Research progress and future development trends in scraper conveyor reliability

Scraper conveyors are core conveying equipment in fully mechanized mining faces. Complex operating conditions such as heavy-load conveying and intense impacts from falling coal can lead to chain breakage, middle trough wear, and abnormal sprocket meshing in scraper conveyors. To clarify research methods and future development trends in scraper conveyor reliability, this paper analyzes the typical failure modes and main causes of key components, including chains, middle troughs, and sprockets, with the performance degradation of key structures and the improvement of overall-machine reliability as the main thread. It also summarizes relevant research progress from four aspects: reliability design, reliability manufacturing, reliability analysis methods based on probabilistic analysis, failure-driven approaches, physics-based simulation, and optimization, together with structural optimization of key components; development of wear- and impact-resistant materials for heavy-duty conveying conditions, precision forming and welding, heat treatment, and surface strengthening technologies. Scraper conveyor control technologies include coordinated balancing of multiple drives, regulation of chain tension and dynamic loads, coal flow sensing, and adaptive speed control. Operation and maintenance management technologies include condition monitoring and fault diagnosis, reliability assessment, and remaining useful life prediction. The analysis indicates that existing studies are limited by inadequate characterization of loads under complex operating conditions, unclear coupling mechanisms among key components, insufficient accumulation of multisource data, and limited field validation. Future research directions are proposed in three areas: data-driven long-life design, intelligent coordinated control of multiple drives, and digital-twin-based life-cycle management. These directions should be integrated within the unified sensing and control system of intelligent mines to form a reliability technology framework that connects design, manufacturing, control, operation and maintenance, and information feedback.