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Time, as they say, is money, and nowhere is that cliché more brutally evident than in a coal mine’s ceaseless circular parade of lumbering haul trucks. Loaded with either coal or the crushed rock that only hours earlier covered the seam from which that coal was mined, each giant vehicle’s route and routine is purposefully predictable: empty the dump bed. Return to the loading site to refill. Repeat.
The process sounds simple except when it isn’t, which is nearly always. The Hobet Mine, tucked into the woods of Boone County about forty miles south of Charleston, West Virginia, is as good an example as any of the extreme conditions mine haul trucks face every day. Like most surface coal mines, Hobet is encircled by a network of rough-cut, crushed gravel roadways that were clearly planned for point A-to-B efficiency with a lot more foresight than your average shopping mall parking lot. But that’s where the similarities end. Think lunar surface, with enough Olympic-class moguls to reduce the suspension of your family sedan to Jell-O in less time than you can say “Hello, Roadside Assistance?” Not surprisingly, there’s also an air filter-choking, omnipresent cloud of dust anytime the roadbed is in use, which is of course constantly. If there’s an earthly training ground for hell for motorized vehicles, this is surely it.
The first thing you notice about Hobet Surface Mine 21 is that unless you know where it is— and I mean know exactly— you wouldn’t notice it at all.
Service vehicles and crews swarm a Komatsu haul truck during an onsite repowering job at the Hobet Mine.
The River has been a silent witness to many of the nation’s milestone events. Washington crossed it. Lewis and Clark followed it. The Gold Rush began on it. But The River has done more than merely observe American history; it’s also consistently ignited the imaginations of old cynics and modern poets who make that history interesting for the rest of us. Without the Mississippi as his backdrop, Mark Twain may have been remembered as little more than an acerbic political pundit. With it, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn are cultural icons. The truth is, The River is nothing less than the lifeblood of the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
As any accountant knows, there’s one dubious benefit to an economic recession: Companies apply laser-like focus on shrinking their expenses and wringing every dollar of profit out of their operations. Trouble is, the longer the recession drags on, the more elusive those expense savings and profits become. So you can imagine how elated the folks at Patriot Coal (Charleston, WV) are right about now to be saving twenty percent on the diesel fuel consumption of their newly-repowered Komatsu 730E haul truck.
Continue reading “Patriot Coal’s Re-Powering Decision Saves Fuel” »
CHARLESTON, West Virginia – At a surface coal mine operated by Patriot Coal, the job of removing the tons of rock overburden is reserved for the most powerful haul trucks in the company’s fleet — the beefy diesel-electric Komatsu 730-Es. Many of the coal mines in this part of Appalachia are so-called “mountaintop” mines where the top of the mountain is literally removed to expose the seam of coal. To reduce fuel expenses and get longer engine life, Patriot Coal has been replacing the haul truck’s original- equipment Tier 1 engines with powerful and efficient MTU Series 4000 Tier 2 engines from Western Branch Diesel in Charleston, WV.
At any given time Kyanite Mining Corporation (KMC) had eight Euclid R50 haul trucks operating on their site in Lynchburg, Virginia. They all loved their fuel a little too much. So when it came time to repower, KMC was looking for engines that enjoyed their fuel in moderation.
It is irrefutable that innovation in trucking is accelerating more and more quickly these days. The large investments in R&D are paying off big in both equipment and operations. New trucks, engines and components are not only more efficient to operate, they have reduced maintenance requirements, yet last longer.
Continue reading “Underprovided Maintenance Business Processes” »
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