Condition monitoring is a form of predictive maintenance where equipment’s health status is consistently evaluated to identify any signs of wear and tear before they reach an advanced stage. In case of large mining haul trucks, condition monitoring involves monitoring of the drivetrain, which is the sophisticated mechanism consisting of the engine, gearbox, bearings, and the traction motor that enables the haul truck to move.
Large mining haul trucks are used under very harsh environmental conditions, characterized by abrasive dust particles, severe changes in climatic conditions, and extremely heavy loads (Mardanshahi et al., 2025). These operational challenges cause traction drives to wear out at a much faster rate than usual. Reactive maintenance alone cannot be an economically viable maintenance strategy for the mining industry anymore.
The vibration analysis technology has proven to be a remarkably efficient diagnostic method when monitoring drivetrain conditions (Teng et al., 2021). As the wear of mechanical elements like gears and bearings increases, it results in certain changes of their typical vibration characteristics. By installing accelerometers and applying modern signal processing techniques, it becomes possible to identify exact frequencies related to any misalignment or wearing processes. Thus, fault detection can become automated, accurate, and timely.
The analysis of oil is another important technique to determine the structural integrity of lubricated drivetrain elements, especially those that have high loads, such as gearboxes. The mentioned diagnostic process involves the examination of oil chemical composition and the calculation of wear particles’ concentration (Teng et al., 2021). The increase of metal particle quantity is an evident sign of internal friction. Oil sampling is necessary to keep lubricants efficient and viscous under heavy loads of trucks.
Infrared thermography offers a harmless and non-invasive way to detect thermal problems within the drivetrain (Lopez-Perez & Antonino-Daviu, 2017). As any malfunction in mechanical parts and electrical faults have unique heat traces, the thermal images of the equipment can be easily captured through infrared cameras. In particular, infrared thermography is especially proficient in discovering overheated bearings and deteriorating electrical connections in traction motors.
Finally, using vibration analysis, oil analysis, and infrared thermography together results in creation of a powerful and efficient preventive maintenance strategy. On one hand, vibration analysis reveals mechanical imbalance, while on the other hand, oil analysis reveals microscopic wear of the machine’s internal components and thermography detects temperature increase immediately. Thus, functioning together, all of the above technologies guarantee high efficiency, reliability and operational longevity of haul truck drivetrain regardless of the working conditions.
References
Lopez-Perez, D., & Antonino-Daviu, J. (2017). Application of infrared thermography to failure detection in industrial induction motors: Case stories. IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, 53(3), 1901–1908. https://doi.org/10.1109/tia.2017.2655008
Mardanshahi, A., Sreekumar, A., Yang, X., Barman, S. K., & Chronopoulos, D. (2025). Sensing techniques for structural health monitoring: A state-of-the-art review on performance criteria and new-generation technologies. Sensors, 25(5), 1424. https://doi.org/10.3390/s25051424
Teng, W., Ding, X., Tang, S., Xu, J., Shi, B., & Liu, Y. (2021). Vibration analysis for fault detection of wind turbine drivetrains—A comprehensive investigation. Sensors, 21(5), 1686. https://doi.org/10.3390/s21051686
