So, let's suppose that the work happens in a remote place with no constant access to spare parts. The work happen on a medium scale (around 500.000$ revenue a year) is there is a way to build a small lab to manifucture the needed spare parts on place ? will it be economicly effective ? are 3d printers a good choice or is it better to go old school. budget around 200.000 $ thanks in advance
Any parts can be made locally...but not very economically. Cast and machine is pretty basic, but once we start talking about large forgements, we either have to hand forge and machine or build large drop forge dies. And hobbing gears needs specialized equipment with setup times for small production runs being excessive. I wish you the best of luck, but at the minimum you would need a couple of vertical mills, of various sized, a couple of horizontal lathes, one long and one short, hobbing mills, heat treat equipment, plasma or laser cutting table to cut your blanks. Howard
What is the cost difference we are talking about here ? This is the list of machines we're willing to repair : jaw crusher, 2 horizental crushers, 2 track loaders ( CAT), 2 wheel Loaders (Cat), 2 tractors, 5 trucks , a tracked machines that destroys rockes with impact (idk the name in english). a Telescopic handler and 2 dump trucks (old ones) and 3 cars and few other small machines. what i'm doing here is testing the water, i have no idea about how this is done. sometimes it takes more than a week to get the necessary parts, i thought maybe if they are manifuctrued on site, there will be no shortage in supply. as i said before, i have around 200.000 $ in mind to finance this, will it be enough ? thank you again
Around here $200,000 would set you up with a decent machine shop of used machinery, that would allow you to handle most repairs. No casting, maybe simple gear cutting? I don't know what it would cost to ship that to Africa, and I don't know what it would cost to hire a good machinist there either. And if you were a machinist already, then you wouldn't be asking, would you? I'd say if you can get stuff in less than a week mostly, then there's no point in getting anything more than a lathe, and that only if it really makes sense to learn how to use one.
...i had a couple plastics parts made in house ' for an in house machine ' Right now they are very $low and not practical. I couldn't even imagine one making even a cheap tapered roller bearing. If someone in a Large city could print that seal you can't find for a Hundred times it's dealer price...he'd already be doing it.
It's impossible to compete with mass production, but not always impossible to compete with the outrageous markups and shipping on dealer parts. I had a boss back in the 70's whose answer to requests for parts was "Weld it up and grind it down" in a condescending voice. Welding is the most cost-effective field repair, but the metalurgy of the part being repaired is often an issue. A lathe is handy for undercarriage parts fabrication.
The money would be better spent on spares and preventative maintenance a lathe might be nice more valuable would welders grinders files 10 of every drill bit ect figure out whats wearing or breaking and keep it on hand it takes a while to figure all that out though spare jaw dies of course and belts and seals bearings but are you equipped to pull the flywheel ect 3d printing isnt even close to practical to maintain a crusher keeping a crusher running usually comes down to a stick welder, torch, 16 pound maul, then get back to work
i'm not a mechanist, i'm studying computer engineering (will finish next year) It's my father company, last week we had to repair something in the cursher for +20.000 $, we had to move it 500 KM back and fourth and it've been there for almost a month (additional 30.000 potential sales), not to mention transporting it and setting it up again. I'm currently in germany and i can get another bachelor in mechanical engineering afterward (taking this choice very seriously), if repering parts is cost effective then i will probably earn more than i could as a software engineer (not to mention that i'm supposed to take the company after dad's retirement). as i said i'm just seeing if it's possible or not, shipping should be no problem, specially from europe (it costs around 4000 euro per 22 tones and the custom is free). From what i understood, it's probably not cost-effective to manifcture parts urself when u have a company on such reltavly small scale. sry for asking so many silly questions hhh, but i'm rly new with this and willing to learn, i think i started getting hooked to this world may be studying computer engineering wasn't the best choice afterall
Its to bad your so far from the operation it would be a real education to go and see your crusher being worked on maybe they can send the old parts back so you can study the possibility of repair What went wrong with it?
i don't know the technical names of parts in english, but the heavy part of the jaw crusher (the one that moves in cercles). it got slightly unbalanced at first, they didn't notice until it caused a disaster. and at the same week we had a problem with overheating track loader at the send querry, it required some time to be fixed. where i live, there are no good mechanics, but the land is very rich with natural ressources, within a cercle of 20 KM diameter, we have mabel, stones, sands, cement, fosfat and this (idk what it's called in english) 3 months ago, i went with dad to buy a new crusher, i found other business men from my state, we had a chat, one of them spend 150.000 $ on repair in like a month (bigger scale). i though may be there is a good chance of investement since my father already have a medium size company and since there is a big marge of improvment. i'm considering changing from computer engineering to mechanical engineering and wanna know exactly the ramification of such decision. Hopefully i cleared my situation well thank you all for your answers.
HeavyEquipmentForums Take a look at this thread, and then think about how practical that would be to do in Africa. I call those clay block or clay tile block, they were pretty common in the midwest US for a few decades starting a century ago. Unheard of in new construction now, but that's just the US, right? A degree in mechanical engineering would be as useful for maintaining equipment as a degree in German literature would be to start fixing Volkswagens. It might help you understand what they were possibly thinking (Nietzsche and Mein Kampf?), but won't help get the job done.
If there are other users of machinery in the area, there may be a demand for what is known as a "job shop" for fabrication and repair.
As you can see from the thread linked, the infrastructure required to make something like those "mantle and jaw plates" would be HUGE. Casting facilities, heat treating ovens and heavy machining facilities. All of which have requirement such as electricity, proper foundations, buildings, etc.... In a word, impossible (very very impractical really). But a mid size lathe can do A LOT and is very handy. A horizontal mill can make straight cut gears pretty easily (a universal can do helical). A vertical mill and a few drill presses can do what's a pain on the horizontal. Throw in some welders and support stuff and your in business. These are all "old school" machines, there is also CNC to consider. For extra points youd have grinders, jig bores, boring mills, radial arm drill press shapers, gear generators and hones. Then your getting up to the league where you can make about anything. But is it really worth it to you to train someone how to operate these machines and get them all set up.
You are talking about creating a whole new side industry,which is not your main business.Even if you get all the gear ,you need the right staff to design & handle the machinery .Most of the staff who are qualified & experienced are gonna be working in a city ,being paid a lot more than you can afford.If you are making precise parts,you need correct metals & design.Or you'll be fixing your previous fixes regularly. One-off work is best left to a small shop ,if there is one .If the area expands,due to the mineral availability,a fab shop will eventuate.Here in Australia,smaller operators sometimes have to drive 150-200 KLMS to get parts or fab work done in a hurry.It's part of the cost of being in a remote industry.Eventually, the support industries come,if the area shows promise. Like a remote mining company,you may need to put your resources into inventory & good parts contacts. I'm sure there are suppliers who cater to remote areas & have good freight systems in place.But having spares in stock...bearings ,shafts,cone,etc...might be more cost effective. Just a few things to think about...
Yair . . . . I worked in remote areas all my working life and we found the most effective machine to keep and plant and dozers generating income was a Cessna 206. Cheers.
I would agree with all these people who say some basic machine tools like a mill, drill press and lathe would be handy. But if you have, say a planetary failure in a front end loader, to have to fabricate the parts most likely damaged from raw stock first off you would need to have the right size of stock on hand. Next even if you were set up to machine the gears how are you going to do proper heat treating of these parts? Then you say: "the heavy part of the jaw crusher (the one that moves in circles). it got slightly unbalanced at first, they didn't notice until it caused a disaster." If having people who are not able to understand the importance of not running something that is vibrating are you going to have people around who are capable machining critical parts to fine tolerances? Never had much experience working where parts were not available, sometimes had to wait an extended time for something that was on back order but can not imagine trying to fabricate something like a cam shaft for a 3516 Cat engine out of bar-stock. Now if that same engine had a main bearing spin in the block and I had someone with a line bore bar and a chunk of steel or cast iron the right size and a lathe could have the block line bored say 1/4 inch over size. Then machine a ring out of the stock on the lathe to fit tight in the bored out block. Next split the ring and install it in the block and main cap with some brass pins. Then install the cap and line bore back to standard. Actually had to do about that same thing years ago on a Waukasha gas engine. Local machine shop handled the machine work and another machine shop took care of the crankshaft grinding.
One other thing I was thinking about was the machines you are using. Have to wonder if say production called for a 12 yard primary loader to feed the jaw. Would it maybe be better to instead use two 8 yard machines? I know routine maintenance would be a bit higher and you would need two operators so labor costs would be higher. On the other hand if one of these units failed you would still have 2/3 production capacity while waiting for the failed unit to be repaired or parts to be shipped in for the repair. Ideally you would have tow identical machines, that way if while waiting for say a tilt cylinder ram for one the other one has a steering pump fail you can just pull the one off the parked machine to get back in production the next day. Also having two identical machine would make having spare parts easier. Would suck to have say a WA-600 Komatsu with a failed brake caliper and a Cat 988H with a failed tilt cylinder sitting there.
Yair . . . kshansen Your #17 posts echo my thoughts completely, are common sense and logical but people in high places often can't grasp this issue. It wasn't always like that and I believe I have mentioned on here how one outfit I worked for standardised on 71 Series GM's in everything, trucks, dozers, loaders, scrapers, dredges and draglines. The imperative for cash flow to me was always paramount and I seem to remember fairly recently one of our members in Africa was considering a large (I think 60-80 ton) excavator and I mentioned the downtime issues. To me, particularly in a remote area it would be logical to have two identical smaller machines . . . production and progress payments keep ticking over and there is sometimes the option to slip in some extra shifts. That's just us blokes though what would we know. (big grin) Cheers.