The rapid development of science and technology, and the restructuring of the mining extraction industry, bring about profound changes in the structure and complexity of technological equipment used in mining. In this paper, the Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) method has been applied to analyze the components of the KSW-460NE shearer machine, which fails quite frequently. The cutter drums do not match from a constructive point of view, and the concrete operation conditions, alongside the picks (being in direct contact with coal and hard inclusions) and guides are submitted to intense abrasion wear, showing a great number of failures. The data collected following the machine’s exploitation allowed parameter determination characterizing the reliability of the components mentioned, the manner of failure, and the effects. Using calculation methods, it has been possible to facilitate the interpretation of the result in view of establishing measures required to improve maintenance of the dominant components of the machine, determining replacement intervals, in accordance with an imposed reliability and maintainability. The results of the study assist in the choice of suitable hardening materials for the reconditioning of cutter drums and guides that are necessary for practical trials, by which their operating times, and replacement intervals, respectively, might be additionally improved.

The equipment in underground mines provides a continuous production flow, depending on the way their quality is preserved during their operation. The TR-7A scraper conveyer subassemblies, which function in the Jiu Valley coal basin and are subjected to abrasion wear, showed a high failure frequency (chains, chain elevators, and driving and turning drums), as well as the hydraulic couplings and certain electric equipment of the same machinery. The data collected following the TR-7A scraper conveyer at work allowed the parameters to be determined that characterise the reliability and maintainability of the above-mentioned components, the failure modes, and their effects. Using calculation methods, the interpretation of the results has been facilitated, with a view to reducing maintenance costs and obtaining an 80% reliability for the components with the most failures, in the case of the TR-7A scraper conveyer.

The analysis of the behavior in exploitation of the extraction, transportation and utilization of hard rock type mineral substances proved that one of the most extended and aggressive forms of wear is abrasive wear. The effects of abrasive wear on the machine components and their economic implications are significant, especially due to the operational pauses coming up in the technological flows that serve specific activities. This study presents two ways of limiting the consumption of tamping tools for the railway machines that are submitted to abrasive wear, namely, by reconditioning with the help of electrodes for overlaying welding with alloys of preestablished characteristics; by executing cast cleats from composite material in which metal carbides were infiltrated by diffusion. The great number of cast cleats tested in exploitation allowed a reliability and maintainability analysis to be made using the Weibull++ program, including the determination of the necessary number of cleats for 5000 h of functioning. The results of the experiments performed to this end demonstrated that both the reconditioning and execution of spare parts, with the help of reusable materials, could be solutions for sustainability in several economic fields, especially in those where the production costs are high.