Spotlight Feature Articles HIGH PROFILE - VOLVO August 2018 | Page 2

HIGH PROFILE
Rigid by design
The new R100E on launch day at the Motherwell
test track
extra level of experience in areas like hydraulics
and electronics which of course we wanted to use.
When we were laying out the fundamental design
early on, specialists from Volvo CE came in and
supported us right from that point. The styling of
the truck has been mainly done by Volvo. We used
the Volvo test centre in China in Jinan extensively.
And now we are moving into the main truck
production phase we are working closely with
Volvo supply chain management and purchasing;
they are taking the lead in getting the dealers and
suppliers ready. So there has been a lot of in-depth
and productive collaboration.”
Trials and ramp up
Paul Moore was one of the few mining journalists at the
launch of Volvo’s new D and E series rigid haulers in
Motherwell in April of this year, including the completely
new flagship R100E truck
olvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) in
April 2018 officially launched a range of new
mining haulers in front of customers and
dealers at the company’s Motherwell facility in
Scotland. Guests, including IM, got their first
glimpse of the new machines – which consist of
the 45 short ton R45D, 60 ton R60D, 72 ton R70D
and the flagship 95 t (105 ton) R100E. The star of
the show was the R100E, a completely new rigid
hauler that combines a wealth of market and
customer knowledge with proven components,
new technologies and a striking new design – all
providing, Volvo says “a cost-effective and
productive solution to fulfil the needs of today’s
mining and quarrying customers.” The bar has
indeed been aimed high – Volvo CE said on the day
it is targeting a TCO 20% lower than the
predecessor rigid truck, the TR100.
The R100E truck development was a true
partnership between the Terex Trucks facility and
team in Motherwell that became part of the Volvo
CE family in 2014, and Volvo CE itself. This has given
rise to a unique machine design and concept. But
aside from the internal work, the voice of the
customer has been at the fore. Paul Douglas, Volvo
CE’s Vice President of Rigid Haulers and Managing
Director of Terex Trucks said to IM at the launch: “I
cannot stress strongly enough that we spent
hundreds of hours talking to customers and dealers
to really understand what they wanted. So for
example, they wanted to make sure that the truck
remained relatively simple to maintain and simple to
operate. They wanted it to be efficient and
productive but they didn’t want it to have all the
bells and whistles that in many of the markets they
V
International Mining | AUGUST 2018
don’t actually use or don’t need…it was all about
low total cost of ownership, operator wellbeing,
productivity and then services and solutions, being
easy to maintain and upkeep. Of course the other
main OEMs will say their trucks already offer those
things but I would say it is the combination of all of
these things together with the voice of the customer
process that will really differentiate the E series.”
On the R100E development itself he added:
“Development started shortly after Volvo acquired
Terex Trucks in late 2014. Terex Trucks had a lot of
rigid trucks experience but Volvo brought that
Volvo has already had the R100E running at two
operations, one at the Boliden Aitik copper mine in
Sweden in hard rock in a cold weather climate
hauling overburden and aggregate for haul road
surfacing, and the other with contractor Trollope
Mining at the Manungu Colliery coal operation in
South Africa since early 2017, supported by dealer
Babcock. While these were close to the final truck
design, Volvo still made some tweaks based on this
real world trialling so it has been a very useful
process, in addition to running the truck against
other OEM models. “They compete very, very well
against the other trucks that are running at those
sites. We think our design delivers the total
package that the customer really needs. It carries a
little bit more than competitor trucks in the same
class at 105 short tons with a unique V-shaped
larger body; and it is a little bit faster. These are
important profitability differentiators in the life of
the truck.”
The new model is revealed for the first time to customers and dealers