VR Steel, a Johannesburg, South Africa based designer and manufacturer of off-highway truck bodies, dragline buckets, and shovel buckets, has developed a heated version of its popular truck body.
Carryback is a major problem for many mines, reducing truck production by up to 15%. However, the ducting system developed by VR Steel allows critical areas of the body to be heated up to 100°C. According to the company, wet material in contact with the body is dessicated, producing a fine layer of sand between the wet material and the steel, enabling easy discharge.
VR said its heated bodies were installed on two Cat 789 haulers during 2015 at two different mines, with exceptional results: carryback problems on both trucks were completely eliminated. Through VR Steel’s use of advanced flow-simulation software, the bodies were designed to be heated in the exact area where carry-back originates, so exhaust gas can be concentrated in a relatively small area of the truck body, making heating most effective. And, according to the company, the cost of including the heating ducts is a very small part of the cost of a whole body.
