Thought i would start off an underground thread....send in your pics and interesting info..
Sandvik gear ..previously known as Tamrock or Toro equipment
A 0011 Loader with a Rock breaker, a 3 boom jumbo
One that came in the other day via the email....
Where was that one??
Just down there on that sharp right Some very intresting bits of kit. That breaker is something else though. Would need more than ear plugs when that baby starts to work in a tunnel
Originally Posted by Madmark73 Where was that one?? Not Sure mate, got a email the other day at work from an operator here full of random carnage....
Thought I would revive this thread, here are some pictures of a scoop we received two years ago before it came underground. .
All our gear is dismantled and slung down the shaft since we do not have a connecting ramp. The scoop and two more like it were taken apart and slung underground, then reassembled. Here are some pictures, I forgot to set the date on the camera. Pictures were taken in 2011. mainframe in the head frame, coming down the shaft, pulling out of the shaft on the 2100level finally in the shop.
Some more pics,
Final assembly
That's pretty cool! I know of a mine were some of those were left because they didn't want to take them apart to get them out when it closed, and they mined the ramps out so it couldn't drive out either.
I have been there almost twelve years and have only seen four machines brought out. The old ones were taken to a old part of the mine, had the oils and fuel drained out, then they were pushed into a open stope and back filled the stope. Just to expensive to hoist them out. I will post some other pictures later of a CAT AD30 truck we assembled around the same time.
the only problem I see with your shop/jobsite is its DARK lol Its always cool there tho, sure beats this 90+ weather here.. you cant get any better than to take new equipment apart. you done a great job of reassembly of it!!!
Actually the shop I took the pictures in is darker than the one I usually work in, and not just because it's underground . Part of the problem is the guy running the camera. I need more practice. It is cool as you say which is nice. Just not as cool where the mining is going on.
I don't know about your mine, but underground at the Rosebery and Mt Lyell mine sites, both on the west coast of Tasmania, Australia, it is stinking hot! The Rosebery site is hotter by a fair bit than Mt Lyell, but on both sites, heat management is a big issue. Love the photos of the Sandvik 621, I thought Cat R2900's were powerhouses until I saw a 621 working. Cat has nothing to match it yet. This was my truck, a Cat AD55B, taken at Rosebery, when she first came on site after a full rebuild in the Barminco workshop at Hazelmere, West Australia. It was the fastest truck in the mine, being speed limited to 24KMH, the other B models could only do 21 and the old 6cylinder A models 19. She was a good truck, but like all B models was very hard to work on from an access perspective. Cat took a C27 engine and built a truck around it!
The truck sure looks nice! We have two AD30 CAT ejector trucks, and three DUX ET33 trucks. The DUX trucks are a major pain to work on, and we always have to work on them. No hydraulic coolers on them plus the exhaust blows across the top of the hydraulic tank. They used to have mufflers on them but the operators must not have liked them because they were smashed off after the first month we had them. The bosses gave up replacing them after a couple more times. The Cat trucks are better to work on but not as easy as a non underground piece of gear. Operators like them because they ride a lot better and you sit facing forward. Unfortunately some have run them into the wall enough that one of the windows won't fit anymore. They taped plastic over the hole the last time I saw it. Our mine is way cooler than yours. We are on the west coast of Canada and in the winter it's about 7 degrees Celsius in the cold spots, and about 17- 19 degrees in the summer. Way nicer than being on surface. I have never seen bigger underground stuff than ours since I have only worked at this mine, before that I worked in logging.
We had one AD30 ejector carting waste underground. It was a great little truck for fitting in tight spaces, but painfully slow and very rough riding compared to the AE 40 and AD55's. The 55's, while a nominal 55 tonne capacity, regularly humped loads of 70+ tonnes and if legend can be believed, one of the old AD40's copped a mammoth 103 tonne load. The mine at Rosebery is where the original prototype for the AD55B truck was trialled and it is still in service to this day. A few Atlas Copco MT6020's have made their way into service at Rosebery and the fitters love them for ease of accessibility to major components, but from a drivers perspective, they are a model T Ford compared to the Rolls Royce Cat AD55B. The Copco's do not have the longevity and rebuildability of the Cat either.
Our AD30's are speed limited to 14km/h. Our mine is obviously way smaller. Before we limited the speed I took the first one out for testing and had it wound up to 20, and it was still going. I shut it down because it was starting to bounce pretty Violently. I have heard Copco has had problems breaking wheel ends off at the New Gold mine near Kamloops BC. They don't limit the speed of their gear though. Our roads are pretty poor so it's a good thing we do.
The integrated retardation system on the CAT AD55's is brilliant. Not only can you lock gears out, but the computer can apply the brakes at any speed you set, (computer, not accessable to the operator). On the B models, the system also applies the brakes if you attempt to coast in angel gear or if engine revs are not kept above 1100. As far as I know, the Copco's can only lock out gears and automatically apply their retarder in an engine over speed condition. The Copco tub hoists are pretty weak too - you have to distribute the load exactly right or the hoist won't lift the tub. The 27L V12 in the Cat seems to use less fuel than the 19L QSK Cummins in the Copco's, despite having around 50HP more power. I guess it's pretty obvious by now that I like the CAT's much better than the Copco's. I know what you mean about the AD30 being bouncy. I think my helmet imprint is still in the roof of the one I operated! There were a couple of interesting variants of the AD55 at the Rosebery mine. One was an AD55 A model with a 50,000L water tank and hydraulic driven pump and sprays for washing the walls and backs of the decline and keeping the roadway moist for dust suppression. The other was an AD55 A model with tub removed and a 10 cubic meter agitator bowl fitted for delivering shotcrete and CRF. In order to get the bowl down low, the rear wheels were spaced out each side by nearly one wheel width. I didn't like the agitator version much as they were terrible at ripping down vent bags and damaging services. An issue not helped by the fact that all that particular contractors operators were green, mostly on their first job underground. The AD55 A models had a Cat C18 motor fitted, punching out 680HP from memory. When these engines failed, they failed in spectacular style, usually with daylight visible from one side of the block to the other. My employer, Barminco, would not rebuild C18's, instead fitting brand new engines as needed. Their belief was that there had been too many failures in engines that they had rebuilt.
I am a Cat guy as well, aside from when the AD30 trucks were being assembled and the first testing on them I haven't had a lot to do with them. I usually work on the scoops,I also like the integrated retardation system. It took some getting used to in the shop since you have to drive with your foot on the brake and throttle when moving slowly or the park brake comes on. We locked out fourth gear and limited it to 14km/h. It was interesting for me to run the first one for a day to make sure everything worked properly. I got to say I hauled the first loads with it though. I was driving around with another mechanic in the jump seat so we could figure out what speed to limit it to so it wasn't a dog but had a fair speed. It's great to have that jump seat, the DUX trucks that we have don't have a jump seat and the cab is small. No room for a trainer.
Try spending a 12 hour shift in the jump seat! I was the truck trainer for my crew and my method was to have the trainee spend 2 complete shifts in the jump seat while I talked us through the shift, manouvering, placement in the drive while running, loading procedure, refuelling, prestarts and mid shift servicing. After that I would put the trainee in the drivers seat, locked in first gear and let them drive uphill in an area of the mine where traffic was only one way. Once I decided they were ready, I would click up to third gear, still driving uphill. Next I would let them drive all the way to the surface and give them fourth gear. I had a couple of spots where we practiced reversing using the camera, (never ever were they allowed to open the window and look out as it was too dangerous if you speared yourself on a piece of damaged mesh), on the surface I taught them to unload and take weighbridge readings. After around 60Hrs tuition I started them driving downhill, starting with second gear and progressing, at my discretion, up to fourth gear. By this time they were monitoring the radio,organising their own loads and calling their levels on the radio. Once I was confident in their ability, I would let them select fifth gear when they felt ready. The last 60+ hours, (trainees had to have a minimum 120Hrs seat time to be passed out), was hell on my poor backside on the unsuspended jump seat! After I told the safety and training department they were ready, the assessor would go for a ride over one complete cycle and voila! A new truck driver was born. I preferred training in AD55 A models due to their shorter nose and lower speed downhill as well as the fact that they didn't have the deadman brake, making low speed positioning simpler, which made it easier to teach. I imposed the condition, (nobody wanted to be truck trainer, so I had some bargaining power), that after the operator had been passed out on the tippers, that if they were to be put on a waste truck, (AD 55 or AD 45 ejector), I wanted a full 12Hr shift with them to teach them how to tip in an open stope and fill stockpiles properly. I enjoyed truck training and also taught trainees how to do a re entry after firing and how to wash down a round before it was bogged out by an R2900 LHD. I don't drive the trucks now, having moved up the ladder, but I still love the sound of Truck 152 lugging up the decline with her C27 barking.
Wow! That's a great training program! If you don't mind I would like to show this to the training dept. at our mine. I don't think our training is this good. I believe they read the operators manual and then make a few trips with the one and only trainer and they are good to go. I've had one operator say that he couldn't get his truck to start. I looked in the cab and the shifter was in gear because the last operator shut it off in gear.plus the usual questions like " what oil goes in the transmission?",what is this red light on for?"(turned out the greaser was empty because it wasn't filled at the start of shift). One scoop operator couldn't get his scoop to start at the beginning of the shift, the previous operator had pushed the E-stop and switched the remote switch in the cab on to play a trick on him. You are a real trainer. Your mine is lucky to have as dedicated a trainer as you. What are you running now if you don't mind me asking?
In addition to the practical tuition that I provided, the safety department has a training module that the trainee must read and then answer 50 or 60 questions in order to move on to gaining seat time. The module covers warning lights, runaway truck procedures, fire suppression activation and all the general truck type topics. We now have a computer simulator for the Atlas MT6020 trucks and R2900 CAT LHD's, but seat time with an operator is still a large part of the training regime. Feel free to show it to your training department. I remember well how little I knew when I was set loose by my trainer, so I decided that it wouldn't be that way for my trainees. I have progressed to Service Crew. We handle all the secondary vent, water and air plumbing, cable running, primary pumping and Cable Bolting for the mine. Machines used are Volvo LD90E and F models, Volvo LD120F all set up as Integrated Tool Carriers. I also fill in on Charge Up at times and there we run Normet Charmec rigs with Hypercharge emulsion charging pods. I am in training to operate the CAT R2900 LHD, but never seem to get much chance as the service crew are usually kept flat out - what ever goes wrong, it's our problem.
Just reviving an old thread with a couple of pics; One of our remote boggers. Took two weeks to dig it out of the wet-muck. Recently rebuilt with 600 hours on it.