Mechatronic system for running-in and testing of mechanical transmissions in mining shovels

The mechanical transmissions of the hoist and drag winches, as well as the crowd mechanisms of mining shovels, operate under highly variable and shock cyclic loads. These severe operating conditions impose stringent quality requirements on both the manufacturing and assembly of such transmissions. The lifecycle management process for these gearboxes includes running-in and acceptance testing at the manufacturing plant, followed by diagnostics and condition monitoring during field operation. Test benches designed for these purposes must closely replicate the operating conditions experienced by the transmission in actual service. The developed test bench is designed to perform running-in (initial wear-in of mating surfaces) and quality control testing of hoist and crowd winch gearboxes installed in electric mining shovels of the following models: EKG-8US, EKG-10, EKG-12K, EKG-15M, EKG-18, EKG-20KM, and EKG-32R. These operations are carried out as part of the standard acceptance testing procedure. The test bench is equipped with DC excavator motors rated at 350 kW (drive motors) and 560 kW (loading motor). The hoist winch gearbox from the EKG-15M shovel serves as the torque multiplier. Two intermediate shafts are connected via an intermediate coupling, with the loading motor driving one of these shafts. Motor control is implemented using standard DC transistor converters with PWM control, identical to those used in mining shovels equipped with DC main drives. The running-in and testing processes are carried out using the mutual loading method, which enhances energy efficiency by allowing regenerative energy to be reused within the system. The test bench software is based on the Pulsar-7 information and diagnostics system, which supports the following operational modes: 1. Interactive manual control, enabling the operator to verify the functionality and calibration of test bench components. 2. Automatic control of the running-in and testing processes, where pre-programmed sequences from a built-in library generate the required control commands for each specific test type. Available test modes include: unloaded running-in, running-in under constant load, running-in under variable load and rotational speed, excavation cycle simulation. 3. Automated test report generation, including the ability to view and print previously generated reports. 4. Software configuration and auxiliary functions, including an embedded help system. A mathematical model of the mechatronic system was developed and used to simulate the running-in process of the EKG-15M crowd gearbox in Simulink. The developed test bench system has been successfully implemented at Joint Power Co., Ltd. (Moscow) and IZ-KARTEX named after P.G. Korobkov.