BHP Billiton is using a specially developed telescopic handler attachment to improve safety at its Mt Arthur Coal mine, New South Wales.
In recent times BHP Billiton’s safety record has been scrutinised with multiple fatalities and injuries occurring at the miner’s operations.
The miner says it has recognised that the existing method of changing out hydraulic pumps on large hydraulic excavators involved using an OEM C-hook frame attachment could potentially risk the safety of workers. The danger was caused by the C-hook’s shifting centre of gravity.
BHP Billiton contacted Dieci Australia, distributor of the Dieci Pegasus 50.21 slewing telescopic handler already operating at the mine, to explore the possibility of developing a specialised attachment to address the problem.
The group developed an attachment that could be operated remotely. The attachment can telescope with a range of 1200mm and has limited slew, a knuckle joint at the end and a manual rotation head that allows the male spline of a hydraulic pump to be aligned with the female spline pump drive. The head capacity is 600kg.
A remote control operates not only the attachment functions but also the telescopic handler functions of boom luffing, boom telescoping, slew, carriage tilt and frame levelling.
The miner claims that the main benefit of the attachment is a significant reduction in the residual risk when changing out a pump. However this has been accompanied by an impressive efficiency improvement, with pump change-out time being halved.
Add a comment