The western region, especially the Taklimakan Desert, is becoming the * region of oil development and geological exploration and development in China, and infrastructure construction such as roads and bridges is rapidly developing. The climate of this area is characterized by continuous sandstorms throughout the year; The temperature difference between day and night is above 20 ℃ from late autumn to early spring; The surface temperature in summer is as high as 70 ℃. When the excavator is used in such a climate environment, it must have practical use and management measures.

1. Daily use and maintenance

In the desert area of the west, there is a lot of dust in the air all the year round. If the dust enters the engine cylinder, it will accelerate the wear of the piston and cylinder and affect the service life of the engine; If the dust enters the hydraulic system or lubrication system, it will aggravate the wear of hydraulic parts and friction pairs, thus affecting the service life of the whole machine. Therefore, effective technical measures must be taken for the following parts to strengthen the daily use and maintenance of the machine.

（1）Engine intake system

Since there is a large amount of dust in the air of desert areas, the following must be done to ensure that the engine can absorb clean air:

① Use high-quality air filter and air filter element. The air filter element used shall be carefully checked to see whether the filter paper and filter cloth are torn or damaged, whether the end cover is deformed, whether the sealing rubber rings at both ends are aged or incomplete, and whether the filter cloth of the fine filter element is intact.

② Each equipment shall be equipped with a set of air filter element. In the sandstorm weather in desert areas, a clean air filter element can no longer be used in less than one shift, so a replacement one must be provided to clean the dirty filter element at noon or after work at night. When cleaning the filter element, use compressed air to move up and down the inner hole of the filter element along the folding direction of the filter paper, and remove the dust from the inside out. Never blow air from the outside of the filter element to the inner hole, otherwise the filter paper micropores will be blocked by dust particles, resulting in insufficient engine air intake or dust particles penetrating the filter paper, reducing the accuracy of the air filter. Clean filter elements shall be put into plastic bags or canvas bags for standby to prevent dust from polluting them again.

③ Properly raise the position of the air inlet, and if possible, add a primary strainer at the upper end. Generally speaking, adding a coarse filter will increase the air inlet resistance, but practice has proved that adding a coarse filter in desert areas has little impact on the engine power, and extends the maintenance period of the air filter element installed on the excavator, that is, it can be extended from 3h to 5h in windy and sandy weather.

④ The air inlet pipe shall be well sealed without leakage; All hoses shall be free of cracks and clamps shall be installed tightly; The inner wall of the intake manifold shall be coated with a thin layer of lubricating oil, which can clean the air passing through the air filter again.

（2）Diesel low-pressure oil circuit of engine

Due to the poor construction conditions at the construction site in desert areas, mobile refueling trucks are generally used for refueling the machine. To ensure the performance of the machine, refueling should be carried out as far as possible in the morning or at night when the wind and sand are relatively small; A sand cover shall be added between the nozzle head and the oil tank mouth. If there is no filter screen at the oil filler of the diesel tank, a filter screen shall be added to filter the diesel oil roughly during refueling. A diesel filter is added in front of the original diesel filter to further filter the diesel entering the fuel injection pump. The impurities in the settling cup shall be removed in time, and the sediment and sand in the diesel tank shall be cleaned regularly. The diesel filter element shall be replaced or cleaned regularly. The maintenance interval of the diesel filter element in desert areas is generally 180h. During maintenance, the integrity of the filter element shall be checked and kept clean.

（3）Lubrication system of engine and hydraulic system of excavator

Sand shields shall be installed on all oil filling ports and air vents to prevent sand and dust from polluting various oils. The engine oil shall be replaced regularly; The oil filter element shall be replaced or cleaned at regular intervals of 180h. If conditions permit, an oil filtering device shall be added to the oil inlet pipe of the excavator hydraulic system to ensure the service life of the hydraulic pump and each actuating element; Use oil filter to filter hydraulic oil and transmission oil once every 2-3 months; Clean or replace the hydraulic oil filter element every 5-6 months to keep the hydraulic oil clean.

（4）Maintenance of articulated pin sleeve of excavator

Most of the dowel sleeves of the excavator are semi open and lubricated with grease. Sand particles are easy to adhere to the dowel sleeves, which accelerates the wear of the dowel sleeves. In order to prolong the service life of the pin sleeve, it is necessary to strengthen the lubrication of the pin sleeve, that is, shorten the interval of each lubrication, so that the grease contaminated by sand particles can be squeezed out with clean grease, thus reducing the wear of the pin sleeve; Both ends of the pin sleeve shall be sealed with thick O-rings or oil resistant rubber gaskets to reduce the intrusion of sand particles.

（5）Daily maintenance of construction machinery

In desert areas, only routine maintenance or minor repair can be carried out for the excavator in general; During maintenance, the exterior shall be cleaned first, and then it can be carried out; The removed oil pipes or components shall be wrapped with clean and thick plastic cloth to prevent pollution. It is strictly forbidden to repair the engine or hydraulic system in desert areas, otherwise the consequences will be unimaginable. For example, our company once disassembled and repaired an F6L912 engine at the construction site. Although the parts were cleaned and the components were assembled carefully at that time, after the engine was assembled, when the flywheel was pried with a crowbar, it was obvious that the engine was rotating heavily. Later, the engine was pulled to the county repair shop for re disassembly and inspection. It was found that there were wear marks caused by sand particles on the main bearing shells and connecting rod shells, and there were also fine sand particles on the piston rings. All parts had to be carefully cleaned again, and the main bearing shells and connecting rod shells had to be replaced. Only after reassembly, the engine could work normally. This means that the whole machine or machine assembly must be transported to a place far away from wind and sand when a large repair project is required for the machine in desert areas. At the same time, in desert areas, equipment shall be repaired mainly by replacing assemblies, and then the replaced assemblies shall be transported to places far away from the desert for repair and standby.