O.A. Lapaeva’s scientific contributions

This article describes the methods of developing and increasing the operational efficiency, which are implemented at production units of the SUEK-Krasnoyarsk JSC. It is demonstrated that their rational combination and mutual complementation in modern conditions of rising competition among coal producing companies, emergence of new challenges and higher requirements for the development dynamics of coal producing companies allow to efficiently use the production potential of enterprises and the labour potential of their employees. As a methodological approach we use the process and project approach to facilitate the development of enterprises that are part of a regional production association. The practice of solving the task of increasing the operational efficiency at production units demonstrates the necessity to form an incentive environment for developing both employees and enterprises at the enterprises and in the association. The goal of this environment is to provide systematic activities related to increasing the involvement and business activities of the personnel in the processes of production activities, in the development and implementation of actions aimed at improving and optimizing the production processes.

One of the major tasks in carrying out open-pit mining operations is timely and high quality maintenance and repair of mining equipment, in particular, mechanical shovels, which secures a required availability level. The most loaded are the lift and pressure drives of the shovel's working attachments, which significantly increases the risk of failure of their components. An adequate assessment of the loads acting on these drives through analyzing the changes in currents and voltages of their motors makes it possible to adjust the time between maintenance. In the course of the study, the representative points of the following three lumped working processes were obtained within the working cycle of 26.75 s: excavating; platform rotation with simultaneous movement of the shovel from the upper point of the path to the unloading point; reverse movement of the platform rotation mechanism with the returning and its positioning of the working attachment to the initial position. Changes in forces acting on the ropes of the lifting winch of the shovel were determined based on the evaluation of the obtained layout of the working attachment positions for the EKG-18R mechanical shovel and taking into account the driving and motion resistance forces within the working cycle. Analysis of the obtained force values acting on the ropes of the lifting winch at the three linear excavation paths with the inclination angles of 60, 70 and 80° has shown that the lowest forces in the lifting winch rope occur at the closest path with the angle of 60°. The received data will allow not only to select a rational path and the angle of bench mining, but also to adjust the time between maintenance according to the actual operating time of the lifting, pressure and movement drives.