As commodity price volatility causes many mines to cut jobs, Tru-Trac Rollers’ maintenance services for mine conveyors ensure that this vital function is not compromised. Guy Fitt and Gerhard Strydom explain what a difference it makes to have an OEM’s eyes continuously on the performance and condition of equipment.
“Turmoil in the mining sector is leading to lay-offs and pressure on capital budgets,” says Guy Fitt, national sales manager at Tru-Trac Rollers. “Both these factors can reduce the reliability of conveyor systems, at a time when the mine’s productivity levels can least afford it. As a leading original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in this field, Tru-Trac provides flexible maintenance and support services to solve this dilemma.”
Fitt emphasises that conveyor systems are the life blood of any mine or plant, so it is critical to ensure adequate maintenance or the whole operation’s productivity will suffer. Where mines are under financial pressure, Tru-Trac can step in to take the load off certain personnel, freeing them to focus on other critical areas of the mine.
“We can assume responsibility for a range of tasks from checking and changing idlers to the cleaning of belt scrapers and maintaining belt trackers,” he says. “These are vital to avoid downtime, but can go ignored if mine staff are too thinly spread – with dire consequences for uptime and production.”
Tru-Trac technical product manager Gerhard Strydom notes that mines sometimes even need to do without their usual complement of artisans and assistants during difficult times. The company’s support teams are ideally suited to step in and assist, says Strydom, as they are well trained in general maintenance of conveyor systems while also being familiar with the mining industry.
It is clear that the market recognises the value of Tru-Trac’s support, he points out, as a number of them have been customers for over 12 years. Many of these relationships have evolved into maintenance contracts with a team dedicated to conveyor maintenance on site for a specified time. Fitt explains that the work which these teams perform during these hours, while focused on conveyor maintenance, is not limited to only Tru-Trac’s products, but rather focuses on overall conveyor maintenance, performance and safety.
“The benefit of well trained and experienced conveyor service and maintenance teams ensure that belts are well maintained, and the necessary preventative maintenance work is completed, contributing to our customers’ other related requirements wherever possible,” he says.
As the company’s national footprint has expanded, it has recruited and trained technicians from areas close to the customer base, facilitating the upskilling within local communities. These individuals require comprehensive training to ensure skills and an in-depth knowledge of Tru-Trac products. Training is done either at head office or at the branches.
Tru-Trac’s aim is to improve the efficiency of the customer’s conveyor system, says Strydom, which means giving all aspects of this equipment the attention they deserve. He warns that the conveyors on many mines are only attended to when there is a breakdown.
“While some customers request that we train their staff in equipment maintenance if they have enough personnel, it is increasingly common for mines to keep us on site as the specialist OEM, allowing their artisans to concentrate on core mining activities,” he says.
“The advantage of a maintenance contract is that the mine has the comfort of knowing a specialist is on site, giving this essential system all the necessary attention,” he says. “We conduct regular surveys of belt tonnages, belt speeds and ground conditions, for instance, to check that the trackers and other equipment are performing to our standards.”
It is this ‘extra pair of eyes’ that allows the uptime of conveyor systems to be optimised. Tru-Trac has developed relationships of trust with longstanding customers through its ability to identify issues and bring these to the attention of management. In one instance, the team identified a problem where a customer’s run-of-mine belt was lifting off the structure completely – causing misalignment, loss of product and damage to the belt itself. After reporting the issue, Tru-Trac was able to design, engineer and install a solution to the customer’s satisfaction.
“We have skilled and experienced teams close to customers, who we continuously upskill through our training resources,” says Fitt. “This expertise is available to the mining sector, and has proven to have a marked impact on conveyor uptime and productivity.”
