On 21st June, 2001, mining at Quarry AB in West Bokaro
received a severe jolt. One of the excavators used to remove mother earth to expose coal
(Excavator No. 18) had to be taken out of service after two of its four pedestals and the
track frame developed severe cracks and broke. The pedestals are a part of the frame,
which supports the super-structure of this mammith 100 tonne excavator.
To get the excavator back into operation, it was necessary to purchase a new frame from the original equipment manufacture at a cost of Rs.5 million or repair/outsource using a local agency. Either of these two options would keep the excavator down for at least four months resulting in a loss of 60,000 tonnes of exposed coal, apart from the cost of the new frame/repair. i.e. a total "expenditure" of around Rs. 15 million.
The Quarry AB maintainance team could neither
wait for so long nor bear such a huge unplanned expenditure. The Team with the guidance of
Chief Quarry AB and Chief (ES) took up  the challenge. Mr. U. Chatterjee,
Head (Maint.) and Mr. B.K. Sing (Manager Maint.) tried to evolve ways and means of getting
the excavator repaired at site. The Team located a scrapped frame whose pedestal portion
could be reused after welding and alignment. A road map was developed. The job was
completed within 16 days at the cost of Rs.0.2 million despite nature's fury (torrential
rain) at that time. The excavator was brought back into operation on 7th July, 2001.EE (efficient excavator) 18 was born. It has continued to work efficiently since. Hurrah! The Team is happy. So is West Bokaro - ohh la la! "Hum kisise kum nahin, kum nahin", sang West Bokaro. |