Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology has completed its first contract in Russia to equip third-party mining equipment – in this case Komatsu HD785 haul trucks, with its state-of-the-art Eclipse ™ Extreme fire suppression system with automatic activation and detection. The installation was carried out on the territory of the gold mining customer, OOO Sovrudnik, part of UGC, with minimal equipment downtime, completing the installation and testing of the systems in 20 days.

One of the decisive factors in choosing a Sandvik solution was the presence of a its well established service network in the region and the willingness of specialists to go to a remote location for installation work – the enterprise is located near the village of Severo-Yeniseisky in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The choice was made in favour of the Eclipse™ Extreme liquid premixed fire extinguishing system, which is suitable for low temperature service. The extinguishing efficiency of the agent used is 30% higher compared to alternative powder systems when extinguishing hot elements in the engine compartment. Half the time required to clear the protected area from the agent after the system has been triggered provides an additional advantage in reducing losses from the resulting fire. Automatic detection and activation of the system is an integral part of the system, and fast and continuous cooling prevents re-ignition and provides protection even when the engine is running.

Installation was carried out in an open box at a temperature close to zero, and on the first machines it took about four days. Subsequently, due to the unification and optimisation of the workflow, the installation time of the system was reduced to several hours, which had a positive effect on the equipment technical readiness factor: the enterprise continued to operate normally without any loss of productivity. To ensure operational safety during installation, preliminary tests were carried out on the first machines, followed by further development of the system design. In the final version, an installation scheme was proposed that best suits the type of equipment, operating conditions and the wishes of Sovrudnik LLC.

Vitaly Lukyanov, Chief Mechanic of Sovrudnik LLC, comments: “We have been working with Sandvik for many years, so we know the specialists well and are confident in the quality of service. We reacted with great interest and confidence to the new product, because we were confident in the reliability of the solution and a responsible attitude to the service.” Sovrudnik specialises in open pit mining of ore gold with subsequent processing of ore to ingots. The enterprise is among the top ten gold mining companies in the country and ranks second in terms of gold mining in the Krasnoyarsk Territory