VR Steel has completed the largest fabricated rope shovel bucket in the world. This first-of-its-kind VR Dipper, was designed for the P&H 4100 XPC electric shovel. It is a 59 m3 bucket weighing in at 89 t and took five months to complete. It was wholly designed and manufactured by engineers and designers at VR Steel’s headquarters in Alberton, South Africa. This particular VR Dipper was manufactured for a coal mine in China’s Shanxi province.
VR Steel Managing Director, John van Reenen, says: “We are extremely proud to be the first company in the world to have designed and manufactured the biggest rope shovel bucket ever made, right here on South African soil. We are represented in Australia, USA, China, India and Canada, but in future, due to the strength of the exchange rate, all further manufacture of these VR Dippers for export will be done at our Shanghai base.”