Efficiency of Maintenance Activities in Aggregate Quarries: A Case Study of Wear Parts on Loaders and Excavators

Technological equipment in quarries that extract and deliver aggregates for different uses operates in a predetermined flow depending on the type of rocks exploited and the dimensional characteristics imposed on the final products. In this context, the interruptions in operation required to replace high-wear parts (such as the teeth of excavators and bucket loaders) must be limited as much as possible through technological solutions to increase their service life. The evolution of the wear of the teeth of the quarry equipment that come into direct contact with rocks was concretely established in the production process, in parallel with the wear values obtained by simulating the wear phenomenon in laboratory conditions, in order to validate the data collected during the operation of the machines. Preventive–repetitive maintenance within the activities of reconditioning the worn surfaces of the teeth, through the charging process by manual electric welding with covered electrodes, was applied directly to the machine, which led to the shortening of the interruptions in operation necessary to replace these spare parts.