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LO A D I N G T E C H N O LO GY OEMs Make Improvements to Hydraulic Shovels During the last year, modifications for several mining class excavators were announced and more announcements are expected By Steve Fiscor, Editor-in-Chief When it comes to shovels, mine operators have two choices: electric rope shovels and hydraulic excavators. Both offer distinct advantages in certain settings. Rope shovels easily load 360-ton trucks and they run on electricity. Hydraulic excavators are more maneuverable and can selectively extract rock, ore and coal. Loading 190- to 240-ton payload haul trucks is one gray area, however, where excavators are starting to compete directly with shovels. During the last year, the OEMs that build mining-class hydraulic excavators in the 100- to 800-ton weight range, or hydraulic shovels, announced improvements to several models. Many of the improvements include fuel efficiency, machine uptime, ease of maintenance, data management, and improved ergonomics for the operators. They are also making it clear that they are setting their sights on loading larger mining haul trucks more effectively. Liebherr Grows with the Global Excavator Market Liebherr Mining designs and builds its mining class excavators in Colmar, France. During MINExpo 2012, Dr. Jörg Lukowski, executive vice president (sales and aftersales), Liebherr-Mining Equipment Colmar SAS, spoke about the company's current hydraulic excavator fleet and shared news about future models and research and development. "Today, the mining market is four times larger than it was in 2002," Lukowski said. "For 2011, we have seen close to 1,000 machines more than 100 metric tons sold worldwide. For 2012, sales figures are indicating again a potential increase in the global market by roughly 20%." Liebherr Mining has increased global hydraulic excavator market share of close to 20% in 2011. "We are in the process of making the required investments to further increase our market share," Lukowski said. "Yearly production output will increase to more than 300 units." To support increasing machine population in the field, Liebherr Mining is expanding its worldwide support network. The sales and support companies are Liebherr-owned, and are operated by Liebherr personnel. New Liebherr support companies have been established in Colombia and in Mozambique. In terms of commodities, the majority of Liebherr Weighing in at 770,000 lb, (349,000 kg) Liebherr Mining's R 9400 would be a mid-size, mining-class excavator. 48 E&MJ; • AUGUST 2013 Mining's business is still in coal, representing 48% of its sales. "A major focus in our strategy and work has been and will continue to be the use of Liebherr-designed and built components, such as cylinders, gears, engines and other hydraulic components," Lukowski said. Liebherr offers a full range of eight models of hydraulic mining excavators from 220,000 lb (99,800 kg) to more than 1.6 million lb (725,750 kg) operating weight. At MINExpo 2012, Liebherr Mining presented the new Liebherr R 9150 hydraulic mining excavator and the R 9400, and the company displayed the R 9400 again at bauma 2013. (Editor's note: For a full description of the face shovel version of the R 9400 operating weight of 770,000 lb and a 29-yd3 bucket, readers should refer to the Bauma Preview, March 2013 E&MJ;, p.50). The new Liebherr R 9150 hydraulic mining excavator, is equipped with a Liebherr 12 V engine rated at 757 hp (565 kW). Its operating weight is 280,000 lb and the machine is equipped with a 10.5 yd3 backhoe or face shovel attachment. "In hard digging we have seen an even higher output from the R 9150 than from the R 984 C [an increase of as much as 15%]," Lukowski said. Field tests have proved that the fuel economy for the R 9150 with the Liebherr engine is excellent, in either the current Tier 2 EPA certified version, or in Tier 0 mode, he said "We have seen fuel savings of 10% if compared with other machines in this class," Lukowski added. The first units will be available to customers in mid-2013. During MINExpo 2008, Liebherr Mining announced the 800-mt R 9800. "Since then we have sold seven units," Lukowski said. "With a total of approximately 50,000 accumulated operating hours...the R 9800 delivers superior production with instantaneous digging rates around 8,000 mt per hour at a similar or even lower fuel consumption than we see www.e-mj.com