10 Jul 2020 XLP Dozer
Industry: Underground mining
Customer: One of the world’s largest mining companies (South African market)
Challenges: Inefficiency and hazardous situations in cleaning/removal of blasted reef in industrial and mining industries which resulted in hundreds of other injuries per year in the mining industry
Customer’s requirements: Development of a “fit to purpose” machine, easy to maintain, more efficient than the existing solutions and with the ability of operator’ safe removal from the hazardous area
Results: Developed XLP Dozer for various mining operations where access is a challenge, restricted or hazardous for personnel. The XLP Dozer exceeds 85% operational availability and utilization of 200 hours per month
Who is the customer and what industry does it belong to?
In 2003, Anglo Platinum approached DOK-ING to develop a remotely controlled dozer, suitable for underground mining operations in narrow reef orebodies as low as 1.2m working height.
The XLP dozer was developed to fulfil a number of tasks in numerous industrial and mining related industries. The main uses of such machines are cleaning mine stope after blasting, cleaning and sweeping abandoned mining areas, cleaning under conveyors or structures where access is restricted or hazardous.
What were the challenges the customer faced? Why was it necessary to develop a new machine? Why the existing solutions on the market could not be used?
Until the development of the remotely controlled XLP Dozer, the task of cleaning/ removal of blasted reef had been undertaken by scraper winches or shovel cleaning. These existing methods had proven over decades to be inefficient and hazardous due to the proximity of employees to unsupported material above the working area and due to moving equipment (such as the scraper plough and winch ropes which cause numerous fatal injuries and hundreds of injuries per year in the mining industry).
Typically, a scraper winch is able to clean blasted material at a rate of between 15 – 25 tons per hour. This cleaning rate has been significantly improved to 70 – 120 tons per hour by XLP Dozer.
A significant change in the safety record of such operations can be seen where an XLP Dozer is introduced. The machine has a clean safety record in such tasks ever since it was first used in ore cleaning mining applications, mainly due to the fact that the operator of the equipment is placed in a safe area away from hazards near the mining face.
What were the requirements of the customer, what kind of machine did they want to develop for themselves?
The primary requirement from the customer was to develop a “fit for purpose” machine, which would be easy to maintain, more efficient than the current method and which would enable safe removal of the operator from the hazardous area.
What is the result of the whole process? What kind of machine has been developed? What are its characteristics and advantages over other solutions on the market?
Over the last 15 years DOK-ING successfully introduced the XLP Dozer in various mining operations. During this period various upgrades have been made to improve the reliability and performance of the equipment. The XLP Dozer is exceeding 85% operational availability and utilization of 200 hours per month.
At this time, there is no other mechanized, safe alternative to the XLP Dozer available on the market.
