A critical investigation into tyre life on an iron ore haulage system

Overview

The study focused on the tyre life on the main haul fleet at an open pit iron ore mine. The haul fleet consisted of 17 Komatsu 730 (180 t) haul trucks and 12 CAT 777 (90 t) haul trucks.

The haulage operation consists entirely of tyre-based haul trucks. Five per cent of the total mining budget is related to tyre costs. Since 2012 there has been a steady decrease in tyre life as measured in operating hours
(Figure 1) due to the high percentage of tyres that fail prematurely.
In 2014 a total of 41% of all tyres failed prematurely and 61% were classified as ‘worn out’.

Methodology and Objectives

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the current tyre management strategy at the mine and to identify possible aspects that can be altered in order to increase tyre life. A detailed breakdown of the objectives and methodologies followed during the project is shown in Table I.