Research Progress and Future Trends in the Reliability of Scraper Conveyors

With the development of fully mechanized mining faces toward greater mining heights, longer conveying distances, and higher production capacities, the operating loads and continuous service durations of scraper conveyors have increased significantly. Under heavy impact loads, abrasive wear, eccentric load fluctuations, and complex coal-flow disturbances, failures such as chain breakage, middle trough wear, and abnormal sprocket meshing have become increasingly prominent, thereby restricting continuous coal transportation and stable equipment operation. To systematically review advances in scraper conveyor reliability, this paper first analyzes the typical failure modes of chains, middle troughs, and sprockets, and clarifies the effects of impact loading, friction and wear, abnormal tensioning, and meshing instability on the degradation of key components. These failure problems are then reviewed from three stages: reliability design, reliability-oriented manufacturing, and operational monitoring and maintenance. For reliability design, the review focuses on probabilistic reliability analysis, fault logic assessment, multiphysics simulation, structural optimization of key components, and electromechanical coupling control. For reliability-oriented manufacturing, wear- and impact-resistant materials, precision forming, welding, heat treatment, and surface strengthening are systematically summarized, with emphasis on the effects of material properties, manufacturing defects, and process parameters on component reliability. For operational monitoring and maintenance, the applications of multisource information, including vibration, current, temperature, tension, and images, in condition monitoring, fault diagnosis, anomaly warning, and maintenance decision-making are reviewed. Existing studies remain limited by insufficient representation of complex operating conditions, inadequate understanding of coupling effects among key components, weak coordination between materials and manufacturing processes, limited fusion of multisource monitoring information, and insufficient long-term field validation. Future research should strengthen reliability design by integrating multiphysics coupling and uncertainty analysis, promote the coordinated optimization of materials, structures, and manufacturing processes, improve electromechanical coupling and multi-drive control under complex operating conditions, and establish an integrated reliability framework linking design, manufacturing, operational monitoring, and maintenance. These efforts will provide theoretical and technical support for the highly reliable and stable operation of scraper conveyors.