MAINTENANCE
Retreading old tyres is a good strategy to get the most from a tyre and adds several years to tyre life.
below 85°C to avoid potentially damaging
the tyres. General road maintenance will
keep the tyre temperatures at manageable
levels, to extract the best value you can from
the asset,” says Martin.
Mining operators should focus intensively
on haul road design, because that is often
where the problems start. If, for example,
a haul road is not designed correctly, or the
camber is bad or the incline or decline is too
steep (a seven-degree angle on a haul road
is dwelling on the perimeters of a slope), it
creates challenges for the equipment and the
tyres. Thus, haul road design should, from
do not last long,” says Wehmeyer. “Debris
falling from trucks is the biggest culprit in
terms of cuts, especially to the threads and
the sidewalls of the opencast operational
tyres,” adds Wehmeyer. Mines are advised
to employ a sweeper and a grader daily to
prevent damage to expensive tyres.
“Another factor is the camber on the
haul road,” says Martin. “The truck is not
lopsided, and any undulations on the road
adds to the additional heat build-up in the
tyre. Of course, heat monitoring is becoming
extremely important. Internal chamber
temperatures should generally be maintained
Appointing tyre experts to take care of assets that can cost more than USD50 000 each
benefits any operation.
an engineering point of view, already start
addressing issues with tyres. A mine is in fact
proactive if the haul road design is better.
Managing the asset
A mine manager should develop a tyre
management programme, which will include
daily, weekly, and monthly reports, and these
reports must be made available to the mine
and the engineering managers. “Without
these reports, a manager cannot manage.
These reports form a big part of Kal Tire’s
service and offering,” says Lewies.
Based on all these activities, one could
arrive at two factors that you need to focus on:
the first key factor is preventive repairs, and
the second is to obtain optimal tyre life. Once
a tyre has run its life, a scrap analysis needs
to be done. “From the scrap analysis, the
reasons for most failures can be pinpointed;
for example, whether there is a problem with
the haul roads, whether the tyre is running
flat or half flat, or any other problem,” says
Wehmeyer. If a manager applies all these
principles properly, then he or she is being
preventive and that would add value and
prolong tyre life.
Tyres should be regarded as the
foundations on which mining operations
are built. The importance of tyres cannot be
underestimated. ■
JANUARY 2018
29