Reliability-based maintenance scheduling of hydraulic system of rotary drilling machines

Abstract Hydraulic system has a critical and important role in drilling machines. Any failure in this system leads to problems in power system and machine operation. Since the failure cannot be prevented entirely, it is important to minimize its probability. Reliability is one of the most efficient and important method to study safe operation probability of hydraulic systems. In this research, the reliability of hydraulic system of four rotary drilling machines in Sarcheshmeh Copper Mine in Iran has been analyzed. The data analysis shows that the time between failures (TBF) of Machines A and C obey the Weibull (2P) and Weibull (3P) distribution, respectively. Also, the TBF of Machines B and D obey the lognormal distribution. With regard to reliability plots of hydraulic systems, preventive reliability-based maintenance time intervals for 80% reliability levels for machines in this system are 10 h.