This article was featured in Australian Mining.
The mining industry represents a notoriously harsh environment for equipment. When it comes to off-road assets, the challenge becomes even greater. Remote locations, combined with the cost to maintain plant, present constant obstacles for operations to overcome. One of the biggest maintenance issues is caused by the longevity of one of the smallest elements in mining equipment – the seals.
The Importance of Seal Choice
When seals degrade it has a knock-on effect on every part of the mining operation. In today’s competitive landscape, every second that essential equipment is offline represents significant monetary loss. Choosing advanced seals that are known for their longevity in abrasive environments offers the following advantages:
- Increased time to failure – more service hours of equipment
- Better reliability – less unexpected breakdowns
- Easier servicing, thanks to more reliable maintenance intervals
Together, these benefits can add considerable value to a mine’s output, adding essential dollars to the operational bottom line.
The EPS Seal Advantage
Machined EPS (polymer) seals are highly advantageous when used in harsh environments, such as mining. They offer far better tolerance and durability than traditional seals and are designed to cope with the many challenges of today’s mining landscape.
Polymer technology is the latest state-of-the-art solution that, when combined with the correct seal geometry, provides enhanced reliability and equipment performance. Leading Australian seal specialist, Chesterton Customseal, has designed unique hydraulic and pneumatic sealing options that address many of the historical issues that premature seal breakdowns cause in the mining environment.
- Machined EPS seals are made from advanced raw material: Moulded from Chesterton’s own raw material – AWC 860 – that uses proprietary thermoset polymer technology with exceptionally high abrasion and cut resistance.
- Seals suitable for a range of equipment brands: Including Liebherr, Cat, Hitachi and Komatsu.
- Unique seal geometries: Specifically designed to offset sealing issues associated with pressure spikes, contamination, side loading and low-pressure leakage.
Together, these advantages equal longer service life, greater reliability and improved performance. No matter whether you’re looking to improve slurry seals or pump efficiency, Chesterton Customseal ESP seals are uniquely created to meet the strenuous demands of the mining and ore processing industries.
Mobile Mining Kits
Whether you’re in the metal, mineral, or coal mining markets, Chesterton can help to manage costs and maintain margins by optimising the value of equipment investments.
Chesterton Customseal sealing solutions help increase cylinder reliability by extending the hours of operation between maintenance intervals. Its turnkey cylinder repair kits combine proprietary polymer technologies with unique seal geometries to help improve the performance of off-road mining equipment.
Chesterton Customseal mobile mining kits offer:
- Turnkey custom cylinder repair kits
- Skilled in-field technical support
- On-site inspection and troubleshooting
- Experienced application engineers and designers
- Proven approach towards cylinder upgrades
Chesterton Customseal’s innovative turnkey rebuild and repair kits are suitable for multiple assets, including:
- Excavators – Including both shovel and backhoe: boom, arm, bucket, dump and level kits
- Trucks: hoist, front & rear suspension, steering cylinder kits
- Wheel loaders: lift, steering and tilt cylinder kits
- Dozers: tilt, lift ripper tilt & ripper lift cylinder kits
Kits have been strategically designed to contain all the components and seals in a single box with a unique number. This eliminates the need for multiple inventory items and provides every element needed to implement a longer in-situ service life for assets.
Advanced, innovative sealing solutions such as cylinder seal kits are further enhanced by Chesterton Customseal’s five to seven day lead times and premium customer service.
Or explore the wide range of specialist options on our website.