A resources multinational will roll out a new range of oversized machinery at one mine.
Rio Tinto recently approved running some of the largest excavators available in an undisclosed Australian site.
Hitachi Construction Machinery confirmed Rio ordered its EX3600-7 model. The ultra-large hydraulic backhoe excavator has an operating weight of 360 tons (326 metric tonnes) and comes with digging assist functions that automatically detects and calculates hydraulic cylinder loads as well as front attachment operation.
“When the bucket load during digging becomes excessive the hydraulic circuit protection function activates to curtail additional digging force and intermittently redirect the operation of the front attachment. In this case the load on the engine and the hydraulic system continues to be at the maximum level, which leads to decreased productivity due to lost work time and increased fuel consumption,” Hitachi said in a public statement.
The technology also reduces the dependency on experienced human operators who know how to swing the upper structure while raising the front attachment without striking dump trucks and nearby structures. The loading assist function automatically controls the front attachment when loading material excavated by an ultra-large hydraulic excavator onto the dump truck to help avoid collisions.
“This combined operation poses a high degree of difficulty for inexperienced operators and even experienced operators require a high level of concentration. Since this function automatically performs the operation to raise the front attachment the operator can concentrate on just the swing operation, which reduces mental load on the operator,” the manufacturer said.
A dedicated monitor installed in the operator cab of the ultra-large hydraulic excavator also displays the bucket payload, the front attachment’s hydraulic cylinder load and other information that helps the operator manoeuvre and assess the machine’s status.
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