BOA Hydraulics is focussed on providing leading, cost-effective and safe mobile repair solutions when hydraulic hoses fail, ensuring downtime is significantly reduced.
A key aspect of efficiency in the mining industry is ensuring equipment is running smoothly and safely. The humble hose is a crucial component in any hydraulic system, and mine sites across Australia rely on well-maintained hydraulic equipment for their mobile operations.
BOA Hydraulics is at the forefront of providing specialised hydraulic hose repair and maintenance solutions when the inevitable occurs and equipment breaks.
The company has fully embraced reliability centred maintenance, an approach designed to increase cost effectiveness and machine uptime.
In terms of hydraulic hose management, the University of Wollongong has estimated unscheduled downtime due to broken hoses “can reach up to 37 per cent of the entire unscheduled downtime” on mobile hydraulic machinery across surface mining operations.
It is vital to undertake hydraulic hose repairs in a safe and timely manner. This has led to the development team at BOA Hydraulics to create an all-weather, all- terrain mobile unit: the BOApod.
The BOApod is a unique on-site solution for hydraulic hose repair
and maintenance.
As a critical tool in combating unplanned downtime, the BOApod features European-precision crimping and cutting machinery, a remote hose reel system for controlled hose management, elevated hose support stand, and air compressor.
The key to the BOApod is its custom design, whereby every repair and maintenance element is considered, and specific componentry is readily available, dependent on the needs of the customer.
When a hydraulic system on a piece of machinery fails, it is not simply a financial cost that is incurred by the mine.
“It’s not just the actual machine that’s blowing the hose, but there’s all the other
machines on-site that are waiting upon it to be repaired,” BOA Hydraulics chief executive officer and co-founder Simon Boakes told Safe to Work.
The downstream effects when a mobile plant goes offline, in large part due to failures or malfunctions with hydraulic hoses, are such that many critical aspects of operations are immediately affected.
“Unplanned downtime has a significant flow-on effect throughout the entire mine operation and very quickly things build up,” Boakes said.
“If a truck goes down on a ramp, it leads to many machines down.
“Lost time is a critical problem for mining operations; you can never recover an hour or two. It’s gone forever.”
For Boakes, the key to reducing forced downtime through hydraulic hose failure is being able to react quickly with a safe and efficient repair solution.
BOA Hydraulics also delivers preventive maintenance and replacement strategies through the use of data analytics, which forms part of a holistic approach to hydraulic hose management.
The integrated repair and maintenance solutions provided by BOA Hydraulics incorporate comprehensive on-site training and technical support.
The BOApod “safety training is not complicated”, according to Boakes, and users will quickly gain confidence in selecting the appropriate components and undertaking the correct process to repair or replace a faulty hydraulic hose.
The team at BOA Hydraulics has established a fast, reliable and cost- effective approach to the repair, replacement and maintenance of hydraulic systems, with the tools designed and built with safety in mind.
The mobile nature of the BOApod means the equipment can provide an immediate and effective hydraulic hose repair solution. It reduces the length of unplanned downtime and, in the mining industry, this will always represent a critical factor in efficient operations.