MINING ENGINES
In December 2018
and March 2019,
MTU staff from South
Africa and Zambia
worked at FQM’s
Sentinel copper
mine, in Zambia, to
repower two of three
960-2KT Komatsu
trucks. Photo
courtesy of MTU
Béni Amir), three in Gantour (Benguérir,
Bouchane and M’Zinda) and one in Boucraâ. The
MRC will be based at the heart of OCP Group’s
industrial ecosystem, within the Fertiparc of the
Oued Zem complex, Cummins said.
“This partnership is the first investment in this
new industrial area, which offers an attractive
environment for investors (connectivity, rental
model, etc), thus boosting the regional economy
and stimulating job creation,” it said.
The MRC will be operational by 2021 and will
have an area of 14,000 m 2 and the capacity to
complete 100 engine rebuilds per year. Cummins’
investment in equipment is estimated to be
around $4.2 million.
The Khouribga facility will be Cummins 16th
MRC globally; its second in Africa and the first in
the North and West Africa region.
“The MRC consists of an industrial platform
intended to receive Cummins high horsepower
engines at the end of their lives, which will be
brought in from 20 countries in the North and
West Africa regions,” Cummins explained.
“These engines, once delivered to the MRC, will
be completely disassembled and inspected for
defective components. They will then be re-
assembled using Cummins genuine new or
reconditioned parts and tested on an engine
dynamometer in order to ensure that they have
reached a new life performance.” The rebuilt
engines will be finally returned to customers in
the 20 countries in North and West Africa,
guaranteed as new, Cummins said.
MTU Africa is not short of engine retrofit
experience and it recently increased its number
of successful engine installations with another
eight projects.
The company converted three Komatsu 960-
2KT and five Hitachi EH3500-AC2 mining vehicles
at First Quantum Minerals-owned mines in
Zambia. The Komatsu and Hitachi installations
were first-time retrofits on both types of vehicle,
MTU Africa said.
Mine trucks usually require new engines after
three to five years, according to MTU, with Rolls-
Royce Power Systems supplying Repower Kits for
this purpose. “These are
pre-assembled drive
modules consisting of an
engine, a generator and a
radiator all mounted on a
base frame. They also come
with an electronic engine
management and
monitoring system,” MTU
said.
In December 2018 and
March 2019, MTU staff from
South Africa and Zambia
worked at FQM’s Sentinel
copper mine, in Zambia, to
repower two of three 960-2KT Komatsu trucks.
“In the rebuild, a competitor engine that had
reached the end of its service life was replaced
by a new 20-cylinder Series 4000 engine,” the
company said, adding that the third 960-2KT
repower project was to follow in May.
“The results of the first project once again
confirm the classic virtues of MTU products: ‘all
truck operators at the mine now prefer to drive
the repowered truck,’ which boasts outstandingly
fast response characteristics at lower engine
revolutions per minute,” the company said.
The repowering project also led to greater
engine reliability and robustness, longer
maintenance intervals and lower fuel
consumption, MTU added.
While this retrofit was a first on this type of
Komatsu truck, MTU Africa has previously
repowered Komatsu 730E, 860E-1K and 930E-4
trucks with MTU Series 4000 engines.
The truck fleet at the Sentinel mine includes
not only the Komatsu trucks but eight Liebherr
T284 mining trucks, also powered by MTU’s 20-
cylinder Series 4000 units, and two LeTourneau
wheel loaders.
MTU Africa was also engaged by FQM at its
Kansanshi copper mine to replace the
competitors’ engine on a Hitachi EH3500-AC2
mining truck with a MTU 12-cylinder Series 4000.
This replacement is one of five trucks to be
repowered at Africa’s biggest copper mine over
the next few months, the company said, adding
that its MTU 12-cylinder Series 4000 engine is
already powering two of the Hitachi EH3500-AC3
trucks at the mine.
Since the launch of MTU’s Series 2000 and
Series 4000 engines, they have been fitted to
over 800 mine trucks as well as excavators,
wheel loaders and surface blasthole drilling rigs
worldwide, with the Series 4000 accounting for
the lion's share, MTU says.
reporting. This included the need for a cooling
package that could adapt or change when a new
MTU engine was placed in a vehicle, improved
airflow for high altitudes, and increased
performance and decreased noise of machinery.
The company offers a variety of mining
equipment and support to customers spanning
repowers for mines, mining haul trucks, off-road
vehicles and power generators.
To help it better serve its customers, Horton
worked closely with Detroit SA to determine how
it could best support the company on its quest.
Given the mining environment and extreme
operating conditions in Chile, the Horton teams
worked with Detroit SA and recommended
Horton HTEC Fans, which are engineered to
tackle environments where durability and airflow
requirements can prove challenging. Designed to
maximise efficiency while minimising parasitic
loss, Horton HTEC fans provide increased
efficiency and durability with significant noise
reduction in comparison to metal fans.
HTEC fans are also versatile, with
configurations of five to 15 blades and standard
and customisable hub mountings, including
straight and tapered bores. As they are not a
thermoplastic, but a patent-pending structural
thermoset, they also deliver increased efficiency
and higher speed ratings when compared with
traditional metal fans, along with higher
temperature ratings than nylon fans.
After switching to HTEC, Detroit SA saw an
increase in efficiency and reduced noise from the
lighter fan material, according to Horton. The
distributor also noted that HTEC absorbs less
power from the engine and is more resistant
against the impacts of the uneven mine terrain,
helping its customers more easily complete their
jobs.
Detroit SA first installed HTEC in 2017 with its
mine repowers. After seeing the success of those
projects, it expanded the use of the fan to other
machinery and recently installed a HTEC fan in a
mining drill application. It is also exploring other
options for this technology, including
implementing it in wheel loaders and power
generators. IM
Keeping cool
Detroit SA, a Horton distributor located in Chile,
has recently been on the lookout for solutions to
a few problems its customers had been
Horton HTEC fans are engineered to tackle
environments where durability and airflow
requirements can prove challenging, the
company says
JULY 2019 | International Mining 37