HIGH PROFILE
Wayne Chmiel, Global President FLANDERS Technology Solutions( left) & FLANDERS Senior Manager of Advanced Development, Brian Havens, at MINExpo 2024
under FLANDERS supervision, and with Thiess people being trained by FLANDERS either at its own site or at the new FLANDERS FITT centre in Carmel. Chmiel:“ We would continue to supply the components including the motors in the case of the mechanical drive system. The solution will be very front facing with Thiess customers and will become an integral part of asset management plans and roadmaps.”
What does the actual hybridisation of mining trucks entail?“ Well, hybridising basically means adding another source of power to the truck, in this case electric power that will be provided by the batteries installed in the truck. And we are not removing the diesel engine yet, as both trucks, the mechanical and electric drive, will have two sources of power. Besides the batteries, there are other components that would need to be replaced or added depending on the truck type. For the electric trucks we will replace the cabinet and grid blower and for the mechanical ones we would add a cabinet and an electric motor.”
Why would customers be interested in the hybridising their trucks? Haul trucks account for a large portion of a mine’ s total energy use. As mines increasingly set emission reduction goals and energy prices climb, there is a need for decarbonisation options that work with existing mine infrastructure, help reduce operating costs and are compatible with haul trucks already in service.
Haul truck hybrid retrofit systems offer mine operators the capability to meet decarbonisation goals while also continuing to utilise their existing fleets of haul trucks across a variety of designs and sizes. The system provides decarbonisation now, but most importantly reduces fuel consumption and maintenance costs while increasing productivity.
In the case of the mechanical trucks, The FREEDOM for haul trucks motor can handle anything from a 100 ton class mining truck up to a 400 ton truck. Brian Havens, FLANDERS Senior Manager of Advanced Development told IM:“ When we designed this system we were given the directive to create a regret free upgrade path for our customers. What does this mean? No matter which energy mix is dominant in a decade, the FLANDERS solution is there for the customer. We created an energy agnostic solution in addition to our OEM-agnostic drive system for hybrid haul trucks. Our system was designed by field service engineers for field service engineers, and we designed the system not to fail but should there be a need for maintenance we wanted to get the vehicle up and running as soon as possible.”
Havens adds:“ Component commonality for example is very important – it simplifies maintenance and reduces spare parts inventory for mining operators. The whole modularised system and cabinet is designed for very easy maintenance – anything that ever would need to be touched has a handle on it, making everything very accessible. So, you would never have to spend hours taking the cabinet apart to replace a power module or capacitor – they are right up front and require only a few bolts to be taken out. It is energy agnostic – no one knows what energy mix is going to dominate in a decade. Our current hybrid technology will reduce operating cost today, and tomorrow when battery costs reduce we can adapt it again, plus if trolley is at the mine we can also accommodate that with a few minor modifications. If full BEV is in the pipeline, we can do that too – truly we have developed a regret free solution that can have a meaningful impact on operating costs today.”
This is a big reassurance for customers nervous about using new technology. The cabinet is liquidcooled, dust-proof, and compact, fitting seamlessly onto mining trucks without obstructing visibility from the cab. And FLANDERS designed everything in house including the hardware, firmware and the power electronics. Havens:“ This means FLANDERS can always fully support every aspect of FREEDOM’ s hardware, firmware, and power electronics ensuring consistent support for our customers without having to get any third party involved. The control board is in fact a common hardware between FLANDERS’ truck drives, dragline drives and shovel drives. We know the interfaces and we know how to make it forward and backward compatible.”
Training is simple as well, so if there is a problem the service personnel will know how to address it without having to involve external experts. Havens:“ Some of these truck operators no longer have support for their power electronics systems – even without the battery module, operators can deploy our FREEDOM cabinet today and when they are ready to hybridise or switch to a different power source, our cabinet will support without additional modifications.”
FLANDERS FREEDOM for haul trucks represents another opportunity for customers to transform mining operations. By reducing emissions and enhancing efficiency, FLANDERS says it continues to drive sustainability and innovation in the industry. IM
Thiess will ultimately carry out the conversions to the FREEDOM for haul trucks hybrid system themselves, under licence from FLANDERS
APRIL 2025 | International Mining 41