Tag Archives: Will Gove

Kovatera looks to outperform competition with battery-powered KT200e utility vehicle

Environmental, Mining equipment, Power supply for mines, , , , , ,

Building on its highly successful line of underground utility vehicles, Kovatera™ has released its new battery-powered KT200e.

This addition to the Kovatera line continues the rough, tough and purpose-built lineage of its diesel versions. The KT200e is not an adapted, converted or modified vehicle, however. “It is purpose-built from the ground up using advanced technology and proven components resulting in a utility vehicle that outperforms the competition in all categories,” Kovatera says.

As part of a strategy to grow domestic and international sales, Industrial Fabrication Inc (IFI) of Lively, Ontario, Canada, launched the Kovatera brand for its line of underground mine utility vehicles in late 2019.

On the latest battery-powered release, Will Gove, General Manager of Kovatera, said: “We have recognised for some time that the demand for electric underground vehicles in the marketplace will continue to increase. But we did not want to stray from the philosophy that has been at the core of our success…building equipment from the ground-up that meets the demands of the challenging underground working environment.

“And, as with previous models, these utility vehicles offer three times the economic life and twice the payload capacity of other marketplace offerings.”

The KT200e, in keeping with previous models, offers a wide range of configurations to meet customer specifications ranging from personnel carriers to specific job applications such as scissor lifts, aerial booms and wide range of options that can be bolted to the chassis, Kovatera said.

“A major consideration was to ensure that this electric vehicle’s capability matches the requirements of the customer’s needs,” Gove said. “A major feature of our battery options is to fit vehicle with a standard 44 kWh battery. With this configuration, we can offer customers a battery size and range that fits their needs without additional capital spend. If a longer range is required, we also offer a battery upgrade that doubles that range – giving the customer a range of 50-90 km between charges.”

Battery life matches or exceeds the known economic life of the unit at seven to nine years, according to the company, while charge time from dead flat is around 1.5 hours with additional optional 25 kW 600 v on-board charger.

“For customers who now use our popular UT99 diesel models, we offer a retrofit kit to economically convert them to electric,” Gove said. “Either way, the customer benefits from our tested and proven chassis, components, configuration flexibility and service longevity that have made these utility vehicles an industry standard.”

IFI rebrands MINECAT UG utility vehicle business as it chases international growth

Environmental, Equipment maintenance, Mining equipment, Power supply for mines, Sustainable mining, , , , , ,

As part of a strategy to grow domestic and international sales, Industrial Fabrication Inc (IFI) of Lively, Ontario, Canada, has launched a new brand for its line of underground mine utility vehicles.

Formerly marketed under the MINECAT brand, the company has undertaken an extensive rebranding exercise to better reflect the company’s business strategy and entry into new markets, it said.

Moving forward the company and its product lines will be marketed under the brand name KOVATERA™, with this name continuing to reflect IFI’s expertise in manufacturing purpose-built utility vehicles made for the rigours of underground mining, it said.

Will Gove, Kovatera’s General Manager, said: “We have had great success in developing and marketing our product lines domestically here in Canada. The MINECAT brand has developed into a very respectable brand for our space in the Canadian underground mining industry.

“Additional to providing ongoing support to our domestic customer base, we are now focusing on expanding our footprint into new markets such as Australia, Mexico, South America, Europe and Eurasia,” he said. “Given our global expansion strategy, new product development and the starting of a new lean manufacturing production line this past January, our management team felt it was time to refresh our brand to reflect these initiatives.”

He continued: “Our rebranding process and research confirmed that our engineering and manufacturing point-of-difference since the company’s founding, is that we have just one mission: engineer and manufacture small footprint mine utility vehicles from the ground up, purpose-built to be the toughest, most reliable and lowest total cost of ownership machines in the category.”

Kovatera is a coined word made up of two root, according to Gove, with ‘Kova’ being a derivative of the Finnish word for tough – “reflecting both the ownership’s ethnic background and our mission to be the most reliable machine in the marketplace” – and ‘Tera’ being an abbreviated form of the Latin word for ‘Earth’ (terra).

“Combined, the name Kovatera reflects both our mission and the extreme environments we operate in,” he said.

The company’s plans for expansion don’t end there, with a new line of electric-powered vehicles based on the existing diesel-powered line in the final engineering and testing phase.

Gove said: “An important part of our future growth will be in the supply of alternate energy powered equipment to a marketplace that is increasingly interested in the benefits that these new power sources bring. Currently electric-battery powered vehicles are servicing this demand.

“In the future there may be other forms of energy that come into play. It is Kovatera’s mission to meet this market demand. We will not, however, ever compromise our promise to customers that our machines will be purpose-built to meet the heavy-duty cycle and tough operating environment of underground mines, while at the same time offering versatility, low cost of ownership and maximise machine uptime.”