LC Engineering will be displaying its latest high-tech payload measuring and production monitoring system, designed to enhance hydraulic excavator and shovel loading productivity, at the AIMEX –show in Sydney from August 20-23, 2013. The LC Titan Production Monitor calculates the payload in each bucket accurately before it is dumped in the truck, using highly sophisticated instruments and algorithms to compensate for the high-vibration digging environment that these loading tools work in. While dumping into the truck body, the excavator or shovel operator simply glances at the Titan screen to get a summary of the truck load after each loading pass, and how many more passes are required, said LC Engineering’s R&D Manager Bruce Leslie.
“They can then select where to take their remaining bucket loads from, depending on whether they need full or part-full buckets, or heavier or lighter loads,” he said. According to Leslie, trials have demonstrated that while the statistical spread of truckloads for most operations have a standard deviation of 8-10% of the average, operators using the Titan monitor achieve a standard deviation of 4-5%. “This increases average payload by up to 6%, while decreasing loads over 110% and eliminating loads over 120%,” he states.
The Titan system logs every loading cycle, providing complete information about the trajectory, energy, cycle breakdown and truck-filling loads, passes and times. It also keeps all the raw data generated by the system, allowing full forensic analysis of the excavator’s or shovel’s operations at any time. “In matched loading operations, where the diggers can consistently fill the trucks to capacity with a specific number of passes, the Titan system provides excellent feedback for tightening the spread, and more consistently delivering an average payload within 5% deviation,” said Leslie. “In unmatched operations, the system provides both the feedback needed to train operators to increase their average loads, and the loading information required for a mine operation to select better optimised buckets.”
LC Engineering also provides a customised data support service, which includes options for remote analysis, on-site presentations, regular training of operators, and other services. “Reports are routinely generated from our fully backed-up database in Brisbane,” said Leslie. Further options available with the Titan Production Monitor include strain gauges to monitor fatigue stresses in the excavators’ and shovels’ structures; camera monitoring of the bucket lip to check for tooth loss; and synchronised database on site, with SQL-based Intranet reports. “We completely integrate our products with other providers wherever possible,” said Leslie. For example, integration with truck management and scheduling systems, such as iVolve, provides automated recognition of trucks and cross-checking between the truck weighing systems and the Titan Production Monitor. “The Titan system has been engineered using a combination of standard industrial components and our own custom-developed enclosures and electronics, is rated to 70°C operating conditions, and can be installed without requiring any welding to the machine,” concluded Leslie.
