Reduced mass haul-truck-design concepts

Liebherr Mining Trucks adopted a reduced structural mass approach to convert unladen weight directly into payload, while simultaneously incorporating state-of-the-art driveline technology.

Incremental developments in haul-truck design have continued since the late 1950s and early 1960s, when the haul truck emerged as a hybrid of its road-going cousin. But other than just enlarging overall dimensions in response to the incessant industry need for increased load-carrying capacity, major developments in the area of machine design have been relatively slow, with the end products emerging from one manufacturer being very much like any other. More recently major improvements began to emerge, affecting both mechanical and the newer diesel electric-driveline platforms - each benefiting essentially from advanced electronic management/maintenance control systems and improved man/machine interfaces.

It is clear that the relatively recent emergence and speedy development of ac induction drive technology, first developed for the rail market and pioneered by a joint venture between Komatsu and General Electric, is greatly influencing the continuing efficiency and performance debate between mechanical and diesel-electric-driveline configurations. But what started out as state-of-the-art dc drive technology just four or five years ago has now been rapidly overtaken by newly emerging second-generation ac inverter drives, providing the mining industry with far greater productivity and lower maintenance cost comparisons to previous dc configurations. One such system designed specifically for heavy-duty truck applications has been introduced by Siemens Energy & Automation in cooperation with Liebherr Mining Trucks, Newport News, VA.