Purchase price tells only part of the cost story for a critical mining component. Service life, maintenance intervention and the effect on equipment availability can have a much greater influence on its value over time.
A MASPRO surface drilling case study demonstrates the scale of that difference.
A re-engineered rotary head increased average service life by 286 per cent, from 2,511 hours for the original units to 9,680 hours for the MASPRO units. Based on the operating conditions and value calculations documented in the case study, the customer reported more than $1.5 million in annual operational value.
When Component Failure Starts Driving Cost
The application involved a high-utilisation surface drilling fleet operating in demanding hard-rock conditions. Premature rotary head failures were increasing maintenance requirements, affecting rig availability and shortening the interval between component interventions.
For a fleet running around the clock, even a modest reduction in mean time between failures compounds quickly, adding unplanned downtime, extra labour hours and pressure on spares inventory that a maintenance schedule may not be built to absorb.
Turning Service Life into Operational Value
MASPRO worked with the customer’s reliability engineers to investigate the recurring failure points and develop a re-engineered rotary head for the application. The upgraded unit was designed as a direct replacement, requiring no modification to the rig, which meant the customer could adopt it without retooling or retraining crews.
The resulting increase in service life reduced maintenance interventions and unplanned downtime, while supporting greater rig availability and production continuity.
Over a full operating cycle, that translated into fewer scheduled removals, less time with rigs out of service, and a maintenance calendar that better matched planned shutdowns rather than reacting to failures.
For mine operators assessing total cost of ownership, component price needs to be considered alongside the operating hours it delivers and the maintenance activity required across its service life. Longer service life can change that equation through fewer replacements, fewer maintenance interventions, reduced freight and inventory requirements and greater continuity between planned maintenance events.
The relevant question is therefore not simply what a component costs to purchase, but what value it delivers for every hour it remains reliably in service.
Reliability Measured in Economic Terms
For MASPRO, Redefining Reliability means viewing component life not simply as a maintenance metric, but as a contributor to operational performance and profitability. This case is one example of how lifecycle-focused re-engineering translates into business value over the operating life of the asset.
Decisions around design, materials, wear behaviour and failure modes ultimately influence maintenance demand, production continuity, lifecycle cost and operational risk. MASPRO’s approach is to make those connections visible linking engineering performance with the outcomes across the operation.
When reliability is understood at a system level, component decisions become part of a much bigger conversation about control, predictability and whole-of-life performance.
MASPRO’s rotary head case study offers one concrete example of what that evaluation can look like in practice and what it can be worth.