The order for another Volvo from the diamond-digging industry is a further indication of the reliability and productivity of these machines in the toughest working environments.
Delwers Drie, a Wolmaransstad-based family diamond-digging business, has placed an order with Babcock Equipment for another Volvo, this time a Volvo EC460 excavator.
The company has had a long association with Volvo equipment dating back to 1989 when it bought its first fine crusher used in cement making plant
two L120 wheeled loaders. This followed an open day at the Delwers Drie site where competitive companies demonstrated their machines on a tough proving ground. Against several other loaders, the L120 outperformed the competitors and gave the best fuel consumption.
The new Volvo EC460 excavator will be used for excavating in the gravel diggings.
The Volvo excavator has a host of features which are designed to meet the expectations of the toughest operating conditions such as those experienced in diamond diggings, while providing reliability, high performance, excellent operator comfort and safety.
The excavator is powered by a Cummins diesel engine and the hydraulic oil flow is from Kawasaki.
The excavator incorporates Volvo's advanced control system, which is an intelligent operating system exclusive to Volvo, allowing the machine to know what to do based on the joystick movements of the operator.
When operating under demanding conditions such as these, one of the priorities is that serviceability be simple and spare parts should be readily available. For ease of maintenance, the excavator features an opening counterweight. The excavator benefits from the unique load sensing hydraulic system for precise control under all load conditions and incorporates several safety features.
Babcock Equipment supplies a complete range of parts from its head office in Johannesburg and its branch network throughout the country.
In another instance, Erlank Plant, of Pongola, has taken delivery of a Volvo A35D from Babcock in an effort to obtain greater fuel efficiencies and, therefore, lower operating costs.
The unit is employed at its Welgedacht exploration project, in Utrecht, where articulated dump-trucks (ADTs) are used to carry the coal from excavated and blasted boxcuts to the blending plant over a weighbridge. This enables accurate monitoring and evaluation against other ADTs currently used by Erlank.
According to Erlank's Andries Erlank, the company was looking to achieve greater economies of scale, thus the fuel efficiencies offered by the Volvo A35D articulated haulers were an attractive option. So impressed was Erlank by the Volvo's performance and high specs, that he has now taken delivery of a Volvo L120D front-end loader.
He says that Volvo's new engine technology results in lower fuel consumption, which is vital in an operation of this type, where fuel forms a major overhead. The hauler features a new operator environment, greatly reduced service needs, more efficient drive train and improved retarder effect. The engine has two separate cooling systems, equipped with thermostatically-controlled and hydraulically-powered fans. The system uses power only when cooling is needed.
The engine's electronic control unit works efficiently in tandem with transmission electronics, providing an intelligent system that adapts automatically to driving conditions.
Volvo's solution, with three-point suspension, a fully-sprung front axle and all-terrain bogie – where each bogie axle has three-point suspension and where each pair of wheels can move independently to maintain ground contact – provides comfort and safety also in rough terrain. The haulers are equipped with self-compensating hydromechanical steering. A feedback rod compensates for external forces, giving good steering stability. The system automatically senses when the hauler takes the correct angle commanded by the steering wheel position. This gives a good steering feel that makes the equipment easy to operate.
The A35D is equipped with dry disc brakes, while the A40D has oil-cooled wet disc brakes. Both haulers have two intelligent synergistic retardation systems.
The Volvo engine brake is a compression and exhaust brake integrated in to the new engine. It is activated as soon as the operator releases the accelerator and exerts full power when the operator activates the first stage of the brake pedal.