part of pre-feasibility studies for the project a detailed metallurgical test program was completed to provide process design criteria. The testwork program encompassed preparation and analysis of test composites, comminution testing, uranium acid leaching, liquid-solid separation, solvent extraction of uranium, precipitation of uranium yellowcake products, tailings and effluent treatment, tailings physical and chemical characterization, and environmental testing of prepared tailings, as well as investigations of gold and silver recovery from the mineralization. The paper provides mineralogical information, testwork methodologies and test results which were used to arrive at process design criteria and the selection of the process flowsheet for the project.

Jan 1, 2020

By John D. Godfrey

Geological mapping on the Canadian Shield in northeastern Alberta outlined severalgranitoid rock massespotentially suitable as building stone. A particularly attractive prospect, the Chipewyan Red Granite, was subjected to an aerial survey and ground check. The petrologic and fracture characteristics critical for quarrying and use as a building stone were assessed in the course of detailed mapping at two of the most favourable sites. The extension of good rock was tested to shallow depths at one site by shallow diamond-drill coring. , The Chipewyan Red Granite displays a warm red colour, medium grain size and fairly massive texture, and takes a good polish. Deleterious geologic features studied in outcrop and subjected to structural analysis included regular joint systems, quartz veins, pegmatite dykes, basic shear zones and fault zones. Many of these key geologic features are systematic and hence predictable for stone quarrying purposes; other features, such as irregular fracelM tures, are non-systematic and arefar less predictable. The megascopic structural features studied show similar preferred orientations which appear to be collectively related to the tectonic history.

Jan 1, 1979

By Xiang Yu

Hong Kong has a dense distribution of utility services laid under its road network. Utility undertakers frequently demand road openings to install new services and/or maintain existing ones. Road openings can cause troubles to the road network and negatively impact the public interest. Highways Department is responsible for managing road openings in Hong Kong under the Land (Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance. Highways Department has spent a lot of efforts to computerize excavation permit processing and utility management. The computerized system has gone through several generations and the current one is called the excavation permit management system (XPMS). On the one hand, the XPMS handles various excavation permit processing functions including permit application/approval/refusal/issuance/extension/termination, fees/costs, permit conditions, and permit period assessment; on the other hand, the XPMS accounts for some important utility management issues such as spatial check, coordination of multiple openings, traffic management, audit inspection, and defect liability. This paper discusses how the application, coordination, and other administrations of an excavation permit are eased by using the XPMS in Hong Kong. Background information such as the governing legal and regulatory framework, and Highways Department?s administrative structure is introduced. The system architecture and advantages of the XPMS are presented. The work procedures and various functions of the XPMS are studied in detail.

Aug 1, 2013

By Pierre Roy, Claude Gosselin, Maryam Sadeghi, Michel Bourassa, Christian Rochefort, Claude Bazin, Gautier Mahieu, François Lavoie, Marilène Renaud, David Cataford

"Spirals are gravity concentrators used for the concentration of iron oxide minerals from ores. This paper presents the mineral size recovery curves observed for spirals operating in two Canadian iron ore processing plants. The size recovery curves are presented for rougher, cleaner and re-cleaner spirals. The partition curves observed for the spirals are significantly different than those observed for typical gravity concentration devices such as hydrocyclones or hydraulic classifiers. The size recovery curves show the complex behaviour of the minerals as they flow down a spiral and are analysed with a view toward process modelling and simulation. Initial simulation results show that gains in the iron recovery can be achieved by increasing the recovery of coarse iron oxide particles in the rougher spirals.INTRODUCTION Spiral concentrators are gravity based separation devices used for the preparation of coal, iron and different heavy minerals ores (Wills, 1992). The classification of the particles in spirals is based on the combination of gravity, centrifuge, drag, lift and Bagnold forces (Atasoy and Spottiswood, 1995; Burt, 1984; Bouchard, 2001). Several papers are dedicated to the analysis of the forces acting on the particles flowing down a spiral (Das and al., 2007; Sivamohan and Forssberg, 1985; Holland-Batt and Holtham, 1991; Holtham , 1992). Most of these papers aim at the development of a general model for the simulation of the classification of the particles for coal ore processing. Few papers deal with the operation of spirals for processing iron ores (Hyma and Meech, 1989; Srivastava, 2001; Dallaire et al., 1978) and fewer papers present results for spirals used as cleaners following a rougher stage. Since the classification in spiral classifiers is dependent on the particle size and specific gravity a partition or performance curve commonly applied to classifiers (Mai Manga et al., 2012) is used here to analyse spiral operation. Few papers were found to describe the operation of spirals in terms of partition curves (Atasoy and Spottiswood, 1995; Holland-Batt and Holtham, 1991; Richards et al., 2000). Most of the investigations presented the application of a model to simulate the position of coal particles of various sizes and specific gravities along the trough of a spiral (Kapur et al., 1996; Holland-Batt and Holtham, 1991). In addition most of the available literature on spirals deals with one stage of concentration by spirals (Dallaire et al., 1978; Das and al., 2007; Sivamohan and Forssberg, 1985) while industrial circuits usually consist of rougher and cleaner spirals."

Jan 1, 2014

By F. R. Nogas

"Because of the elements of uncertainty and instabilitp associated with single-enterprise communities, there is increasing interest in the alternatives to developing additional new communities of this nature. Gulf Minerals Canada Limited has chosen a unique alternative means to accommodate employees at a new uranium mine/mill complex at Rabbit Lake in Northern Saskatchewan. Gulf has adopted a fly-in program which moves their staff from a 450-mile radius, in and out of the on-site facilities, on a 7-day rotation."

Jan 1, 1976

By O. W. Ellis

Introduction During the month of September, 1928 enough money had. been promised by private individuals and corporations to comply with the Research ?Foundation Act 1928 (Chapter 57, 18 George V) of the Province of Ontario. The Ontario Research Foundation (referred to below as O.R.F.) may be said to 1iave come into being at that time. Under the terms of this Act, the Treasurer of the Province was empowered to match dollar for dollar of the sums subscribed by private .corporations and individuals up to a limit of $1,000,000. However, the response to the appeal for this by the Premier of the Province, the Honourable Mr. G. Howard Ferg uson, was so exceptional that the Act was amended in 1929 so as to empower the Treasurer to increase the maximum contribution on the part of the Province to $2,500,000. In March, 1933, the Chairman of the Foundation, Sir Joseph Flaville, Bart., was able to report that, in the interval between the Premier's appeal and December 1st, 1932, private enterprise had paid ?into the treasury of the Foundation $1,670,050, and that the Provincial Treasurer had assumed responsibility for a like sum. The endownment Fund of the Foundation was, therefore. $3,340,100. This sum was ?invested a lm~ s t entirely in Government securities, in securities guar. anteed by the Government, and in 1mmicipal securities. Sir Joseph Flavelle remarked at that time that "The payment of $1,670,050 to the Endowment of the Foundation by private persons and corporations is a somewhat remarkable performance when it is remembered that for three of the five years the business of the country has been suffering from a severe depression". Since that time it has been the consistent policy of O.R.F. to live within the income derived (1) from the investment of its Endowment Fund and (2) from fees collected for services rendered.

Jan 1, 1950

By Ian Thomson

The Social License to Operate ? We are operating in an era where social license in the resource industry is as important ? if not more important ? than mineral potential ? Concept proposed by Placer Dome executive Jim Cooney in 1997 as essential requirement for the future survival of the mining industry ? ?You don?t get your social license by going to a government ministry and making an application or simply paying a fee? It requires far more than money to truly become part of the communities in which you operate.? Pierre Lassonde, President of Newmont Mining Corporation (2003). What it is ?Granted by the local community ? Intangible, informal, non-permanent ? Has to be earned and then maintained ? Defined as ? Ongoing Acceptance (a lower level) ? Ongoing Approval (a higher level) ? Expression of the quality of the ?relationship?

Aug 1, 2013

By S. Yalcin, S. Chang, M. Oliazadeh

"Present day ferrochrome demand is on the rise, as more steel products require this material as an alloying element. It is projected that the stainless steel demands will grow by about 6% per year to 2020; as such, the supply and demand for ferrochrome appears promising. Chromite is the only economical source of chromium, which is commonly upgraded by gravity techniques and used to produce ferrochrome. The gravity separation methods are not able to treat particles finer than 0.1 mm efficiently. Therefore, in processing chromite ore, a large quantity of fine tailings; some 25% of the mineral values have been reported as lost in slimes during processing. The chromite content of these tailings is typically 10-20% Cr2O3 and accumulates into a large stockpile/pond. A chromite concentrator project in Canada, considers a cut-off grade of 20% Cr2O3. This indicates further processing might be required to recover chromite from low-grade stockpile when the high-grade deposits are depleted. Low-grade ores normally indicates disseminated chromite ores with low liberation and consequently fine comminution. This paper reviews the techniques for treating chromite from fine material and provides some examples of successful operations in fine chromite recovery. Beneficiation techniques for fine particles include gravity separation, magnetic separation, and flotation. Several case studies are presented here that used one of the aforementioned methods or a combination of them.INTRODUCTIONChromium is one of the essential element and important material for production of ferrochrome alloys and special steel. Chromium occurs as chromium spinel, a complex mineral with chemical composition of (Fe, Mg) O (Cr, Al, Fe)2 . Chromite ore is exclusively found in ultramafic igneous rocks. Major associated gangue minerals are talc, quartz, serpentine and iron oxides.Chromite is a heavy mineral, with a specific gravity in the range of 4-5, relative to associated gangue minerals in a chromite ore, which makes gravity concentration a suitable process. This is generally true for coarse particles, ranging from 1 mm to 100 mm. Typically, the ore is prepared by crushing (and grinding if necessary) to a suitable size and the material is sized for the appropriate beneficiation techniques. It is common to use heavy medium separation (e.g. dense media drums, dense media cyclones, or Dyna Whirlpool) to treat coarse size and intermediate size particles (1 – 100 mm). Intermediate and fine particles (20 – 0.1 mm) could be treated by jigs. Spirals, shaking table, sluices, and Reichert cones can upgrade fine particles. Figure 1 shows a typical chromite beneficiation process flowsheet. As can be seen, it consists of three major sections: feed preparation (crushing, screening), de-sliming, and concentration. Beneficiation recoveries range from 80 to 85%, although the ratio of upgrading is only 2 to 3."

Jan 1, 2013

By R. C. A. Thurston

Introduction A mechanical spring has been .defined by Wahl ( 1) as 'an elastic body whose ?primary function is? to deflect or distort under load, and which recovers its original shape when released after being distorted'. Most material bodies are elastic to some extent ? and will deform under load, but they are seldom regarded as springs since this is not their primary function. The principal applications of springs are the absorption of energy and the mitigation of shock, the support cf moving masses or the isolation of vibration, and the provision or measurement of definite loads or torques. A large number of spring types have been developed to serve these purposes and to meet the different operational requirements; they range from the large semi-elliptic leaf suspension spring to the delicate watch hairspring. The springs of most importance in machine design, however, are the helical round-wire compression or tension types. They are made in a wide variety of sizes and are used in tremendous quantities, mainly because of their low cost, their compactness, and their relatively high efficiency. Their field of application is as broad as that of machine design itself, but the bulk of production is almost certainly for suspension systems of vehicles such as automobiles, freight and passenger cars, and mine cars, and it is with the last of these applications that this paper is primarily concerned.

Jan 1, 1951

By R. L. Dunsmore

Introduction If one had been called upon to describe petroleum oil refining seventy-five years ago, he could have acceded to the request quite satisfactorily in about fifteen minutes. Fifteen years ago, an hour and a half would have been sufficient to give a general idea of oil refining, and of the equipment used for this purpose. Today, so extensive has been the research into all phases of the refining and manufacturing of petroleum products, and so rapid the strides in improvement in technique and equipment, that I doubt if a week would suffice to give an adequate outline of ail the ramifications of present-day oil refining. I propose to only 'hit the high spots', dealing particularly with the equipment and methods employed at the Imperoyal refinery, which you are to visit. Crude oil, the refiner's raw material, contains essentially only two elements, hydrogen and carbon. These are not present in the free state but are combined in various proportions as 'hydrocarbons'. A given crude oil is not made up of just one hydrocarbon, but of myriads; some solid, others liquid, and still others gaseous at atmospheric temperature and pressure, ail dissolved one in the other. Moreover, the nature and the relative amounts of the several hydrocarbons vary very considerably in crude oils from different sources. That is, a 'crude' from Oklahoma will contain hydrocarbons not present in crude from Mexico, and is different again from the Venezuela crude. Not only this but oil in a certain well in, say, Peru may be differently constituted from that in a well half a mile distant from it.

Jan 1, 1931

By Zachary Mayer

Agenda ? Kidd Mine ? Background ? Problem & Opportunity ? Challenges associated to depth - Production Rates - Productive Work Time - Operational Delays - Transfer Levels - Mucking Time - Impact on Hoist ? LHD Automation ? Sandvik AutoMine Lite ? Expected Benefits Kidd Mine - Background ? Located in Northern Ontario, Canada ? Underground base metal mine operating since 1966 ? Total 148 Mt mined (2.31% Cu, 6.08% Zn, 75 gpt Ag) ? 2.35 Mt/Y from stopes as deep as 9500 ft (2.9km) below surface ? Mining method: blasthole open stoping ? Mine/Mill: 1263 employees and contractors ? 2012 National John T. Ryan Safety Award

Aug 1, 2013

By P. C. Lighthall, D. W. Zandee, W. Shukin

"IntroductionThis chapter deals with the on land disposal and storage of fine tailing in slurry form behind dams. Other types of tailing, such as coarse dry cobbs from magnetic separation of iron ores and other dry materials, have special problems and are not addressed in this paper. The disposal of mine waste is not included, except as such materials may be of value in the construction activities related to tailing disposal.In earlier North American mining, mines were smaller and frequently disposed of their tailing by direct discharge into neighbouring streams or bodies of water. Where that was not practical or not permitted, the solids were collected in tailing ponds and only the effluent liquids were released or decanted. The dams used for these early impoundments were fragile structures and failures were common. With the advent of large, low-grade open pit mines, and increasing awareness of environmental and safety considerations, recently established mines have carefully-designed tailing disposal systems, with wellconstructed dams and attention given to protection of the environment. Older mines are being improved or at least being examined critically with a view to upgrading as necessary to meet the new standards.Modern tailing disposal systems are highly variable and unique to each mine. Tailing pond selection and design is dependent on available topography as also is the design of transport and water reclaim systems. Suitable sites that are at higher elevations than the mills or distant from them may require that the tailings be pumped. Dams, either earth or rock structures built of the most convenient and economic material, are usually a suitable mix of local borrow, mine waste and coarse tailings. The most economic structures are those built mostly of coarse tailing."

Jan 1, 1989

By Yuanming Pan, Brett Rogers, Baoquan Hu, Gary Yeo, Christine Austman

The nature and distribution of radiation-induced defects (RIDs) in quartz from the Maw Zone, a yttrium- and rare-earth-element-enriched sandstone breccia complex exhibiting intense hydrothermal alteration, have been investigated by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. EPR spectra show that detrital quartz in sandstone, from five diamond drill holes intersecting the Maw Zone and one above the crest of the so-called Quartzite Ridge, contain only background-level RIDs, indicating that Ubearing fluids were absent in this area. However, close to the sandstone-basement unconformity, in hole WR-194 immediately west of the Quartzite Ridge, the concentration of RIDs in detrital quartz is significantly above background but at least an order of magnitude lower than those at the Key Lake and McArthur River deposits. Widespread drusy quartz at the Maw Zone, which signifies intense hydrothermal alteration, is associated with hematite-, sulfide- and carbonate-bearing mineral assemblages, which exhibit complex crosscutting relationships. EPR spectra of drusy quartz in all three types of mineral assemblages are low in RIDs as well, supporting the EPR evidence that fluids at the Maw Zone did not carry significant U. These EPR results suggest that, in spite of intense hydrothermal alteration and favorable structural geology, the Maw Zone is unlikely to host any significant U mineralization. Moreover, this study shows that the EPR technique is potentially a useful exploration tool, capable of determining whether individual alteration zones in the Athabasca Basin were associated with U-bearing fluids or not.

Jan 1, 2013

By Daan Maijer, Wade Marquardt, Robert MacKay, Steven Cockcroft, Farzaneh Farhang Mehr

"To comply with the new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, the automotive industry is aiming to reduce weight and increase the power and efficiency of small displacement engines through the application of forced induction technologies. As an example, there are now several 2.0 litre turbocharged engines in production, producing in excess of 240 hp. To meet the need for improved fatigue properties in the engine blocks used in these high-output engines, a new water-cooled chill technology is under exploration at UBC in partnership with General Motors and Nemak. A series of experimental techniques were used to assess the capability of the new chill to extract heat from an A319 casting in the vicinity of the main bearing bulk head. The results show that this method has the potential to achieve a reduction in secondary dendrite arm spacing thus meeting the new microstructural specifications for these engines.INTRODUCTION The automotive industry is working to meet the stricter efficiency requirements laid out within the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) regulations (Bastani, 2012; Cole, 1995; Mackay, 2011; Miller, 2000), while at the same time not sacrificing performance. One approach is to increase the use of lightweight materials, which leads to a decrease in the overall vehicle weight and fuel consumption (Cole, 1995; Mackay, 2011; Miller, 2000). Other approaches include smaller displacement engines and gas-electric hybrid drivetrains. However, one trend that is becoming clear, is a greater emphasis on force induction gasoline engines. This allows for weight reduction to be achieved with smaller displacement engines without sacrificing performance. One consequence of this approach is that the engine block materials are subject to higher in-service thermal and mechanical cyclic loads (Cole, 1995; Miller, 2011; Heysler, 2001) The fatigue properties of an alloy are strongly affected by a number of the, as-cast, microstructure features including, Secondary Dendrite Arm Spacing (SDAS), porosity and eutectic lamella spacing (including intermetallic ß-Al5FeSi platelets) (Mackay, 2010a; Mackay, 2010b; Viet-Duc, 2015; Casellas, 2005). It is generally accepted they can act as fatigue initiation sites and that a reduction in their size will result in an improvement in fatigue performance. For a given alloy chemistry, one of the key parameters affecting the length scale of all three is cooling rate (Mackay, 2000)."

Jan 1, 2017

By J. Walenzyk

This report investigates the limited use of super large backhoes in surface mines around the world. The demand for super large (> 700 t) hydraulic excavators is rising and most of the machines are sold as front shovel (FS) application. Despite advantages in faster cycle times super large backhoe (BH) machines are a minority (ca. 1% of the total machine population). This investigation is based upon the comparison between the volumes available to the BH and FS in one block and before the machine needs to move. The working conditions are created with standard parameters as given by Original Equipment Manufacturers of hydraulic excavators regarding bench height, angle, and material density. The travel amount of both machine types is derived from these volumes and compared. Furthermore, the travel amount of super large BHs is compared to the travel amount of smaller mining BHs and evaluated based on attachment length and bucket size. The calculations conclude that the volume of material recoverable in a single spot is about 75% higher for FSs. This leads to an increased travel for BHs. The combination of both the increased appearance of electrical driven machines (in the class of > 700 t excavators) and the travel amount lead to a high risk of damaging the cable or the excavator. Enlarged wear on the travelling parts is also attended by the higher travelling. A direct comparison of commonly found working set ups shows that the ratio between volumes is 32% which leads to an increased travel amount. In comparison with a 250 t BH, the calculation shows that the smaller BH is able to reach nearly 50% of the volume of the super large BHs. The main reason for this is the respectively high reach on smaller machines which, combined with other factors, leads to a significantly higher number of BHs in lighter classes.

Aug 1, 2013