At a large-scale iron ore mining site in Northern Canada, the EX8000-7 excavator served as the backbone of the mining operation, responsible for excavating and loading an average of 2,300 cubic meters of iron ore per day. This equipment was critical to meeting the site's monthly production target of 65,000 cubic meters. For the first six months after commissioning, under the operation of Mike, a veteran operator with 18 years of experience, the excavator performed exceptionally well. Its responsive bucket movements and strong lifting capacity allowed the team to surpass the monthly production target by 5% for three consecutive months, earning it the title of "Star Equipment" from the site management.
Problems began to emerge in early winter, however. As temperatures dropped to -15°C, Mike noticed a significant decline in the excavator's performance— a clear sign of hydraulic motor clogging. When digging into dense iron ore layers, the bucket's downward speed slowed by nearly 35%. What once took 8 seconds to penetrate the ore now required 12 seconds, even with the engine running at full throttle. This slow operation directly disrupted the loading cycle: when transferring ore to 200-ton dump trucks, the delayed bucket movement extended each loading cycle from 2.5 minutes to 3.5 minutes, reducing the daily loading efficiency by approximately 25%.
The situation worsened when it came to boom lifting. During a routine operation to lift a 27-ton ore bucket, the boom suddenly froze at a height of 9 meters. Mike repeatedly adjusted the joystick, and after 15 tense seconds, the boom finally resumed movement. This incident, caused by insufficient power from the clogged hydraulic motor, forced the site to halt operations for 3 hours to conduct safety checks, and it also caught the attention of the Canadian Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which issued a warning about potential safety hazards.
Last month, the mining company received an urgent order from a steel mill in the United States, demanding an additional 12,000 cubic meters of iron ore within 12 days. To meet this deadline, the team arranged round-the-clock operations with three shifts of operators. However, the hydraulic motor clogging persisted— foreign objects like iron ore dust and small rock fragments continued to be sucked into the motor, and the aging hydraulic filter failed to block these impurities effectively. As a result, the excavator's daily output only reached 1,900 cubic meters, falling 400 cubic meters short of the required target. On the 9th day of the task, the clogged motor caused excessive friction in the hydraulic system, leading to overheating and an emergency shutdown that lasted 8 hours. In the end, the site failed to deliver the order on time, resulting in a $100,000 breach-of-contract penalty. David, the site manager, held an emergency meeting and emphasized: "We have to fix this hydraulic motor clogging problem within a week. If not, we'll face more losses and even risk losing long-term cooperation with the steel mill."
Solution:
Online Collaboration with KICAN & Customized Hydraulic Motor Solution
The site's maintenance team first carried out a thorough inspection of the EX8000-7 excavator's hydraulic system to pinpoint the root cause of the clogging. Using industrial endoscopes and oil sample analysis kits, they made three key findings: First, the internal oil passages of the hydraulic motor were blocked by a large amount of iron ore particles (ranging from 0.15mm to 0.4mm in diameter) and metal shavings from worn components— clear evidence of foreign object inhalation during construction. Second, the hydraulic oil had been in use for 2,000 hours, far exceeding the recommended replacement cycle of 1,500 hours. It showed severe oxidation and crusting, with its viscosity dropping from 50 cSt to 35 cSt, which was unable to maintain stable power transmission. Third, the hydraulic filter's element was completely saturated with impurities, and its filtration efficiency plummeted to less than 45%, confirming poor filtration performance.
The maintenance team immediately implemented conventional solutions to address the clogging: they used high-pressure ultrasonic cleaning equipment to remove foreign objects from the hydraulic motor, replaced the old hydraulic oil with a low-temperature-resistant, anti-oxidation type (adding 600ml of professional antioxidant to prevent future crusting), and installed a new high-precision hydraulic filter. Unfortunately, the excavator only ran normally for 4 days before the same clogging issues reoccurred. The harsh mining environment— with high dust levels, frequent temperature fluctuations, and continuous high-load operations— accelerated impurity accumulation and oil oxidation, making the original motor's design inadequate for long-term anti-clogging performance. Realizing that conventional maintenance wouldn't work, the team decided to seek international technical support.
Through research on global heavy machinery forums and recommendations from the International Mining Equipment Association, the team learned about KICAN Corporation— a company specializing in customized hydraulic solutions for large-scale construction and mining equipment, with over 600 successful international project cases. On a Tuesday morning (Canadian time), the maintenance team initiated a consultation via KICAN's 24/7 multilingual online support platform. They uploaded detailed data, including the excavator's fault videos, oil analysis reports, daily operating hours, and the specific characteristics of the iron ore (such as hardness and dust content), to provide a comprehensive overview of the clogging problem.
To accommodate the time difference between Canada and China (where KICAN's technical team is based), KICAN scheduled a video meeting at 9:00 PM Beijing time (9:00 AM Canadian time). During the 4-hour meeting, KICAN's engineers carefully analyzed the fault data and identified the core issue: the original hydraulic motor lacked a targeted anti-clogging design. Its single-layer oil inlet filter and rough inner oil passage walls made it easy for foreign objects to accumulate, while its material couldn't withstand the accelerated oil oxidation in low-temperature environments. Within 36 hours of the meeting, KICAN's technical team developed a customized hydraulic motor solution specifically tailored to solve the EX8000-7 excavator's clogging problem.
This customized solution stood out with five key advantages:
• Perfect Replacement for Branded Motors: The customized motor strictly adhered to the original brand's installation dimensions (length: 860mm, diameter: 430mm) and interface standards. It required no modifications to the excavator's existing hydraulic system, enabling "plug-and-play" installation. Additionally, KICAN added a 4-layer stainless steel filter at the oil inlet and polished the inner oil passage walls to a smoothness of Ra 0.8μm, effectively preventing foreign object accumulation.
• Lower Cost: Compared to the original brand's hydraulic motor, which was priced at 68,000, KICAN's customized product cost only 51,000— a 25% reduction. This not only solved the clogging problem but also saved the mining site $17,000 in procurement costs.
• Higher Quality: To enhance anti-clogging and durability, KICAN used military-grade wear-resistant alloy steel for the motor's inner cylinder (reducing metal shavings from wear by 40%) and imported low-temperature-resistant Viton seals (which can withstand temperatures as low as -30°C and pressures up to 40MPa, preventing oil leakage that could worsen clogging). After 1,500 hours of simulated testing under the same mining conditions (including low temperatures and high dust), the motor's wear resistance and oil pressure stability exceeded the original brand's standards by 40% and 32%, respectively.
• Faster Production: Leveraging its integrated production chain— which covers raw material forging, precision CNC machining, and multi-stage quality inspection— KICAN completed the entire production process of the customized motor in just 6 days. This was far faster than the original brand's 5-week delivery cycle, significantly reducing equipment downtime caused by clogging.
• Integrated Production Chain Support: KICAN's integrated production chain allowed real-time tracking of each component's production progress and quality status, ensuring consistency in the motor's anti-clogging performance. Moreover, KICAN provided a 30-month warranty for the customized motor and promised to dispatch engineers to the site within 48 hours if any clogging-related issues arose, offering long-term after-sales security.
KICAN's customized hydraulic motor was shipped via international air freight and arrived at the Canadian mining site just 2 days after production was completed. To ensure proper installation and activation of the anti-clogging functions, KICAN also sent two senior engineers (fluent in English) to the site. With the joint efforts of KICAN's engineers and the site's maintenance team, the new motor was successfully installed in 6 hours. The team then conducted rigorous testing: 4 hours of no-load testing to verify rotation speed, oil pressure stability, and the effectiveness of the anti-clogging filter; followed by 3 hours of load testing, simulating high-intensity ore excavation with a 30-ton bucket. All test indicators met or exceeded the design requirements, and the EX8000-7 excavator was put back into ore mining operations.
After two months of continuous operation in the harsh low-temperature and high-dust mining environment, the mining site's team and operators provided highly positive feedback, particularly regarding the solution to the clogging problem. At the monthly production review meeting, Manager David said: "We were initially worried about using a non-original motor to fix the persistent clogging, but KICAN's solution has completely exceeded our expectations. Over the past two months, thanks to the anti-clogging design of the customized motor, the excavator's daily output has stabilized at 2,600 cubic meters— 13% higher than before the clogging fault occurred. Based on the current iron ore market price of 3,200 per cubic meter, this translates to an additional monthly revenue of approximately 64,000. More importantly, the fast production and delivery of the customized motor minimized the excavator's downtime due to clogging to only 8 days, helping us avoid further penalty risks. Now, we no longer have to deal with sudden shutdowns caused by motor clogging, which has greatly improved the stability of our production schedule."
Operator Mike, who had struggled with the clogged motor for months, shared his hands-on experience: "The difference with KICAN's anti-clogging motor is incredible! Before, because of the clogged motor, every operation felt like fighting against a slow machine. When excavating hard ore, I had to push the throttle to the maximum and constantly adjust the joystick, which made my arms sore after a day's work. Now, with the new motor, every action— whether it's the bucket digging into the ore, the boom lifting heavy loads, or the slewing platform rotating— is smooth and responsive. The excavator's performance is even better than when it was brand new. I can now complete my daily loading task 2 hours earlier, and I don't have to worry about sudden power failures during operation. Last week, we had a particularly dusty day, but the motor's oil pressure remained stable, and there was no sign of clogging. I've already told other excavator operators at the site about KICAN— they all want to replace their old motors with KICAN's customized ones to avoid clogging issues."
To further verify the long-term anti-clogging performance of the customized motor, the site's maintenance team conducted weekly inspections of the hydraulic system. The latest inspection results (after two months of operation) showed:
1. The hydraulic oil's oxidation level (measured by total acid number) was only 0.7 mg KOH/g, well below the industry warning threshold of 2.0 mg KOH/g, indicating that the motor's design helped slow down oil oxidation.
2. The hydraulic filter's impurity retention rate was still 93%, with no signs of premature saturation— a clear sign that the motor's anti-clogging structure was effectively reducing the amount of foreign objects entering the filter.
3. Endoscope inspections revealed no foreign object accumulation or new wear in the motor's internal oil passages, confirming the effectiveness of the anti-clogging design.
As of now, the EX8000-7 excavator has been operating continuously and stably for 8 weeks without any hydraulic motor clogging issues. This not only proves the reliability of KICAN's customized solution but also laid the foundation for long-term cooperation between the mining site and KICAN. The two parties have recently signed a 3-year framework agreement, under which KICAN will provide customized hydraulic solutions for 8 more EX8000-7 excavators at the site, helping to completely eliminate hydraulic motor clogging risks and improve overall production efficiency.
