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Next Caterpillar face shovel ready for assembly

Nige

Nige

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G..G..G..Granville.........!! Fetch your cloth.
millercross3 said:
no matter what the size..say like from 20ton all the way up to extreeemely obese 980tonners...is the travel speed still that 1-2 mph range...or do the big big ones here snails buzzing by saying "WHEEEEE"
I know excavators aren't meant for travel speed, but how come there hasn't been anybody that got wild and crazy and hit the 4-5 mph range?
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There is an answer for it, and it's called Sleipner ............. it depends very much on mine site conditions (it doesn't work too well in soft ground or on really steep ramps) how successful it will be and how much money it will save, especially in the case of undercarriage parts like final drives & tracks. http://www.sleipner.fi/
 
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ben46a

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Mar 11, 2007
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773
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Waverley NS/Fort Mac AB
alco said:
Sounds like a certain manufacturer is pretty eager to get their machine in up here, since they have nothing to show in our neck of the woods at this point. I would imagine they'll make a pretty sweet offer to do it too. Cat however, doesn't seem interested in our business right now.
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I've heard that cat mining isn't making any friends up there, from a former bucyrus employee who was working there during the changeover. What a shame that the corporate arrogance is coming to light.
 
E

EH 4000

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Mar 17, 2012
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Australia
Where's this at? First thought would be the Hunter Valley, Ravensworth North? Looking forward to more pics, shovels are great.
 
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millercross3

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North Dakota
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Traditional Farm/Ranching...Trucking/Construction
Holy smoked cheese! That thing is a dang nifty little scooter. Once again I'm late to the punchline....I could have invented that, sold like 5 of them and probably retired. Some guys have all the luck. Thanks for the link Nige.
Nige said:
There is an answer for it, and it's called Sleipner ............. it depends very much on mine site conditions (it doesn't work too well in soft ground or on really steep ramps) how successful it will be and how much money it will save, especially in the case of undercarriage parts like final drives & tracks. http://www.sleipner.fi/
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alco

alco

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Nige said:
There is an answer for it, and it's called Sleipner ............. it depends very much on mine site conditions (it doesn't work too well in soft ground or on really steep ramps) how successful it will be and how much money it will save, especially in the case of undercarriage parts like final drives & tracks. http://www.sleipner.fi/
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The only problem is, Sleipner doesn't make a setup for a machine this size. I sure wish they did though, I love the concept.
 
alco

alco

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Zed said:
alco said:
Very good point Alco, and very true. liebherr 996's are the worst I have seen for failing High Speed's. One mine I was at, we had 2 complete high speed's for spares which we would change out every 400 travel hours, kind of a mid life for the finals. They did not have very good gearboxes them things, swing and finals were shocking.
not sure how the new models stack up.
That is a shame Cat are not interested, i just hope the new guy on the block has good product support.
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So far, they haven't been great for parts availability, and it'll be about 4 years before we see the machine, so maybe things will be better then.
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M

millercross3

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North Dakota
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Traditional Farm/Ranching...Trucking/Construction
Hmmm....I smell an ALCO-MILL get rich retirement plan...not our fault Sleipner was Sleip-ing and missed the oportunity:drinkup
alco said:
The only problem is, Sleipner doesn't make a setup for a machine this size. I sure wish they did though, I love the concept.
Click to expand...
 
Nige

Nige

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alco said:
The only problem is, Sleipner doesn't make a setup for a machine this size. I sure wish they did though, I love the concept.
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They would probably have to go with solid tyres for something that large. I can't see anything that would carry the weight being able to fit under the rear end of a really large hydraulic shovel. I'm not sure how it would work in the soft ground at the tar sands though, you really need hard roads for the machine to be towed on.
 
alco

alco

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millercross3 said:
Hmmm....I smell an ALCO-MILL get rich retirement plan...not our fault Sleipner was Sleip-ing and missed the oportunity:drinkup
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There won't be anything coming from my end.....LOL. I'm afraid you'll have to go it alone.

I would guess in the future, you will see something large enough to handle the larger hydraulic shovels, since they are slowly introducing larger Sleipner models. They just haven't got there yet.

Nige said:
They would probably have to go with solid tyres for something that large. I can't see anything that would carry the weight being able to fit under the rear end of a really large hydraulic shovel. I'm not sure how it would work in the soft ground at the tar sands though, you really need hard roads for the machine to be towed on.
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I agree that solid tires would be a likely choice, or perhaps even a tandem setup. I'm sure they will keep working on larger models, but as of now, I know they don't offer anything in the larger class. While I realize they wouldn't work well in the softer conditions we have in some spots, our major roads are mostly hard. So it could possibly be made to work to our advantage if we walked to the end of a soft bench, then jumped on the dollies for a ride to the start of the next soft bench. This alone could save us a considerable amount of time and distance travelled each year.
 
Nige

Nige

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Alco, the big benefit believe it or not is not what you save on travel time (which is obviously worth money because the machine is not digging during that time) but the financial saving in undercarriage and final drive parts. With a "bottom end" overhaul on a large hydraulic shovel typically costing from 20% upwards of the total purchase price of the complete machine compared to the purchase price of a set of Sleipners, for a mine that has multiple shovels it makes good financial sense.

I always remember a saying of an old boss of mine from years ago "When they're walking they're not working but they're wearing out just the same". Too true.
 
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alco

alco

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Nige said:
Alco, the big benefit believe it or not is not what you save on travel time (which is obviously worth money because the machine is not digging during that time) but the financial saving in undercarriage and final drive parts. With a "bottom end" overhaul on a large hydraulic shovel typically costing from 20% upwards of the total purchase price of the complete machine compared to the purchase price of a set of Sleipners, for a mine that has multiple shovels it makes good financial sense.

I always remember a saying of an old boss of mine from years ago "When they're walking they're not working but they're wearing out just the same". Too true.
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I most certainly believe it Nige. It seems at times, that our planners think our shovels have wheels.

The conditions where we work being soft and extremely abrasive, may dictate that we still destroy undercarriage at an alarming rate, even with the reduced wear of floating the hydraulics. But I still feel travel time would be our biggest savings, since we walk the hydraulics on a schedule of 20 minutes of walking, and 10 minutes of cool down. Some days, the shovels may walk for 5 or 6 hours per day, other days, they may not walk at all.

We use our hydraulics as swing shovels between ore and overburden, and the walking is usually excessive. I don't agree with the way they do it, but the planners won't listen to anyone without an iron ring on their finger.
 
D

dominikat12

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Jan 31, 2009
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bulgaria
What is interesting is that the new cat 6120b might be quite bigger than the old 6090 but has still the same horse power 4500... It might be probably because they couldn't design a bigger engine or they thought that the same engine would fit a bigger machine. Still it must be more powerful though...
 
alco

alco

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Dominikat,

The power regeneration circuit combined with the storage capacity for the electricity the power regen circuit saves, means it is able to draw from another power source, which boosts the overall power the machine has to draw from. So it's not just the engines that provide all of the power. Counterswinging, lowering the boom, etc, are all used to generate electric power from the momentum and such. That electricity is then stored in a series of devices like capacitors to be reused when needed.
 
JDOFMEMI

JDOFMEMI

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Scrub

Just a WAG, but I would say it is a back handed reference to a college degree. We ALL know how much smarter that make a person, right:beatsme
 
alco

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