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ance and tipping angle promote excellent material
ejection.
The A40F has been designed for easy maintenance.
For example, a 90 deg tilting hood and swing-down
front grill with integrated steps acts as a service plat-
form. All grease points and remote-mounted drains
are accessible from ground level or non-slip plat-
forms. Daily and weekly maintenance is not required
and some sub-systems are entirely maintenance-free,
examples being the front suspension, which uses
maintenance-free rubber springs and shock absorb-
ers, and the rotating hitch, which incorporates per-
manently greased tapered roller bearings.
The hydraulics are particularly strong with five en-
gine-driven variable displacement piston pumps driv-
en by the flywheel and one ground-dependent piston
pump mounted on the dropbox for emergency steer-
ing constituting the heart of the load-sensing system.
The A40F’s engine is a powerful V-ACT electroni-
cally controlled, low emission diesel engine, rated at
350 kW, which delivers high torque at low rpm. Pur-
pose-built by Volvo, it optimally matches the drive-
train, which is a Volvo PowerTronic planetary fully
automatic transmission with nine forward and three
reverse gears.
Volvo’s telematics system, CareTrack, is standard
on all its articulated haulers and provides informa-
tion for better planning and smarter working, includ-
ing fuel consumption reports, location reports and
service reminders. CareTrack is essentially a fleet
tracking system and systems of this type are available
for most ADTs on the market. Volvo believes, how-
The A40F working in a mining application. It has an Automatic Traction Control (ATC) system which automatically selects the optimal
drive system on the move in response to changing underfoot conditions.
ever, that its implementation of the concept is par-
ticularly effective.
Vaughan points out that last year the A40F received
the prestigious ‘red dot’ design award. The red dot
awards have been running since the 1950s, when
they were first presented in Essen, Germany. The
2012 awards attracted over 4 500 products from 58
countries worldwide, which gives an indication of
their stature and popularity.
According to Vaughan, the mining industry ac-
counts for between 65 and 70 % of the Volvo ADTs
being sold by Babcock in South Africa. “Our big mar-
kets are the Witbank, Middleburg and Ermelo coal-
fields and hard-rock mines in the Western Bushveld
in the Rustenburg area,” he says. “Whilst we have
many mining companies as clients, a number of con-
struction companies, as well as plant hirers, use our
products as well.”
On the outlook for sales going forward, Vaughan
says there is no question that the market is ‘soft’ at the
moment. “Certainly, we would not expect the current
year to be a record year in terms of sales,” he acknowl-
edges. “Uncertainty relating to labour disputes in the
mining sector as well as the delays in the awarding of
new construction projects are affecting the market in
general. Having said this, business is certainly better
than at the height of the 2008/2009 recession and we
are meeting our targets for the year with relative ease.
We’re also confident that mining will revive before
too long and that we will see strong growth in sales
of our ADTs in 2014, both in South Africa and neigh-
bouring states, particularly Zambia.”
