AROUND THE
INDUSTRY
PLANT and
EQUIPMENT SOL TIONS
January - February 2014
MODERN QUARRYING
37
Local OEM set for
strong growth
South African vibrating
equipment specialist and
OEM Joest, has supplied
most of South Africa’s
major mines with custom-
built vibrating feeders
and screens, with a signifi-
cant machine population
operating in the heavy and precious metal
and minerals field.
The company recently fielded an order for
an additional two large dewatering machines
from a mineral sands operation on the
Western Cape coast. Newly-appointed CEO
Derrick Alston (above) says this is an extremely
unusual application in terms of the immense
throughput the screens have to handle. The
new units will be delivered shortly.
“Joest has supplied this operation since
1998 and there are currently 12 of these large
dewatering screens installed,”he adds. “It was
amazing to see, during a recent site visit, just
how efficiently these units are still perform-
ing in such extremely difficult circumstances.”
Bell Equipment, whose core business is
the manufacture and distribution of ADTs,
recently ordered two new Mercedes Benz
Actros road haulers for its Richards Bay
facility. The two 2644L/33 haulers are fit-
ted with skeletal trailers, supplied by trailer
specialist Afrit, and will be used to trans-
port containers between the factory and
the harbours of Durban and Richards Bay.
The company’s GM Logistics, Steve
Martin, says the trucks join the company’s
existing fleet of three Mercedes Benz 8,0 t
trucks, which are used to transport parts
between the factory and offsite ware-
houses in Richards Bay, and are part of
a drive to improve cost-efficiencies and
controls relating to logistics.
The new trucks are fitted with the
Fleetboard telematics system, enabling
the monitoring of driver and vehicle
performance. The system also allows the
control room to have direct contact with
drivers. “We can send an SMS and it will
be displayed on the truck’s dashboard,”
Martin says.
The trucks, which are each rated at
36 t, are powered by the Mercedes Benz
OM501LA engine, coincidentally the
same engine that drives the Bell B35 and
B40 ADTs. The Mercedes Benz Powershift
G330-12 transmission features automated
gear shifting with manual override and
extended cruise control.
Bell orders Actros trucks
Bell Equipment CEO Gary Bell, behind the wheel
of one of the company’s two new Actros trucks.
