December 3, 2015
If you spotted a very large load trundling through the streets of Blackbutt and Yarraman on Thursday morning, it was destined for Meandu Mine at Tarong.
The load, which required two prime movers to shift, was the upper structure of an Hitachi EX5500-6 Excavator.
This structure houses the engine module and hydraulic rims of the excavator.
When assembled, the EX5500-6 will be a small brother to the “Atlas” excavator already working at the mine.
Atlas – an Hitachi EX8000-6BH – weighs 837 tonnes and can shift about 40 cubic metres in its bucket; the new EX5500-6 weighs 550 tonnes and has a 27 cubic metre bucket fitted.
When the new excavator is fully assembled on-site at Meandu it will join Hitachi’s Autonomous Haulage System (AHS) trial which is underway.
An operator will man the excavator, which belongs to Hitachi, and load driverless haulage trucks.
The heavy load left Brisbane after midnight and travelled via Fernvale and Esk.
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