A graduate student researcher in engineering is literally trying to re-invent the wheel with the aim of making safer the massive rims on mammoth earth-hauling machines used in the mining industry.

Mining industry workers are sometimes hurt or even killed when large pieces from those wheels are sent hurtling off the machines if they give out due to fatigue, undetected cracks or improper handling or maintenance procedures, said Weldon Li.

A doctoral student working under the tutelage of mechanical, automotive and materials engineering professor Bill Altenhof, Li recently learned he won a three-year post graduate doctoral scholarship worth $61,000 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. A total of 20 UWindsor graduate students and post-doctoral fellows earned $720,500 in funding from NSERC this year.

Li will study the possibility of using a single piece rim on heavy earth moving machines, rather than the multi-piece rims currently used. Unlike a conventional car wheel, an earth hauler’s rims—which, when combined with a tire, can range from six to 20 feet in diameter—are often made from three to five pieces, a design necessitated by the difficulty of mounting such large tires on them.

But more pieces increase the likelihood of injury, Li believes. A report describing his research cites numerous examples of injuries caused when wheels gave out. One worker was killed, another suffered serious injuries to his head and chest and a third received minor leg lacerations when a split locking ring was projected off a rim during an improper inflation procedure at a mine in Pakistan in 2007.

Closer to home, one death and a serious injury resulted due to mechanical failure of a multi-piece wheel during vehicle maintenance at Detour Lake mine in 2000. In the same year, at Musselwhite mine, mechanical failure of a multi-piece rim assembly resulted in a single death and serious injuries to another worker during maintenance of a 30 ton underground haulage truck.

“It’s an issue I think our research team can help with,” said Dr. Altenhof. “Along with our industrial partners, we think we can make improvements and create a safer environment.”

Those partners include Goodyear Canada Inc., Mines and Aggregates Safety and Health Association, J&M Tire International and North Shore Industrial Wheel Manufacturing.

Li and his supervisor will travel to Sault Saint Marie and Sudbury May 31 to June 5 to visit mine sites to investigate the potential number of heavy vehicles which could use a single piece rim in place of a multi-piece rim. Back in Windsor, they’ll study alternative rim component structures, with an eye towards designing them in such a way that safe maintenance procedures must be followed. They’ll also investigate the way rims are degraded by corrosion and damage.

Weldon Li will study the possibility of using a single-piece wheel design for massive earth movers used in the mining industry.

News story courtesy of UWin Daily News