Tag Archives: MEDATech Engineering

MacLean releases fit-for-purpose underground mine grader

With the first-ever MacLean GR5 underground road grader already shipped to Africa and additional units scheduled for factory production, the newest addition to the MacLean line of Mine-Mate™ utility vehicles, which offers up a ruggedised, high performance mobile solution for maintaining haulage ramps in optimal condition, is ready to be introduced to the mining world.

The GR5 mining vehicle is an evolution for MacLean, starting back in 2018 when the company collaborated with the specialty engineering firm, MEDATech, to retrofit a battery-electric grader for Borden Gold in northern Ontario (then owned and operated by Goldcorp). Based on the engineering and manufacturing learnings from this one-off custom project, MacLean embarked on a collaborative process to better understand the grader vehicle category, so that it could be successfully adapted from road to underground mining applications.

Working closely with road grader industry professionals from a former Canadian grader OEM with industry expertise, MacLean went back to the drawing board to develop a fit-for-purpose design for the underground environment.

“While most products in this category tend to be considered too lightweight for the work, the GR5 is purposely sized to match the tractive effort and drawbar pull of full-sized surface graders,” MacLean said. “The unit features a CAN bus control system that allows joystick control technology to be deployed for both steering and application functions simultaneously to ease operator comfort and control, while also boasting an onboard vehicle telemetry package that can monitor the performance and health of the vehicle.”

On the powertrain side, the unit can be either battery-electric or diesel-powered and comes equipped standard with a six-wheel infinitely adjustable drive system using dual hydrostatic motors and active traction control, the company said.

Size, manoeuvrability, visibility, simplicity, and ruggedness were key design factors. As a result, the unit is similar in height to the rest of the MacLean Utility Vehicle product line, designed to work optimally in 5 m x 5 m headings. The unit’s design also includes a combination of frame articulation and front wheel-steering, which minimises its turning radius underground and its moldboard system uses a simpler design than its surface grader counterparts to ensure durability and reliability.

Dan Stern, Senior Product Manager, said: “When we designed the GR5 Grader we started from the ground-up, where we literally began with a clean slate and developed the rig using the latest in proven technologies and components. The GR5’s cab environment, for example, was developed using an Oculus Rift VR headset to map out placement of controls, verify visibility and sightlines, and ultimately get a good sense of what this rig would feel like to operate before any steel was cut.”

David Jacques, Vice President of Engineering at MacLean, added: “The product development approach on this unit is a great example of what we like to call MacLean ‘Application Intelligence’, where we take our mobile equipment engineering expertise and combine it with our knowledge of the mining environment to design units that are fit for the job they need to do underground. We truly believe we’ve ‘made the grade’ and developed a winning product that leverages our core knowledge of the underground environment and combines it with application knowledge from grader design experts to address the actual needs of the mining industry – it all comes back to our Application Intelligence.”

Maarten van Koppen, Vice President of Product Management at MacLean, said: “The state of ramps is always an important factor in a mine’s haulage performance, and it becomes even more important in the context of full-fleet electrification that mining companies around the globe are actively pursuing. I know this first-hand from my time as a Mining Engineer at Borden Gold, where I was part of the team responsible for designing and developing that project. To maximise the benefits of down-ramp energy regeneration, mines need well-maintained roadbeds, and we’ve got the solution.”

MEDATech launches battery thermal management unit for BEVs

MEDATech has launched what it says is a rugged, space-saving thermal management unit for industrial battery-electric vehicles.

Having made battery-electric drivetrains for heavy-duty equipment OEMs like MacLean, Kovatera and Muckahi Mining Systems, MEDATech’s ALTDRIVE division had accepted that a problem area in the company’s designs had long been thermal management units.

“We could never find a battery thermal management unit robust enough or sleek enough,” MEDATech’s Director of Sales and Marketing, Darren Mueller, said. “They were either too fragile for industrial use, so bulky that we had to compromise on vehicle design, or tough to integrate into vehicle management systems. So we built one.”

The ALTDRIVE BTMU, as the unit was dubbed (BTMU = Battery Thermal Management Unit), has an AKG-built condenser that can be placed remotely to save space and enable consistent airflow. At 25 in x 26.5 in x 15 in and 105 lb (48 kg), the BTMU is a tight package that’s built rugged enough to withstand the most adverse underground conditions, but powerful enough to reject heat at a rate of 7.5 kW, MEDATech says. It is powered by the vehicle’s high-voltage system and plugs into the J1939 CAN network. The BTMU also has an optional 10 kW heater add-on that can be connected to the base unit if cold-weather operation is planned.

The ALTDRIVE BTMU works as well as a retrofit as it does on new builds, according to the company. It delivers precision cooling and can also report temperature and pressure monitoring within vehicle-control systems. Its release has seen such popular acclaim that MEDATech has partnered with AKG to expand BTMU product line offerings, MEDATech said. AKG has been a global partner in thermal-management solutions for many different markets since 1919.

Josh Belin, AKG Senior Product Manager, said: “We are very excited to partner with MEDATech to further develop the BTMU product line. As the market continues to evolve, it will become increasingly important to be able to handle the requirements of a wide variety of applications.”

MEDATech launches profit, emissions forecasting software for fleet electrification

Ontario-based MEDATech has launched what it says is the “Deswik of underground fleet electric vehicle electrification” with its Electric Vehicle Fleet Optimization Software (EV-FOS).

Built in MATLAB, MEDATech’s tool for simulation, data acquisition and industrial software development, EV-FOS approaches battery-electric vehicle (BEV) optimisation in mines from the practical (vehicle) side. Its goal is to ensure that the transition to electrification is profitable as well as good for the environment, MEDATech says.

The launch of the software, just in time for MINExpo 2021, in Las Vegas, comes after four years of development in collaboration with McMaster University’s Bauman Lab for Electrified Powertrain Research.

The software is, the company says, essential to building a mine electrification plan that is both optimal and practical, based on technology that is available today.

The Collingwood, Canada heavy-equipment design/build engineering company has trialled EV-FOS with major miners like Glencore, Newmont and Torex Gold, with the software conclusively proven to reduce CO2 emissions and help save cost, according to the company.

“EV-FOS is very precise,” MEDATech President, Rob Rennie, says. “The alternative to using our software is developing your own calculations or guessing. With millions or tens of millions of dollars hanging in the balance, it makes sense to invest in something that yields accurate forecasts.”

MEDATech EV-FOS optimises BEV energy usage for new and existing mines, and is as useful for mine development as it is for production. The software can compare BEV fleets versus diesel fleets in terms of life-of-mine vehicle costs, CO2 emissions, fuel and ventilation costs, as well as vehicle maintenance. It also shows the difference in cost and production values between fast charging, battery swapping and on-board charging.

EV-FOS also calculates optimal BEV type, battery size and charging infrastructure for any given mine. It shows effectiveness in dollars per tonne by the level, by the year, for fast charging, for battery swapping and for diesel, MEDATech says.

“Measuring cost in dollars per tonne and in total CO2 reduction are the big dividends,” Rennie says. “That includes labour, capital costs, operation costs and ventilation costs for mines designed for electric operations. It compares these figures to operational and ventilation costs for mines designed only around diesel power, for an equivalent production requirement.”