Knowledge

Calculating Expander® System´s cost benefits in mining and minerals

Find out how the Expander System can lower the total cost of ownership for your heavy-duty mining and quarry equipment.

If your mining operation depends on heavy-duty machinery, each of your machine’s total cost of ownership (TCO) affects your bottom line.

For equipment like haul trucks, rope shovels, and excavators - especially those used by mines - pivot pin maintenance is a critical factor of TCO. And it’s multiplied by each lifecycle of a pivot pin as part of the machine, of which there are many. Some pivot pin maintenance expenses that add to the TCO of any mining machine are obvious, like regular replacement or routine lubrication. Others are not.

Traditional pivot pins add unseen costs to your machine’s TCO

There are hidden expenses to traditional pivot pin maintenance that accumulate over time and significantly increase the TCO of machinery.

When wear occurs in a pivot, it becomes increasingly inefficient in its movement, gradually reducing the machine’s productivity.
Worn traditional pivot pins eventually seize, and the equipment is unusable until the pin can be removed and replaced.
Output is lowered during any unplanned downtime (unless a replacement machine is rented, which is another expense).
Removing a seized pin and repairing the wear it created in the pivot’s lug holes to install a replacement is time-consuming, labor-intensive work, usually with some combination of torch cutting, grinding, line boring, and welding.

Expander System, however, avoids the costliest parts of the repair.

See the lifecycle costs of Expander vs. traditional pivot pins

How did we calculate these cost comparisons?

We appreciate the pivot pin maintenance expenses with both the Expander System and traditional pivot pins, across the same timeframe for some of the most common mining machines. We then assessed immediate total costs (with and without downtime) and total lifecycle costs (also with and without downtime).

You can download our lifecycle cost calculations via the links below and see for yourself how Expander lowers the cost of ownership.