Six (6) systems for hydraulic shovels have been purchased by a precious metals mine looking to improve its loading and hauling productivity. The systems will be installed on six large CAT shovels – many of these systems already feature the Motion Metrics Missing Tooth Detection solution and Motion Metrics in-bucket Fragmentation Analysis system.

Shovel productivity varies significantly based upon loading practices. Overloading trucks can reduce component life leading to premature tire wear, suspension failures and potential warranty voidance. Underloading a truck results in extra haulage cycles and lost productivity.

Motion Metrics Payload Monitoring for hydraulic shovels uses a series of orientation and pressure sensors to provide bucket-by-bucket payload measurements to ensure every bucket and truck box fill is optimized. In addition to an easy to read on-board display for Operators, the system employs RFID sensors and detailed report generation capabilities, yielding detailed insights into loading practices to key management personnel for targeted performance improvement initiatives.

A case study performed on a Komatsu PC5500 hydraulic shovel indicated a 1% increase in average bucket payload resulted in annual cost savings of $1.7 million dollars.