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MechChem Africa talks to Booyco Engineering’s managing director, Brenton Spies, and the company’s executive director, Grant Miller, about HVAC systems for special vehicles operating under extreme conditions. These highly engineered Booyco HVAC solutions are now finding new markets in meeting the Occupational Health and Safety in the Workplace (OH&S) requirements for cabin cooling in mining vehicles.
From its inception in 1985 as a division of Howden, Booyco Engineering has been involved with the design, development and manufacture of high-end cooling systems. “We started out as a specialised military business unit within Howden, working for Armscor to develop engine cooling fans for the RooiKat armoured vehicle,” begins Grant Miller, executive director of Booyco Engineering. “We then went on to develop the HVAC systems for these vehicles and the Booyco Engineering business of today was born from there.
“We quickly developed a skillset in building custom-designed reliable systems for high-value military and specialised vehicles subjected to excessive vibration, shock loading, dust and extreme temperatures – and these systems were built to very high ‘milspec’ specifications. We since offer HVAC systems that meet extreme conditions: solutions where traditional road-based mobile HVAC systems are completely inadequate,” he adds.
Railway work has also grown significantly over the years and Booyco Engineering now services prestigious clients such as Union Carriage and Wagon (UCW), Bombardier, Alstom and Transnet. “We have designed custom locomotive HVAC solutions for nearly all of Transnet’s investment programmes over the past 15 years, including the 19E, 15E, 20E, 21E, 22E and 23E electric locomotives as well as for the Class 43, 45 and 45 diesel locomotives. In order to ensure these units are properly maintained and supported, we have 15 permanent and dedicated service technicians on eight different Transnet sites around the country,” says Booyco Engineering’s managing director, Brenton Spies.
With respect to the ownership costs of the Transnet HVAC systems, Spies says these Booyco HVAC units are running at less than 2.0 c/km on Transnet locomotives. “This compares to a Transnet KPI cost of 5.0 c/km. So, far from being expensive, our systems are costing 60% less than Transnet expectations,” he adds.
But this cost is actually a fraction of the total operating costs for the client. “Uptime is a much more important indicator, particularly since the new OH&S regulations now specify temperature limits for driver cabins. “20 years ago, HVAC was a ‘nice to have’. Now, because of OH&S regulations, it is a necessity, because if the HVAC system is down, the driver cannot work, so the locomotive is out of action until the HVAC unit is repaired. This downtime cost far exceeds the running costs or the HVAC unit costs – the cost of a single period of downtime can amount to the purchase and installation costs of several of our HVAC units,” Spies says.
Servicing the mining industry
On the mining side, Spies notes that Booyco Engineering has been supplying both HVAC units and on-site service support for mining vehicles at an opencast operation in the Vaal Triangle for over 15 years, and support for HVAC units at mines in the Northern Cape for over 10 years. “This wasn’t our main focus area though, and we are now looking to accelerate our work in the mining industry,” he adds.
Brenton Spies explains: “After having undertaken a management buyout of Booyco Engineering in 2019, Grant and I forged a strong working relationship with Booyco Electronics’ Anton Lourens, whom I have known since our university days. Booyco Electronics is active in supplying its proximity detection and collision warning systems to various mines in South Africa, and our HVAC units are only being used by a small fraction of these. We see this as a huge opportunity for us to grow our mining client base, particularly in the light of the increasing need for cabin cooling to meet OH&S requirements,” he relates.
Booyco Engineering has now established a set of standardised but customisable HVAC units suitable for cabin cooling of open cast surface mining vehicles as well as underground vehicles with enclosed cabins. “Our systems can operate off 12 V or 24 V in engine driven vehicles with the compressor connected to a suitable power take off (PTO) shaft. Or we can connect to the 380 V power supply for electrically driven systems or vehicles,” Miller notes.
Describing a current project, Spies says that a fleet of used Caterpillar dump trucks, mobile drills and some other mining vehicle variants are being brought back from Namibia, and the company is replacing the installed OEM HVAC and/or retrofitted HVAC systems, neither of which are considered suitable for the harsh environment in Northern Cape. These vehicles are going to be used to service a mine near Aggeneys in the Northern Cape, where it is very hot. “Because South African working conditions now apply, HVAC systems are required and, while the vehicles were originally fitted with cooling systems, few of them are still working and none of these are suitable for the operating conditions,” Spies tells MechChem Africa. We will be retrofitting our off-the-shelf cabin cooling system into these vehicles using the originally-used PTO.
Miller continues: “Generally, HVAC units are rated in kW of cooling, so our system for these units will deliver 7.5 kW of cooling to the cabins. But there are big differences between our 7.5 kW units and those designed for on-road buses and trucks.
“First off, our systems are rated to provide this level of cooling in ambient temperatures of up to 45 °C and can still provide cooling in temperatures of 50° to 55°C without tripping, while conventional units are generally only rated for 35°C. This 15° makes a massive difference to load requirements and the overall design. Component specifications are typically between 40 and 50% higher in our units to cater for the higher temperatures, and systems designed for 35 °C simply cannot operate at these temperatures without tripping.
“Also, conventional systems are designed for use on flat roads with vibration absorbing soft rubber tyres. On a tracked or wheeled vehicle being used off-road where vibration and shock loading is the norm, these HVAC units can be destroyed within months,” he says.
“Whenever a low-cost HVAC system in the vehicle stops working, the driver has to stop working, so the vehicle has to be taken out of service until the cooling system is repaired. So while our more robust systems might be more expensive than conventional systems, they are much more cost effective in the long run, because downtime is massively reduced and the life of the units extended,” he notes.
“We have a proven track record,” continues Spies. “Our HVAC systems last and, while maintenance is going to be required to get the longest life, this is an integral part of our service offering. Filters need cleaning and compressors will have to be refurbished or replaced, but we have these maintenance needs carefully mapped out for the entire lifecycle of the units, and we can provide field service technicians to ensure that the necessary planned maintenance is carried out,” he assures.
Spies notes three unique advantages of using Booyco HVAC units: the design expertise for dealing with extra high temperatures and harsh conditions; the reliability of the units and their associated extended life; and the company’s field services and maintenance offering, which ensure that the expected uptime and reliability is achieved.
“On the rail side, we employ fulltime technicians at eight Transnet sites to look after the Transnet fleet, while for exported military systems, we have service agreements with local providers, which we train and supply to take care of maintenance. We have a good maintenance track record in mining, too, having been on site at one mine for 15 years where we have three permanent technicians taking care of the 100+ units fitted to this operation’s vehicles.
“We have years of proven experience in designing, manufacturing and maintaining specialist systems for use in extreme conditions and we are now taking all of that expertise and putting it into our mining units. Whoever buys a Booyco HVAC system will get the same reliability, quality and life that Armscor, Bombardier, Alstom, Transnet and all of our International customers have enjoyed for many years,” Miller concludes.
