Browse Topic: Mining vehicles and equipment
Komatsu introduced its first battery-electric load-haul-dump (LHD) machine, the WX04B, at the MINExpo tradeshow in September. The WX04B is designed specifically for narrow vein mines in underground hard rock mining operations. Komatsu is pairing the electric LHD with its new OEM-agnostic 150-kW battery charger that was also revealed in Las Vegas. The 4-tonne WX04B LHD features what Komatsu claims is best-in-class energy density, offering up to four hours of runtime on a single charge. The Li-ion NMC (nickel-manganese-cobalt) battery from Proterra has a capacity of 165 kWh and nominal voltage of 660 V. Fewer charge cycles are needed compared to competitors, the company claims, which helps to maximize operational efficiency and minimize downtime. Proterra and Komatsu began their collaboration on the LHD's H Series battery system in 2021, long before Komatsu's acquisition of American Battery Solutions (ABS) in December 2023
Clean-burning fuels, aftertreatment and other innovations place the heavy-duty combustion engine on a low-carbon emissions trajectory. Agriculture, industrial, mining, construction, freight transport and other major global economy sectors rely on vehicle power to thrive. “Internal combustion engines - those powered by gasoline, diesel, natural gas or propane - really are key to our current economy, and we see [the ICE] as a key part of our energy future,” Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Engine Technology Forum, a U.S.-based educational organization, said during a September webinar. Hosted by the Engine Technology Forum, the “Taking Internal Combustion Engines to the Next Level” session focused on current and under-development innovations aimed at increasing engine efficiency and lowering emissions
December is a good time to reflect on the past year - to celebrate successes and consider opportunities for improvement - but it is also an opportune time to look to the future. As I think about the year ahead and appraise the tradeshow landscape that'll provide significant content for this magazine, mobilityengineeringtech.com, our e-newsletters and other multimedia products, none is bigger than Bauma in Munich, Germany, particularly in terms of the global construction and mining vehicle industries. The triennial event will cover an area that's equivalent to 86 soccer fields, according to Stefan Rummel, CEO of Messe München GmbH. Speaking to the press during an October virtual preview of Bauma 2025, which takes place from April 7-13, Rummel said that the number of exhibitors - expected to be about 3,600 - will be closer to the 2019 event versus the post-COVID-19 edition that was pushed back from its usual spring timeslot to the fall of 2022
Deutronic is not alone in developing and integrating thermal-management solutions to meet the specific demands of off-highway EVs. Modine, for example, in 2023 launched a new edition of its EVantage battery thermal-management system with a liquid-cooled condenser (L-CON BTMS) that combines proprietary heat-exchanger technology with smart controls and electronics. The system is designed to withstand harsh environments found in mining, construction, agriculture, specialty and transportation applications, according to Mike Kis, Director of Advanced Thermal Systems at Modine
The new 2600 Series 13-liter engine for off-highway machines will do more with less thanks to variable geometry turbocharging. Perkins announced in September its all-new engine series for off-highway applications, launching the 2600 Series 13-liter engine at a press event in London where Truck & Off-Highway Engineering was in attendance. Perkins states that the 2600 Series is intended for a wide array of off-highway applications including agricultural tractors, materials handling, construction, mining, aircraft ground support and other use cases. “As the off-highway industry advances toward a lower-carbon future, equipment manufacturers still face expectations for long-term productivity and reliability in the world's most-demanding work environments,” said Jaz Gill, vice president of global sales, marketing, service and parts. “The new Perkins 2600 Series engine platform demonstrates how we're leveraging our experience, intelligence and commitment to help OEMs navigate the energy
Liebherr's mining division has announced that it will be conducting onsite validation tests of its autonomous T 264 mining trucks. The validation testing reportedly will take place later this year at a mining site located in western Australia. “After significant research, development and program planning, Liebherr is excited to announce the commencement of onsite Autonomous Haulage Solution (AHS) validation as we move to deploy the next generation of autonomy technology for mining equipment,” Scott Bellamy, divisional general manager, product management, said in a press release announcing the project. “This deployment not only represents Liebherr Mining's market introduction of the AHS, but also highlights Liebherr's continued expansion as a technology solution provider for the mining industry
In Penn’s Clean Energy Conversions Lab, researcher Peter Psarras and colleagues are repurposing waste from industrial mines, storing carbon pulled from the atmosphere into newly formed rock. The team sees great environmental potential in mine tailings, the sand and sludge left behind after the sought-after ore gets removed. With samples in the lab, they’re trying to determine just how much calcium and magnesium each contains, how to best carbonate it with CO2, how and where they can store the result, and whether the process is scalable
As a part of NASA’s efforts in space, options are being examined for an Artemis moon base project to be deployed. This project requires a system of interconnected, but separate, DC microgrids for habitation, mining, and fuel processing. This in-place use of power resources is called in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). These microgrids are to be separated by 9-12 km and each contains a photovoltaic (PV) source, energy storage systems (ESS), and a variety of loads, separated by level of criticality in operation. The separate microgrids need to be able to transfer power between themselves in cases where there are generation shortfall, faults, or other failures in order to keep more critical loads running and ensure safety of personnel and the success of mission goals. In this work, a 2 grid microgrid system is analyzed involving a habitation unit and a mining unit separated by a tie line. A set of optimal controls that has been developed, including power flow controls on the tie line
The batteries that power our cell phones, laptops, and electric vehicles rely on cobalt. Cobalt mining is problematic for the environment and miners. In order to find other solutions for lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries that move away from a dependency on cobalt, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have participated in a collaborative study to identify new potential materials for the positive terminal of a battery, called a cathode
Volcanic eruptions, floods, and tornadoes can all dramatically change the surface of Earth to the point where alterations can be seen from space. Some modifications driven by human intervention, such as mining and deforestation, are also visible in satellite imagery. For the past 50 years, NASA’s Landsat satellites have recorded our planet’s changing surface. Now maps from a company called terraPulse Inc. help academic institutions, nongovernmental organizations, and businesses see, understand, and manage those changes
Development of a robust electric vehicle (EV) battery-recycling industry has moved from a net-positive sideline to a necessity as automakers, and their suppliers, transition away from internal combustion. Experts say that global mining operations are simply not on track to produce the virgin raw materials needed to meet the dramatic ramping up of the world’s battery production. Additionally, the sourcing of these materials raises numerous red flags in terms of conditions for workers, site pollution, geopolitical complications, and concentration of ownership
With the current developments in emission and safety norms in the Indian motor vehicle segment, there is always a challenge for engineers to design the components without hampering the existing performance of the vehicle and meet the legal requirements of the market. The challenge is to reach the optimum point of iterative modifications where the overall vehicle efficacy is increased. The Pass by noise (PBN) target is one such parameter that need to be assured to certify new vehicles/variants for their Noise emissions. PBN requirements are an important aspect of NVH development of a vehicle. The vehicles running on the Indian roads must comply with the PBN requirements defined by standard IS: 3028. Tipper is a vehicle used in mainly mining areas and on hilly terrains having high gear ratios and thereby producing more noise. This paper discuss the approach used to reduce the noise in this worst case. The hardware changes done in this worst case vehicle can be universally adopted in
To achieve battlespace dominance, energy flow characterizations of individual platforms and the aggregate battlespace must be developed to adapt and exploit the variable operating conditions. Army Research Laboratory, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico The future battlefield will be filled with multiple dissimilar energy networks including unmanned and manned vehicular platforms actively engaged in cooperative control and communications capable of overpowering an adversary and dominating the battlespace. This chaotic multi-domain operational environment will be limited by variable operating conditions (mission profiles, terrain, atmospheric conditions), copious amounts of real-time actionable intelligence derived from weapon and sensor suites, and most importantly, the energy capabilities of each platform. To achieve dominance within the battlespace, energy flow characterizations of individual platforms and the aggregate battlespace must be developed with respect to the variable
In significant industrial segments across the globe, there continues to be major investment in large-scale equipment that incorporates heavy-duty material movement and handling systems. In mining applications such as bucket wheel excavators and conveyors, to metal shredders in recycling operations, as well as winch systems and drilling equipment in offshore applications, powerful low-speed drives that can deliver high torque and reliably function in rugged demanding environments are in high demand
The current fleet of United States Navy (USN) Mine Countermeasures (MCM) ships, the Avenger class, is reaching the end of its planned service life. To fill the capability gaps left by removing these ships from the fleet, and to take advantage of technological advances in environmental sensing and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), the Navy will be acquiring new systems to perform the MCM mission. The Department of Defense (DOD) acquisition process aims to fill capability gaps with materiel solutions through development of new or improved systems or the purchase of existing systems. Beginning the acquisition process with ample knowledge of potential materiel solutions and their expected performance improves the likelihood of program success
Road grade and mining activities are inseparable. Considering that a mining site is located in a lower elevation, the haul road is usually constructed following the topographic contour. A road grade is likely to affect the speed, travel time, and fuel consumption and is directly proportional to the energy required by dump trucks to overcome resistance. A higher road grade leads to more fuel consumption, while a lower road grade is likely to consume less. This study found that every 1% road grade increase results in 0.482%-0.515% increased engine speed and 2.79% horsepower under laden conditions. It was also found that every 1% road grade increase leads to 21.95% more fuel consumption in CAT 773D dump truck, 23.64% in HD-465-7 dump truck, and 13.29% more fuel consumption in Volvo A40E. Meanwhile, under unladen conditions, every 1% increase in road grade resulted in 7.64% more fuel consumption in CAT 773D, 20.60% in HD 465-7, and 23.75% in Volvo A40E. This study recommends an 8% maximum
As construction vehicles become electrified and more intelligent, some technologies are increasingly being applied in optimal controlling vehicle dynamics and driving behavior. Manned articulated vehicles in underground mine have drawbacks such as high steering energy consumption and harsh working environment for drivers, which can be solved by above techniques. The distributed-drive articulated vehicles (DDAV) can generate the yaw moment by the reasonable allocation of each wheel driving force, which can reduce the energy consumption by assisting the hydraulic steering system in steering. In this paper, the dynamic programming (DP) is used to study the optimal torque distribution while the vehicle following the reference path with minimizing the energy consumption. Firstly, combined with the tentacle algorithm, optimal control inputs and energy consumption of the vehicle were derived from DP under each tentacle. Then, under limited vehicle states, a look-up table containing the
Although the open-pit mine mining truck is equipped with a variety of auxiliary braking devices, the compound control is not realized. To address this problem, this paper proposes a compound control strategy for the autonomous mining truck wire-control braking system combining logic threshold and fuzzy PID to meet the requirements of compound control of braking system. Simulation and real-vehicle tests of the control strategy show that the proposed control strategy can greatly reduce the activation frequency of the EBS main brake and improve the safety of the braking system. Moreover, the target speed can be followed by the actual speed well. Meanwhile, the control error is less than ±2km/h which indicates a good ramp speed control effect
Lateral control is an important part in the system of driverless mining trucks, which is used to realize accurate tracking of planned path. To solve the problem of poor accuracy of the existing single point preview algorithm, firstly, the lateral error model and the simplified truck dynamics model were built. The established truck dynamics model was verified and compared by simulation. The results show that the truck dynamic model in this paper retains accurate even at higher speed. Secondly, against the time delay of truck steering system, the cascade LQR-PID controller and MPC-MRAC controller are designed. The former resists the disturbance of steering time delay through the inner PID loop, while the latter realizes the adaptive control by establishing the steering model. Then, the dual-shift condition simulation was carried out by co-simulation model, and two controllers were compared and analyzed. The results show that the designed two controllers have good performance in the
ESI proposes “sustainable” product development via virtual prototyping to ensure operational safety and comfort for off-highway machines. Today's off-highway machines must be safe, clean and productive - in a word: “sustainable,” an adjective that also should apply to product development. How can engineers know they are on the right track without producing a bunch of physical prototypes? How can they avoid costly design changes late in the process? And how can the useful life of machines be extended? The digitalization of product engineering is here to answer these challenges by enabling the evaluation of product performance at every stage of product development, as well as during manufacturing and operations. The goal at ESI is to help customers move towards “zero tests,” “zero prototypes” and “zero downtime” - referring to physical tests/prototypes, of course. Traditional methods for testing and evaluating products virtually using sporadic simulations, usually only of the nominal
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