Abstract. An integrated approach was used, including the construction of a mathematical model and the results of lengthy industrial tests of heavy mining machines with rubber elastic bonds. The issues of vibration isolation of heavy machines operating in extreme conditions, i.e. with prolonged cyclic loads and the influence of an external aggressive environment inherent in mining and processing enterprises. As an example, we con-sider vortex mixers with a vibration isolation system containing rubber elements. During long-term operation, the mass of the mixer does not remain constant; its increase is associated with the sticking of the initial product on the moving parts of the ma-chine. The location of such machines in the sinter factory at + 10.4 m, as well as the change in time of rotational symmetry of the drum rotation imposes certain requirements on the vibration isolation system: the system must be "soft" and stable in time, i.e. during 9-10 years of operation, its stiffness and dissipative parameters should not go beyond the permissible values. In order to reduce the aging effect, type 2959 rubber based on natural caoutchouc with a reinforced protective group was used, while the instability of the main mechanical parameters was taken into account in the developed theory of vibration isolation of machines. On the basis of the developed simulation model and the Boltzmann-Volterra integral relations with kernels of relaxation and aftereffect, an equation was worked out, which made it possible to take into account the rubber viscoelastic properties in full volume; in this equation, stiffness operator of elastic suspension in the machine is written by using fractional exponential function of the Yu. Rabotnov's type; on the basis of the mathematical model, the basic parameters of the machine under the study were calculated; in particular, for the vortex mixer, the time dependences of amplitude of the mixer housing vibrations and coefficient of vibration isolation efficiency were calculated with taking into account aging of elastic link material in the ma-chines; the calculation results were compared with the results of industrial tests of the vortex mixer operation lasting for 16 years. The theory and method for calculating vibration isolation systems with rubber elastic links for heavy mining machines were developed with taking into account material structure changes due to the effects of aging. The paper considers an example of calculating the mixer vibration isolation system taking into account rubber aging; the magnitude of the change in time of the main mechanical parameters was obtained experimentally over 16 years. This made it possible to determine temporary changes in the amplitude of oscillations of the mixer body and the coefficient of efficiency of the vibration isolation system. It was shown that the mixer vibration isolation system remained effective for 9-10 years, after which the mechanical characteristics of the rubber went beyond the permissible values and the system lost its functional pur-pose, and the amplitude of the mixer body exceeded the existing sanitary standards.
