Abrasive Wear of Shovel Teeth in Oil Sand

Abstract

In the oil sands industry alone a single ultra-class shovel tip can lose more than 35 kg of steel mass in one operating day. When the downtime to change a set of GET on a shovel is performed frequently, it can add up to significant loss in shovel availability, not to mention the loss of tip, adapter and shroud steel chunks that reappear in damaging crushers. This work has developed a mean to predict the performance of shovel teeth based on the field data by the introduction of specific energy (Es) which is defined as the friction energy required to cause a unit volume loss of material (Nm/m3). Results show that it is possible to predict the performance of shovel teeth through Es. It is also found that Es can be an index to quantify the resistance of metallic materials to abrasion in a specific abrasive condition.