Hauling equipment, both articulated and rigid dump trucks, is active worldwide in quarries and on earthmoving projects.
On Pulau Tekong Island in the Malacca Straits, off the coast of Singapore, local contractor Kok Tong Construction Group (KTC Group) is leading the earthmoving work for a huge land reclamation project using a fleet of machines from Volvo Construction Equipment.
Covering an area of 24.43km², Pulau Tekong is the largest island off the coast of mainland Singapore, and the Singaporean government is investing billions of dollars in its redevelopment. It is part of a project to boost Singapore’s land space from 71,400 hectares to 76,600 hectares, and its population from 5.3 million to 6.9 million by 2030.
KTC Group has 22 machines from
The machines load sand and earth arriving at the island by barge before being transferred to the fleet of Volvo haulers for delivery to the required deposit points. The trucks travel along an uneven haul road approximately 1km long, and then unload at the job site.
At present, the Volvo machines are delivering an average of 17,000m³ of sand and earth during each 12-hour shift, and in total, 3 million m³ of material will be moved over the five-year project.
The S$90 million (€58million/US$63 million) contract is the largest in the company’s history.
The Volvo A40E ‘s drivetrain works in partnership with the engine, transmission and axles, and to ensure smooth and safe operations, the A40E also includes a self-compensating, hydro-mechanical steering system “which makes the machine easy to manoeuvre, even when working with its maximum 39,000kg payload on board.”
Volvo CE’s local Volvo APAC headquarters is 45km from the ferry point that runs to Pulau Tekong Island.
“Knowing that support is just a phone call away puts my mind at ease,” says Chua Lai Seng, chairman of KTC Group.
In the UK, three new Volvo A40G articulated haulers have been supplied to Patersons Quarries as production output is increased at the company’s Burrowine Moor Quarry, near Bogside in the Kingdom of Fife, Scotland.
The haulers replace two five- year-old A35Fs and an A30E, bringing fleet rationalisation and a significant increase in production output to the Burrowine facility.
While their main duty is hauling silica sand from the dig zones in the quarry to the processing plant, the new haulers will also be utilised to move overburden and rock as fresh seams of material are exposed ready for extraction.
With a carrying capacity of 39tonnes and a heaped capacity of 24m³, the Volvo A40G has a maximum speed of 57km/hour, and is powered by the latest Tier IV final Volvo 16litre engine developing 347kW net.
Now operating at both sites, the fleet includes two TR45s and two TR60s, with the machines hauling approximately 80,000tonnes/month of stone products, 12 hours-a-day, five-days-a-week, with the TR45 maximum payload of 41tonnes proving ideal for the job at the Bulawayo quarry.
Headquartered in Bulawayo, Davis Granite, the nation’s largest producer of granite aggregates, has been in the business for over half a century. It handles the extraction, production and supply of stone, builders aggregate and sand for road building and other civil applications
The addition of the second TR45 will increase productivity and uptime for the company’s Bulawayo operation.
“We have operated Terex Trucks rigid haulers for three years and they consistently deliver a powerful and reliable performance,” says Ben Louw, group production director at Davis Granite.
“When looking to purchase a new truck for our Bulawayo quarry we were confident that an additional TR45 would be a safe bet once again.”
Stokey, based at new purpose-built workshops and offices in Telford, county Shropshire, England, first purchased Bell ADTs in 2011, quickly amassing a number of Bell machines as part of its wider plant hire fleet.
Now, the company has ordered the additional machines to renew the fleet in anticipation of continued growth.
“Bell provides the ideal blend of first-class equipment and exceptional customer service,” says Stokey director Stewart Cox.
“Fuel efficiency is paramount to our customers, especially given the often demanding conditions under which the machines are used, and Bell has proven time and again it can save significant fuel costs.
“By using the Bell Fleetm@tic software, we can accurately monitor the performance of each Bell machine in the field, enabling us to report to customers on how to optimise their payloads.”
Meanwhile in the huge Indian market, the rigid tipper truck market is passing through an interesting phase, as Indian and foreign manufacturers are introducing newer products, featuring refined engineering attributes for the fast-growing quarry sector, writes ABE correspondent Partha Pratim Basistha.
Newer trucks are being broadly engineered to suit the growing requirement of combined mode applications of the quarries, for loading and tipping granular sub-base materials; final crushed aggregates; and manufactured sand within the sites and for transporting materials on roads.
Ashok Leyland offers rigid tippers between 16-31tonnes gross vehicle weight (GVW) with payloads between 10-24tonnes and 14-6m³ body configurations.
“Our new U range, 31tonne GVW tipper trucks comes with body offerings between 19-22m³. The trucks have factory-built customised cabins and bodies, made in accordance to the requirements of the quarry operators or the transporters of blue metal. The range is targeted towards newer entrants in quarry business,” says M Surendranath, vice president, Medium & Heavy Duty Trucks, Ashok Leyland.
Strengthening its position in the higher capacity offerings, the company has launched its 25-31tonne GVW Captain tipper truck range for overburden clearance and bigger quarrying operations based on larger sized fixed plants.
The tippers are powered by Ashok Leyland Hosur series engines, but are soon to be upgraded with Neptune series engines. According to Surendranath this will bring Ashok Leyland within the league of other higher capacity foreign tipper truck manufacturers.
Tata Motors’ newly-launched Prima series of tippers under the Construck range of trucks will complement Construck’s existing LPK series with GVW ranging between 16-31tonnes. The existing range is available with body configurations between 8.5-10m³.
“The new Prima 2523 K, 3123K, 2528K and 3128 K LX range are high performance, fuel-efficient tippers between 25-31tonnes GVW featuring higher power-to-weight ratios,” says Rajesh Kaul, business head, Intermediate, Medium and Heavy Duty Trucks, Tata Motors.
