On the Cover: Having bought its first SANY machine in August last year, Overlooked Colliery, one of South Africa’s largest black empowered mining companies which operates a number of coal mines in the coalfields of Mpumalanga, has expanded its fleet with a further six machines.
Having previously deployed a rental fleet on its coal mines, Overlooked Colliery decided to take a different route last year with the acquisition of its own machines. In August 2020, the company went on to acquire a 50 t SANY SY500H excavator from Goscor Earthmoving Equipment, the SANY earthmoving equipment dealer in South Africa.
Impressed by the performance of the first unit, Overlooked Colliery returned to the negotiation table with GEM in March this year for more SANY machines. Following lengthy discussions, a deal for six SANY machines – a 75 t SY750H excavator and five 17 t SYL956H front-end loaders – was struck in July this year, GEM operations manager Murray Leith tells Capital Equipment News.
The second deal coincided with Overlooked Colliery’s acquisition of Exxaro Resources’ coal assets. In a review of its business, Exxaro deemed Dorstfontein, Forzando and Tumelo operations – collectively known as Exxaro Coal Central (ECC) – as non-core to the company’s future strategic objective, which entails diversifying away from coal into renewable energy.
Overlooked met Exxaro’s selection criteria for a potential buyer, which included value maximisation, broad-based black ownership and sustainability of the new operator. Prior to the acquisition of the Exxaro assets, Overlooked Colliery was producing 2,4-million t of coal a year from its existing three operations. With capacity from the new assets, the company plans to double to 4,8-million t per annum by next year.
The fleet of SANY machines, deployed at two different operations – Schoonland Colliery and Overlooked Colliery – is playing a major role in the company’s quest for increased production. Tshepo Mabena, operations manager at Schoonland Colliery, where the two excavators have been deployed, tells Capital Equipment News that the machines have thus far lived up to expectations.
The 75 t SY750H and the 50 t SY500H SANY excavators are at the centre of production at Schoonland, loading haulers in the pit. “We have deployed the 75 t excavator to load our 45 t articulated dumpers hauling material from the mine face to the processing plants. The SY500H has been paired with our 30 and 35 t dumpers. During a few months of operation, the SANY machines have proven to be much better than the ones we had. They are running smoothly with no issues whatsoever,” says Mabena. Meanwhile, the five wheel loaders are working at Overlooked Colliery, where they are tasked to load trucks, feeding plants and stockpiling.
Firing on all cylinders
Scania engines have been at the heart of many industries globally, and have become a standard in an array of applications. Following the recent organisational changes at Scania Southern Africa, local engine customers are set to benefit from a renewed focus that places a premium on quality, uptime, performance and support of services.
As part of a new structure at Scania Southern Africa, Marius Steenkamp has been appointed director of operations. On top of this role, he has also assumed the management of the Engines business, effective last year.
Commenting on the strategic focus of the Engine business going forward, Steenkamp says: “Our main focus is on improving the quality, uptime, performance and support of our services in our network. Our aim is to direct more focus to both strategic business and operations individually, thus enabling us to work more efficiently.”
Scania engines are deployed in a variety of applications across the industrial, marine and power generation sectors. From construction and agricultural applications, to port equipment and power stations, as well as special vehicles and machinery, Scania has an engine to suit any specific need.
“Our engine range features three sizes – 9 and 13-litre in-lines, as well as the impressive 16-litre V8,” explains Steenkamp. For every engine model, there is a complete line-up of power ratings to choose from.
For industrial power systems, Scania offers standby power, emergency sets and secondary power supply units, with power ratings ranging from 202 kW to 566 kW. The industrial engines business largely hinges on strategic international OEM partnerships. Scania engines are found across different types of equipment, from dump trucks, excavators and crushers, to drill rigs, mobile cranes and overheard gantries. Under this portfolio, the company has strategic international agreements with some globally-renowned OEMs.
“Our Power Generation portfolio comprises 50 Hz and 60 Hz engines that span from 253 kVA to 772 kVA, complemented by installation support as well as services during operation for manufacturers and operators alike,” says Steenkamp.
Under its Marine Power Systems portfolio, Scania provides engines that span from 220 hp to 1 150 hp (162 – 846 kW) as well as instrumentation, after treatment systems and other adjacent powertrain components.
Currently, Power Generation engines are generating more interest in the market and Steenkamp explains why: “With Eskom in a crisis due to generation capacity shortages, the state-owned power utility is struggling to meet generation demands, resulting in ongoing power cuts. Consumers are therefore forced to rely on backup generators to stay operational, resulting in increased demand for engines in the Power Generation segment, and of standby rating,” he says.
IIoT – the mainstay for condition monitoring
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has become an easy win for condition monitoring. This feature explores how condition monitoring company WearCheck has integrated the IIoT into its condition monitoring technologies, and the benefits this has brought to the supplier and end-user alike.
When asked about how condition monitoring has benefitted by the advent of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), WearCheck reliability engineer Jaco Willer says that, until fairly recently, industrial machines were ‘dumb’ in that they produced data but could do nothing with it. Now, he says, with the IIoT or Industry 4.0, these ‘dumb’ machines are being catapulted into a new way of operating.
“In the last few years, there has been a notable spike in online installations in all industries driven by Industry 4.0 and this trend is particularly evident in the condition monitoring industry.”
He cites the example of online vibration transducers that have revolutionised the monitoring process.
“The addition of sensors makes machines ‘smart’ and enables them to collect data, store it and transmit it over the internet to analytical software applications that monitor the data.”
The sensors built into the machine gather information about its condition in terms of vibration, load, lubrication contamination, temperature, speed and others, and then transmit this information either locally, to the machine, or to the plant.
WearCheck’s reliability solutions division measures vibration using IIoT to gather and store data about machine condition, and then analyses the data to identify remedial action.
“For example,” says Willer, “bearings can be viewed as the heart of any rotating machinery. Using bearing-embedded sensors, the machine can collect information about its lubricant condition, vibration, load and other data.”
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