Construction World November 2018

To further improve the cycle times, R. Davis and Co. was this year introduced to Scania’s twin-cylinder mining tipper. It purchased four units, which were delivered in August.

currently moving 32,4 m³ per hour of product on the older Scania trucks and 33,75 m³ per hour of product on the new tippers. The vehicles run two shifts per day,” explains Nhongonhema. Improvements all around One of the most noticeable improvements has been the fuel efficiency. Consumption varies from 7,75 to 8,27 ℓ /hour on the Scania tippers, compared with 18 ℓ /hour with the articulated haulers working on site. Uptime and equipment availability are some of the key operational gains to date. “The first four Scania tippers, in operation since June 2017, have done between 3 500 and 4 000 hours and the only breakdown we experienced was that of a leaking radiator hose on one of the trucks. This was a very simple repair which Scanlink attended to timeously and efficiently as part of warranty,” says Davis. “In a nutshell, the tippers are performing well for us; the productivity is excellent and operational costs are just over 50% of the costs of operating a comparable ADT – so we are moving more payloads at lower running costs and much lower downtime. We are looking at further boosting our fleet with four more Scania tippers later this year or in early 2019,” adds Davis. The contractor is also looking at five-year replacement cycles for its current range. Apart from the product, Davis is impressed by the aftersales service from both Scania and Scanlink. “When we had issues with slow tipping speeds on the first four trucks, Scania South Africa and Scanlink, together with bodybuilders from Pretoria, South Africa, came to site to look at possible areas of improvement,” explains Davis. “They advised that the hydraulic pumps were under specification for the work at hand and replaced them all at no cost to R. Davis and Co. An effective solution to resolve the tipping speed was implemented timeously.” Mining and infrastructure Zimbabwe’s mining industry is expected to grow by 10% this year, according to the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe, following

Scania and Scanlink helped the customer improve the cycle times on the single- cylinder tippers by increasing the oil flow from 80 to 100 ℓ .

a successful year in 2017, with an overall growth of 8,5%. The COMZ predicts that the sector will generate USD3,7-billion in 2018. The industry is expected to reach US$11- billion by 2022, and USD18-billion by 2030. “We believe that investments into mining

and infrastructure development will further drive the market in Zimbabwe. The only hiccup at this stage is the liquidity issue, but the country has greater potential for development in the short term,” concludes Naude. 

7

CONSTRUCTION WORLD NOVEMBER 2018