Wear Debris Removal from Dragline Commutators

The original aim of this project was to establish a method of removing carbon debris from DC machine commutators which does not rely on PPE as a primary method of protecting operators from the hazard of respirable dust.

Prior to the witnessing of dust removal in Feb 2020, BMT engineers understood that the main source of dust was carbon debris produced by brush wear. It was expected that project outcome would be along the lines of “a method will be found which can remove the debris from commutators and capture it to prevent it becoming inhalable to operators.” BMT witnessed dust removal from commutators in the MG sets of DL6 at “mine A”. This machine is a M8200 “super”. It has 3 x 2984kW MG sets (3 x 4000HP). There are 18 DC generators and 26 DC motors.

The commutator cleaning dust problem is actually quite different to the problem as perceived at the start of the project. The dust to be removed is not carbon debris but large volumes of fine overburden dust which has accumulated over time on the rotating, interior surfaces of the DC machines.

Further investigations will be required to establish a viable method of cleaning.