Bucket-wheel excavator 293: A machine of superlatives.
Weighing 14,200 tonnes, 225 meters long, and 96 meters high: Excavator 293 at RWE Power AG’s Hambach open-cast mine is a machine of superlatives.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the bucket-wheel excavator is considered the largest and heaviest land vehicle in the world.
Last week, Dr. Martin Wehr was on assignment at RWE Power AG’s Hambach open-cast mine. The focus was on the inspection of the cables on Excavator 293.
The massive machine’s four 75-millimeter-thick hoist ropes were inspected. The ROPESYS R83 rope inspection device was used.
Four hoist ropes for a machine of superlatives
Excavator 293 achieves a theoretical daily output of up to 240,000 cubic meters. Consequently, the demands placed on its technical components are equally high.
Four wire ropes, each 75 millimeters in diameter, handle the lifting and lowering movements of the boom.
Reliable inspection is particularly important for rope dimensions of this scale. For this reason, Dr. Martin Wehr conducted the magnetic-inductive rope inspection directly on the machine. This allowed the ROPESYS R83 to demonstrate its capabilities under the real-world conditions of open-cast mining.
Magnetic-inductive testing of hoist ropes
A visual inspection alone cannot detect all changes in a wire rope. Magnetic-inductive rope testing, on the other hand, also allows for the examination of the rope’s interior.
This allows for the detection of, among other things, localized wire breaks and cross-sectional losses.
The ROPESYS R83 rope testing device is designed for testing larger wire ropes. The measurement data show the internal and external condition of the rope in real time, thereby providing important information for technical assessment.
ROPESYS R83 at the Hambach open-cast mine
The rope inspection on Excavator 293 demonstrates the versatility of ROPESYS rope inspection equipment, as wire ropes are used in far more than just cranes, mine hoisting systems, or cable cars.
They also perform important tasks in large pieces of machinery and must be reliably monitored.
The inspection was carried out directly on-site using the ROPESYS R83 rope testing device. This ensured that the measurement data was available exactly where it was needed for the assessment of the hoist ropes.
ROTEC – we make ropes safe.
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