By Eric Hsieh, product manager-technology, JoyGlobal Surface Mining
Collision avoidance technologies provide situational awareness, but through the additional use of various sensory devices and an interactive control system, shovel operators can also monitor, anticipate, and predict future dipper position. This serves to reduce the severity and frequency of impacts of the dipper and crawler shoes when digging in close proximity to the tracks — a major contributor to reduced crawler shoe life and structural cracking.
Operator trainers describe how these technologies work to reinforce Best Practices to achieve the most productive fill factors and how they represent an important advancement on the path to autonomous loading.