WORLD PROSPECTS
Ground Force continues Black Thunder success
Since opening in 1977, nearly 2.2 billion short tons of coal have been mined at Arch Coal’ s Black Thunder in Wyoming, and delivered to America’ s power generation plants. Operating at the mine are 123 large haul trucks, along with rope shovels and draglines and with such a large equipment fleet, keeping the machines supplied with fuel and lubricants and electrical power in a safe and efficient manner is a constant effort.
That’ s where the fleet of Ground Force fuel / lube and cable reel trucks come in. The fuel / lube trucks were chosen because they offer lube and fuel in one complete package versus separate trucks for lube, fuel and other fluids. This dramatically reduces operating costs with fewer vehicles and operators. To keep up with demand, the mine operates five Ground Force fuel / lube trucks, including a 773, 777 and three 789s. The larger 789s carry as much as 70,000 gallons of diesel fuel each to refuel haul trucks, dozers, excavators, wheel dozers, motor graders and other equipment.
“ We’ ve got Cat ® dozers that operate in remote areas of this mine, and the only way to get to them is by the narrow trails the dozer makes,” says Colter Burleson, Predictive Services Supervisor at Black Thunder mine.“ These 777 fuel / lube trucks can handle rough terrain, steep grades and can travel on narrow roads and into tight places that other pieces of equipment would not normally be able to get to.”“ The operators enjoy having everything in one shot— grease, fuel, antifreeze— it’ s all right there,” says Burleson.“ The Ground Force trucks get around better than a smaller unit or a singleserve unit would. And the operators feel more comfortable driving on narrow roads or steep grades because they know their truck can handle it.”
Black Thunder was recognised by the State Mine Inspector as the safest large surface mine in Wyoming for 2015. Working safely is a guiding principle at Black Thunder mine, and at Arch Coal operations across the country. With this core value in mind, the complex employs technology and leverages equipment to further its ultimate safety goal of operating with zero safety incidents each year.
“ When there’ s fuelling / lubing going on, there’ s a lot of movement and all equipment at the mine is huge. So the fewer people on the ground, the safer it is,” Burleson says.
“ The design of the Ground Force fuel / lube body enables us to keep one operator on the ground while servicing machines and thereby avoid going up and down steps on the machine in the wintertime,” he says.“ That’ s pretty crucial because you’ ve got slips, trips and falls to worry about with snow and ice, so the less you have to climb up and down on everything, the better. The operator can access everything he needs right from ground level, whether it’ s the computer to start the flow of fluids, all the hoses, and / or all the pumps. He has all of his controls right at his fingertips, so when he pulls the hoses out and hooks them up to the vehicles he can walk right back to the back of the lube truck, turn everything on and stay in a safe position while it’ s fuelling and lubing and keep himself out of harm’ s way.”
Designed for cost-efficient, one-person, incab operation, the Ground Force Cable Reel Trucks( CRT) enable precise cable placement with articulation, rotating reel turntable and rear-view cameras and use a specially modified Cat 740B Articulated Truck.
The many draglines and mining shovels at Black Thunder are electrically powered through long, heavy-duty electrical cables. But the natural mining environment, coupled with weather extremes of hot and cold temperatures in Wyoming high country, can wear these cables out quickly, requiring their frequent replacement. In most cases, the long, heavy cables could be awkward and difficult to replace.
“ I don’ t know the number or the miles of cable we have, but we have a lot of it and we move a lot every day. My best day ever on the CRT, I did 17,000 ft of cable in one day,” says operator Dave Slattery.
Designed for cost-efficient, one-person, incab operation, the cable reel trucks enable precise cable placement with the GF740B’ s articulation, rotating reel turntable and rearview cameras. The Cat engine, power train and six-wheel drive deliver reliable power, traction and manoeuverability in the varying underfoot conditions and long grades encountered in the mine.
“ The Ground Force CRT is more efficient as far as the laying out of the cable is concerned, keeping ahead of the shovels,” Slattery says.“ It has good power on the cable drum and it’ s smooth operating. I’ ve been running them for a number of years and these new units are more advanced as far as the controls and on-board
The design of the Ground Force fuel / lube body enables Black Thunder to keep one operator on the ground while servicing machines computers— and that has really helped out a lot for reeling the cable in and laying it out. The articulation of the machine is helpful when you turn and you’ re laying out a cable so that you can see what you’ re doing around the corner,” he continues.“ It’ ll swing the cab over to where you can see the cable better. As far as the hydraulic power and traction, there’ s no comparison to our former units. This one’ s way stronger.”
Caterpillar OEM Solutions works closely with Ground Force and local Cat dealer Wyoming Machinery to design and support the entire fleet of Ground Force trucks working in the Black Thunder mine.“ Technology plays a huge role on our Ground Force trucks,” Burleson says.“ They are tracked by MineStar, as are all the trucks in the mine, and go through a dispatcher who knows where every vehicle is at all times. And when it comes to the fuel / lube trucks, every type and amount of fluid dispensed is monitored.” Availability of the Ground Force units is about 90 %. Many of the Cat machines in the mine are also covered by a Cat Maintenance and Repair Contract utilising the product support expertise of Wyoming Machinery to help ensure maximum uptime for the equipment fleet at Black Thunder. In addition, the large percentage of Cat components contained in the Ground Force trucks ensures parts and service availability.“ These Ground Force trucks are pretty easy to maintain because they contain a lot of the same parts as our haul trucks,” Burleson says.
To date the largest fuel and lube trucks Ground Force Worldwide has built are these machines at Black Thunder based on Cat 789s. However, the company told IM that it is currently building two fuel and lube trucks headed to South America that are designed to fit on the Cat 793.“ This will beat our own record and we expect will change the way South American mines support their trucks,” said Jodi McKenzie, Director of Marketing. www. gfworldwide. com
6 International Mining | NOVEMBER 2016