Published in Australia's Longwalls

The Australian company’s recently launched system was designed to reduce hose assembly failures and aid in determining when to economically carry out preventative maintenance and replace hose assemblies. It also assists in preventing oil injection accidents, the majority of which are caused by ageing abrasion, corrosion and general deterioration of hose assemblies.

The HALP program determines when hose assemblies are due to fail and provides the opportunity to replace them beforehand, reducing risk to workers and lost production related to down-time.

HALP provides an automatic or inbuilt review facility that considers, on an ongoing basis, the condition of assemblies and their deterioration over time, relative to initial predictions. Ongoing reviews are conducted with Ryco to analyse discarded hoses and upgrade program projections.

When the system is installed in a longwall operation, Ryco personnel compare the mine environment with a similar mine and install that mine’s database as a starting point. The known environmental conditions of the mine, such as PH levels (corrosion) in the working environment, sulphur levels, temperature and humidity are then entered.

Technical issues concerning the mine’s hose products are then addressed. This covers whether the assemblies’ quality assurance certificates or qualifications are backed by current certification to comply with mine and Department of Mineral Resource standards.

It also asks if the assembly has passed auditing from an accredited third party, if the mine’s supplier has up-to-date approvals, and is quality accredited. The mine must also check that hose assemblies are labelled so date of manufacture and full product traceability can be captured.

The mine, with assistance from RYCO, must also estimate the number of average impulses each assembly will make in a 12 month period, enter the bend radius of each assembly, input maximum working pressure and define exposure on a scale of 0-5.

When all influence factors are entered, RYCO then collects data from discarded hoses. A visual examination is made to record the hose’s condition and age, noting any blemishes. The hoses are then graded and the assembly is pressure tested to destruction to compare the results with the visual report.

If there is a correlation between the pressure test and the visual examination, then the visual was correct and that standard can be applied to the hoses on the wall. If the presumption was incorrect then further analysis must take place and modifications made to the visual criteria to bring it in line with reality.

The ongoing test results, along with the visual reports, are entered into the system and an updated report can be accessed regarding hose assembly lifespan.