Issue 82 - Some Kind of Truck[1]

8/8/2019 Issue 82 - Some Kind of Truck[1]

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2/6

RIO TINTO REVIEW 17

Its as high as a two storey house,

it can carry 218 tonnes of rock in a

single load and it costs northward

of US$2.5m. But, discovers

Daniel B England, rather than just

being an incredible piece of hardware,

Rio Tintos truck in a box also

represents a highly innovative

approach to partnership in corporate

procurement.

SOMEKINDOFTRUCK

Perhaps the last thing you think of when

standing beneath a Komatsu 830E haul truck is

corporate procurement. That would be like seeingthe Grand Canyon for the first time and thinking

about the initial stream that must have started it.

But it turns out that as arresting as it is to

experience first hand one of the worlds largest

trucks, the story behind its latest iteration, which

started as mere corporate procurement, has

resulted in a new, and larger reality that is poised

to change the way Rio Tinto does business.

To all of that in a moment. First, to the truck

itself simply because it cannot be ignored. Take

the case of Sarah Lungren, an industrial engineer

by training, who first operated a haul truck at Rio

Tintos Antelope coal mine in Wyoming in theheart of the US. During her time there, someone

offered her the opportunity to operate a Komatsu

830E, a truck with a cab some 18ft above ground.

So, after training, she did. It was awesome!

she told me on a recent tour of the Bingham

Canyon copper mine in Utah where she now

works. I fell in love. Now she knows every inch

of the thing, extolling its virtue as though she is

telling you about her Toyota 4 x 4 pick-up. The

seat just floats and it is so comfortable and quiet.

The retard speed control really gives you command

and the thermostatic fan clutch is amazing.

Then she really lights up. But when you can

swing one of those 830s into place under the

shovel so that the operator doesnt have to miss a

beat, then you know you really know what youre


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18 RIO TINTO REVIEW

S o m e k i n d o f t r u c k

doing, she said with justifiable pride. Youd better.

At a site exercise in which 830E drivers were given

permission to reverse over the wreck of a pick-up

truck so they could see how it felt, one described it aslike hitting a rabbit.

The hauler she so ably mastered in Wyoming

the 830E is but one variation on a design. Like

most advanced operators, Rio Tinto specifies electric

motors in the wheels that control forward motion

and braking. But a DC (direct current electric drive)

configuration is not appropriate for the steep

gradients of Bingham Canyon Copper Mine in Utah.

An AC (alternating current electric drive) truck, on

the other hand, has a more robust system that makes

it faster uphill and less stressed downhill. And there

is a lot of uphill and downhill for these monsters: if

the truck is coming from the bottom of the Bingham

Copper Mine, it has to trudge up the equivalent of

two Sears Tower buildings stacked on top of one

another (say 3,000ft), and then a bit more, to the top.

Komatsu also manufacture a 930E (also an AC)

that is larger and can haul bigger loads. But trucks

are limited in size by their tyres. The 830 series

takes 57 inch tyres and the 930 63 inch. No matter

what the size, there is limited supply and tyre

manufacturers are struggling to meet demand (see

page 22). So, for the moment, mine operators will

simply have to be content with these youve-got-to-

be-kidding sized creations as they are.

Not so long ago, individual Rio Tinto business

units would make their own arrangements with asupplier such as Komatsu or Caterpillar or Hitachi

for haul trucks, even ordering from different sources

within those companies: Komatsu, for example, has

Japanese, German and North American divisions

with an array of dealer subsidiaries.

This led to a tangled web of ordering procedures,

fulfilment and relationships that developed like the

wires behind your computer desk: it was hard to

make sense of them and harder yet to follow any

given connection. Nevertheless, at some point

Komatsu would supply a truck, like the 830E, but

only in its most basic form.

The manufacturer would ship it, in pieces, to thebusiness that ordered it, where it would be assembled

and accessorized with the ladders, lights and other

bells and whistles the business unit deemed desirable.

These additional pieces would often come from local

sources. But sometimes, unassembled trucks would

arrive and sit on the ground longer than it took

Komatsu to build them at the factory, waiting for all

the assemblers and accessories to show up.

This may have been comfortable for some

business units, but no one thought it very

efficient. And the inevitable question followed.

What if the procedures could improve and stop

the presses what if a manufacturer could produce

a complete haul truck that conformed to all the

standards, safety and otherwise, that Rio Tinto was

developing out of their experience?

Over the past ten years or so, a number of factors

have been converging to make both efficient

procurement and the standard haul truck a

possibility, verging towards a necessity. First, mine

operators started pushing for greater safety measures

and procedures. At the same time, pressure started

flowing down from on high for the same thing.

Today at the mine, everyone yes, you wears a

hard hat. And goggles. And boots. Everyone hey,

you puts down tyre blocks under a pick-up truck,

even at the site offices. You look up and down the

road several times, every time like youre picking

your moment to cross the track at the Indianapolis

500. But its more than these day to day injury saving

practices that are driving record safety statistics.

The Rio Tinto safety mandates, which have now

...when you can swing

one of those 830s into

place under the shovel

so that the operator

doesnt have to miss a

beat, then you know you

really know what youre

doing,

Sarah Lungren

Ben Avern

gets up

close andpersonal

with one of

Komatsus

giant haul

trucks in

Diavik.


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RIO TINTO REVIEW 19

And so, little by little, procurement activities have

become more centralized, into what is now known as

Rio Tinto Procurement (RTP), headed by John

McGagh. The same thinking has been manifest in the

creation of the Operational and Technical Excellence

(OTX) group, which brings together Health, Safety

and Environmental matters, providing world class

technology based service to the product groups and

their businesses.

Now, each business unit has a service level

agreement with Rio Tinto that formally authorizes

Rio Tinto to commit the funds and manage the

contracts in purchasing. Alan Hustwick, vice

president of Global Supply, oversees these contracts

with Tier 1 suppliers globally. Given the diverse

nature of the business units, this was not an easy

become infused into a culture of safety, are systematic

and serious. Safety audits happen regularly and

irregularly (surprise audits). Benchmarks are set and

reports are made. More importantly, mine operators

know that their bonuses are tied directly to their

safety record. Sheer pride keeps any unit from the

ignominy of being in the bottom quartile of safety.

Something else has happened too. Rio Tinto has

moved from being an international group into

becoming a global group. The difference? An

international group works in countries all over the

world; a global group works the world. And to work

globally, its imperative to think globally.

For Rio Tinto, that has meant a gradual increase

over the past ten years in control of their subsidiaries

in matters of safety, training and, now, equipment.

Its,er,

The 830E is big. From it you can look

down on 100 tonne trucks which are big

themselves, and pick-ups look positively

Dinky. There are bigger trucks, for sure, but

the 830E is still big. In fact, its still

massive.

Ive known about trucks like this for

years, and seen them up close, but at the

Diavik Diamond Mine, the 830E was so big

that it threw me. Id known since I was a kid

that the stairway to heaven ran at an angle

across the radiator, but standing there trying

not to look too gormless, I was stumped by

the fact that (a) even the first step was high

enough off the ground to be a climb, and

(b) I couldnt see the top of the truck.

Have I mentioned yet that it was big? I

didnt want to look even more clueless and

start to climb the wrong staircase, so it took

me a while to tilt my head back enough to

be able to see that I was indeed headed in

the right direction, and was going to take

the right route there.

There is a direct vertical climb to the

cab, but I took the traditional radiator route

for several reasons. I needed time to think,

it was a gentler slope, I am about as lazy as

you can get, and Im scared of heights.

Anyway, I can now say I was in a truck that

took 16 steps to get up into; if Id taken theother route Id have perhaps only taken ten

steps, and I now have a better story with

which to impress my friends.

At the end of my climb I found the cab

(its really very small compared to

everything else around you), and

introduced myself to Mary Ann Angnahiak,

the pilot of truck number 206 at Diavik.


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20 RIO TINTO REVIEW

place to get to. But it was a big step in the right

direction.

However, the idea, let alone the reality, of a

standard haul truck was still elusive because of an

historical standoff between original equipment

manufacturers (OEMs) and the companies they

supply. OEMs and Rio Tinto played their traditional

roles in this expensive little drama, regarding each

other with a suspicion usually reserved for

competing suitors after the same sweetheart.

Part of the uneasiness was legal: OEMs, especially

when it comes to vehicles, were uncomfortable about

installing safety equipment as part of the package lest

they get drawn into a liability situation should

something go wrong. But more than that, OEMs are

used to fulfilling the contract to the buyer, not in

engaging in a lot of back and forth about concepts and

design, certainly not at a time when OEMs cant make

haulers fast enough. Working together with a buyer with

the end user in mind? What a strange idea.

But Rio Tinto was getting to the point of having to

end its piecemeal approach to ordering and delivery

and to have in place a more efficient system. The

safety imperative was ever more pressing and the

squeeze on vehicle availability was suggesting that

Rio Tinto needed a preferred supplier that would get

a lot of business if it played ball.

But in this case, playing ball meant coming to

understand the significant changes that had taken

place at Rio Tinto. In short, Rio Tinto was looking for

a new partner, based on a willingness to make a

simultaneous change of culture.

Stowing my bag and coat behind the seat, I

began to look around me.

Hmmm, I thought, this isnt what I

expected at all. Everything seemed so

normal a functional cab with power

windows and a CD player, but whats

special about that? I had a vague sense of

being two or three storeys off the ground,

but all the other equipment around us was

on an equally colossal scale, and it wasnt

apparent that I was in anything other than a

big piece of equipment.

A look to the left revealed a large

hydraulic shovel loading another large

truck, and an admittedly large wing mirror.

Straight ahead was more hefty equipment

and some rather cool ice covered pit walls;

but turning my head to the right, everythingcame back to me in a rush of incredulity.

Where was the passenger side wing

mirror? All I could see was yellow, a mass

of steel and a huge open space between

myself and the other side of the truck.

Finally I spotted what I was looking for

20ft away. Twenty feet! I was 3ft from the

left hand side of the truck, and you could

park a couple of pick-up trucks end to end

between me and the far side of the vehicle.

Everything became clear. This was a

BIG truck. Not sure whether or not I

mentioned that yet.

As Mary Ann pulled away, the first thing

I wrote down were the words bucking

bronco. This thing sways about like like

something that sways about a great deal,

and on the third line of my notes I wrote the

words motion sickness just after so damn

wide. The engine is fairly loud, but it

sounds like the engine in an 18 wheel road

hauler; in fact, this Cummins lump puts out

2,375hp: most big rigs are between 400

and 500hp.

Simplicity

The controls are very simple more so

than in your family car.

The gear selector has only forward,

neutral, and backwards, and there are only

three pedals. Two of them are brakes on

the left the service brake pedal for use at

speeds under 5kph. In the middle is the

dynamics pedal.

Here is where a fellow could become

confused. Lets look at the facts: there is a

big diesel engine, and when you push

down on the go pedal, the truck moves.

The further you push the pedal toward the

floor, the faster the truck goes. So, the

engine drives the truck, right? Wrong. The

engine drives an electric motor in each

wheel, and these General Electric motors

drive the truck. The dynamics pedal retards

the electric motors, thereby slowing the

truck. No brake wear, no brake failure.

As we backed in beside the shovel, I

was surprised at how close we were to it. I

would have thought that a machine this

size would need an area the size ofLiechtenstein in which to turn around, but

in fact it has a very tight turning circle.

Well, 46ft may not be tight if you drive a

Mazda, but it is when youre riding a 23ft

tall, 23ft wide monster like this. Your

Mazda may be 12ft long: try turning it

around in 24.

There is no excessive movement as the

gigantic shovel loads the truck, and it

usually takes somewhere between nine and

12 passes to fill. The on board payload

meter told us that our first load weighed

248 tonnes, and thats just the load, not

including the truck itself which is a further

150 tonnes.

Then its foot to the floor all the way

climbing out of the pit, but the speed only

picks up a little as the ground levels out.

As with being loaded, tipping the box up

wont be a new experience to anyone who

has driven a dump truck before, and before

I knew it we were on our way back down

into the pit.

Here is where the dynamics come in

handy. Just pull the yellow knob to turnthem on, press on the middle pedal, and

use the dial beside the on/off switch to vary

the amount of braking power you receive,

so that you dont have to constantly adjust

your foot on the pedal. It takes 45 minutes

to do a round trip.

Later I met shop maintenance

. . . original equipment

manufacturers were

uncomfortable about installing

safety equipment as part of the

package lest they get drawn

into a liability situation should

something go wrong.


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RIO TINTO REVIEW 21

S o m e k i n d o f t r u c k

Stephen McGowan, principal adviser, Load and

Haul, OTX, said, It took a good five years for us to

work through with Komatsu the issues we had about

building a partnership. There had to be incentives on

both sides.

For us, we needed a steady supply of more

complete trucks delivered around the world. By

having the safety equipment installed at the factory, it

would save us time and money at the point of

delivery. And we had to get them to see just how

serious we were about safety, how we needed to

standardize some of those safety features and how

they could actually make and ship better trucks if

they understood what we were trying to do.

Doug Tripp, product support area manager for

Komatsu in Salt Lake City, Utah, could see things

changing from his side of the equation. We really

listened to what they were saying and began to come

to a different idea about our relationship. I can say that

Rio Tinto really taught us a different culture, one inwhich if we were going to share in the profits, we had

to share in the risks, too.

It was a real education for both of us, McGowan

said. We get the trucks we want and they become

our premier supplier. Rio Tinto will order 40-50 of

them in the next year at US$2.8 million a pop. Or so.

The strength of the partnership is reflected in the

fact that with the current demand, Komatsu can sell

every truck they can make right now and then some,

with or without the modifications and all the work

that goes into designing and manufacturing them.

But we knew over the long term, this would help us,

not only with Rio Tinto, but with all our customers,

Tripp said.

There were three key areas agreed: egress from the

trucks both normally and in an emergency; working

at heights, which meant addressing fall prevention,

not just fall protection; and isolation of certain

systems, such as batteries and the steering

accumulator, from other related systems so they

could be worked on safely without triggering some

other problem. That was phase I. Phase II in this

design and implementation process will include

electrical and fire protection. There could be as many

as five phases all together.

Komatsu has now come up with a prototype

called the 860E which is an 830E with all the designand safety changes incorporated into it. Komatsu

showed it to Rio Tinto engineers recently and they

declared it good. Its not clear if the trucks that roll

out of Komatsus plant in Peoria, Illinois, will be 860s

more likely they will be 830s, said Tripp, with

all the standards on them.

But no matter the decal number, Rio Tinto and

Komatsu are now on the edge of producing a truck

that will be the same, whether it is delivered to

Bengalla, Australia or Salt Lake City, Utah or Rssing

Uranium in Namibia. Those around when the first

one arrives somewhere (probably Spring Creek,

Montana, where the first eight will be delivered laterthis year), will do well to consider what they are

looking at. Safety rails will be the same height and

specification, plates, gaps and kickplates will

conform to the same standard and all the gates will

swing the same way. And it will come complete, a

truck in a box.

To behold the new standard, safety equipped

Komatsu hauler that can pull up a ten per cent grade

fully loaded would be quite enough. But to know

that in the process of its becoming, it has forged a

unique partnership between two companies that has

changed the way people think about the phrase

corporate procurement well, that must be some

kind of truck.

Daniel B England is a writer and journalist, based in

Fairfield, Connecticut.

supervisor Darcy Sinclair, who raves about

these trucks. The electric drive is vastly

superior to mechanical drive. The Diavik

fleet of eleven 830Es and eight Caterpillar

785s (100 tonners) is serviced at 500 hour

intervals.

The fuel tank holds about 4,500 litres,fuel for about 24 hours. Working on the

truck is not hard, and the engine and

generator are all one unit for easier

replacement. An engine will last up to

25,000 hours.

But it's winter in Diavik about eight

months of the year and it gets cold, really

cold. Even these big haulers need a winter

blanket, and until recently they have been

kept idling to stay warm.

However, Diavik maintenance planner

Nick Strus decided to study 830E idling

times in relation to cold temperatures. He

concluded that engine mounted diesel

coolant heaters would reduce main engine

idling at certain temperatures. Like the

truck itself, the results are impressive.

Diavik is now saving a significant amount

of fuel and has won a local energy

conservation award for its efforts.

The last thing I did was to get photos of

myself standing between the wheels for an

idea of the scale. If asked which word best

describes the beast, I favour big.

I can say that Rio Tinto

really taught us a

different culture, one in

which if we were going

to share in the profits,we had to share in the

risks, too.

Doug Tr ipp, Komatsu

Issue 82 - Some Kind of Truck[1]

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