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The factories that churned out haul trucks at record levels a few years ago have slowed considerably with the downturn in coal and metals markets. Understanding that many mine operators are opting to squeeze more hours from their haul trucks before making replacement purchases, original equipment manufactur- ers (OEMs) are looking at different ways to help them improve performance and lower their cost per ton. "We know that our mining customers are under tremendous c o s t p r e s s u r e , " s a i d S u d h a n s h u S i n g h , w h o h a s b e e n t h e Caterpillar product line manager for large mining trucks since early 2013. "We have been focusing our continuous improve- ment efforts on existing assets to improve the cost per ton. One major push is to leverage the company's technology R&D; to deliver higher value with autonomous mining, data analytics and retrofit kits." Seeing a similar situation, Brian Mace, manager of Hitachi's mining applications group, agreed and explained that many min- ers are grasping for tools to make operations more efficient. "There is only so much that can be done with the actual equip- ment," Mace said. "It's also important to understand how it's used and whether the mining operation has been designed to get the most out of the equipment." Earlier this summer, Hitachi announced two new AC-drive trucks and the company is also looking at how to improve the performance of existing fleets. Several new mines have announced productivity improve- ments through the use of autonomous operations. Most of these breakthroughs are taking place at iron ore mining operations in Western Australia that were designed specifically to take advan- tage of these techniques. The pit layout lends itself well to autonomous mining, and the remote locations and the expenses related to manpower necessitated a change. Whether mature mines can make the leap to autonomous mining is debatable, but they can certainly capitalize on the systems they have in place. Cat Offers More Options When Cat entered the mining truck market in the 1980s, the industry was dominated by electric-drive trucks. They introduced the 150-ton-capacity model 785 mechanical-drive haul truck and reshaped the mining business. "We have the very first 785, which we produced in 1984, in front of the truck plant in Decatur, Illinois," Singh said. "It's a testimony to the legacy that Cat has created in the industry with improved cost per ton, serviceability and reliability. Two of every three mining-class trucks sold in the last three years has been a Cat truck, and we take our leadership positon very seriously." Rio Tinto was the first to adopt autonomous truck haulage as part of its Mine of the Future Program at its iron ore mining oper- ations in the Pilbara. While Cat was not involved with that pro- gram, its autonomous truck system is now being used by two dif- ferent mining companies, also operating in Western Australia. One company recently reported a 38% productivity improvement with its fleet of Cat 793F autonomous trucks. "The same company also reported a 13% productivity improvement with its conventional 793 trucks — achieved by working with Caterpillar and the regional Cat dealer to institute best practices," Singh said. "The strength of the Cat dealer net- work helps us share best practices to help customers lower their cost per ton." Cat continues to invest in technology. In March, the company entered into a technology and predictive analytics agreement with Uptake, which provides dynamic analytics and insight plat- forms for a wide array of industries. Cat led the industry with its introduction of the Vehicle Information Management System (VIMS), which tracks fuel efficiency, idle times, location and other valuable data, Singh explained. "We have a really good platform that provides mine operators with actionable information to help drive costs down," Singh said. This relationship with Uptake will combine Cat's product engineering and design expertise with Uptake's software, appli- cation and data analytics expertise. As a result, Cat believes it will be able to transform the huge amount of incoming data it sees into useful information that it can feed back to the mines for on- the-spot decisions and planning purposes to further reduce own- ing and operating costs. Lowering the cost per ton through productivity is arguably more important now than ever before in the U.S. coalfields. b l a st h o l e d r i l l i n g 34 www.coalage.com November 2015 h au l t r u c ks B Y S T E V E F I S C O R , E D I T O R - I N - C H I E F Improving Haul Truck Performance Understanding today's cost pressures, OEMs look at different ways to improve fleets Cat will commercially launch the 5300 in 2016 as the 794 AC.