Thread: Impressive haul truck

Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

Dougal, it's exactly the opposite, with 30 min changeovers on major drivetrain items.

Yes - definitely less time off the road with this concept, due to the "modular" nature of all drivetrain components. In theory, it is streets ahead of what is currently in use (provided of course you have spare "modules" on site).

Once any company decides to run with this type of vehicle concept and modifies their ROM they will be in front of their competitors.

Blackwater mine in Qld use Cressis for their "long haul" but still have tyre issues.

This new concept will basically eliminate tyre issues...ie fires etc.

Not with today's current tyre technology. One of the main reasons why this concept is yet to proceed is that the tyres required for the duty of these trucks have yet to be developed. Even with the development of a suitable tyre (if it ever happens) - the possibility of tyre issues such as separation / tyre fires etc will not be eliminated by this concept. Those issues may eventually be eliminated by tyre design - but that applies equally to all types of haulage trucks.

Drivers are a real problem in the mines. They are just guys...and girls.....like you and I and are expected to work like robots.

This new concept will also eliminate a lot of driver problems as well.

No different to what is currently happening with Komatsu / Caterpillar.

They will be built...the mining companies can't afford not to have them.[/COLOR]

If it ever happens, I believe it will not be in our lifetime.

What are "Cressis" ? Only thing I could find in google is scuba diving gear.

'Cressies' - Kress Corporation

Originally Posted by Ferret

Wife was former Rio Chief Commercial Officer to this project - very messy when came time to sort out who owed what in respect to IP for commercialisation purposes.

That's interesting. I never had anything to do with the automation / remote control of the mining gear or the railways. But I often wondered who owned the "rights" to the control systems for the crushing plant. The actual DCS that we (HWE / Leighton) installed to control the plant was Citect - but the interface between Citect and the operator control panels in Perth was I believe a Rio Tinto "in-house" system.

Must say that I was very impressed with Rio's on-line training system. I had a lot to do with getting the relevant training materials into this system - it's by far the best that I have seen in the industry (runs rings around "The Big Autralian"). Their integration of this system with SAP gives them incredible management of the training and skills levels of employees and contractors on their operations, and provides employees with the ability to undertake training for new roles, and then to seek promotion / advancement, from any work area.

BM Kal which kind of engine and power have the truck that is on the haulage train?
There are few tons to town there including the weight of the rig!!

Originally Posted by BMKal

What are "Cressis" ? Only thing I could find in google is scuba diving gear.

try these............

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=k...w=1366&bih=599

My understanding is that these trucks do exist but so far only a couple of prototypes. They are based on the same chassis as the Russian Missile Carriers. I was also informed that there was one - only a single in Australia on trial at present, but the cost involved on setting up a 5 unit system was upwards of $30 million, though with both Cat and Komatsu proposing no more sales of trucks to companies but hire based on a % of commodity prices could get real interesting.

Originally Posted by Chucaro

BM Kal which kind of engine and power have the truck that is on the haulage train?
There are few tons to town there including the weight of the rig!!

Arthur, the prime movers and power trailers generally have 600 horsepower Cummins engines, matched to Allison automatic transmissions.

The ones on the site where we are (not sure how many they have now - was 11 trains a while back but I think that final number is 15 trains) only run one power trailer in each consist - so a total of 1,200 horsepower for each train. I have seen other applications using a prime mover and two power trailers - total of 1,800 horsepower. I am not sure whether this is the maximum that they can run in a single consist. The biggest of these that I have seen consisted of prime mover and 7 trailers at The Granites Gold Mine in the NT - but pretty sure that these had no more than two power trailers in each road train.

Originally Posted by BMKal

Caterpillar's largest model currently is the 797 - but I don't know of anyone who actually has any of these in Australia - it's hard enough getting tyres for the smaller 793's (of which there are now plenty in Australia).

BMA uses 797's up in the Bowen Basin.