The recent global economic slump took its toll on just about every industry, including mining. Everywhere you look people are looking for new ways to cut costs without sacrificing productivity.
Like servicing a new car instead of buying a new one, GE Transportation has been helping the mining industry upgrade fleets while reducing overall capital expenditures. GE has completed upgrades to more than 40 haul trucks in the last year in North America and Indonesia.
The trucks were outfitted with GE’s GDY106 AC electric drive wheel motors, which lower life cycle costs for mines thanks to improved mean time between overhauls, or MTBO, while improving availability and productivity of assets—even during the down economy. In fact, over a six-year period, the upgrades will reduce wheel life cycle costs by up to 50 percent.
“As economic stagnation prolongs, mines are looking for ways to more-efficiently utilize existing mining trucks,” said Lori Kieklak, General Manager of GE Transportation’s Mining division. “GE has been able to work very closely with our partner Komatsu, their distributors and the mines to unlock the value of these wheel motor upgrades.”
The new wheel motors can now be counted amongst the more than 900 GDY106’s already operating and driving successful production in the field, as well as the more than 4,000 GE electric drive systems for off highway vehicles that are currently being used in more than 35 countries worldwide.
