Comparative analysis of efficiency of rope and hydraulic excavators

Abstract

The widespread use of hydraulic excavators has brought up a question of rope excavator competitiveness and the conditions for their effective use. To answer this question, the paper presents the results of a comparative analysis of the economic operation indicators of rope and hydraulic excavators with bucket capacity of 11–12 m3. The analysis is based on actual data on excavators’ operation in mines in Russia. As an analysis tool, the authors the methodology mining machinery efficiency assessment by specific accumulated owning costs during service life. The authors have analyzed the dynamics of the specific accumulated owning costs of Russian manufacture rope excavators EKG-12K with bucket capacity of 12 m3 manufactured by IZ–KARTEX named after P. G. Korobkov in comparison with similar foreign manufacture open-pit hydraulic excavators. The analysis has shown that the owning costs of rope excavator EKG-12K in operation in truck-and-shovel mining systems with dump trucks having capacity of 130 tons in excavation of semirocks during twenty-year service life are less than half, comparing to the owing costs of the hydraulic excavators. Starting from the 5th year of operation, the values of the specific accumulated costs of EKG-12K, including the costs of purchase, operation, maintenance and repair, become lower than the specific accumulated costs of the hydraulic excavators-analogues. The paper presents the calculated and actual performance indicators of excavators EKG-12K in open pit mines in Russia , which have shown the closeness of their values. The authors give the actual data on the specific costs of operation, maintenance and repair of open-pit hydraulic excavators with a working weight of 200 tons and with bucket capacity of 11–12 m3 during their service life.