Growing, Perfecting and Raising Expectations

The Hercules dump truck body is flexible in construction, and  allows dump trucks to realize their payload capacities in all material from coal to iron ore. The design also allows for it to be retrofitted to existing fleets as well as new truck models. For mines, utilising the Hercules body  means greater productivity, safer hauling, and lowered operating costs….

DT Australia’s success can also be credited to their raising of industry expectations. “I think with dump truck bodies – and I honestly believe it’s partly due to the work that DT Australia has done within this country – we’ve certainly made the mines aware that they can get more payload out of their haul trucks than what was the norm. Companies are looking at alternative bodies rather than the OEM  bodies and there’s a definite trend for more productivity out of the equipment they’re using.”

The future seems wide open to DT Australia, and they are currently measuring their options. In the meantime, they have invested internally, improving their manufacturing plant in Perth. There they have state-of-the-art plasma cutting equipment, welding equipment, and one of the largest rolling machines in the whole southern hemisphere. “We’ve investigated different ways of improving the business, becoming more efficient and improving productivity,” Turner says……

These patented Hiload truck bodies have that handy mix of being durable yet light weight.

According to DT Australia, the truck bodies offer unique and cost-saving features for enhanced performance including:

• Curved, rather than conventional “square”, body design for increased capacity and strength, combined with lower weight, increased efficiency and productivity;
• Constructed using a flexible, hard-wearing steel plate developed for DT Australia; and
• Body volume is sized to material density and mine specific parameters.

“Numerous benefits result from using our truck bodies, including increased efficiency and productivity, and payload advantages in any mining application,” DT representative Nada Velemir said.

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DT Australia Pty Ltd manufactures the Hercules heavy duty, durable, lightweight dump truck bodies in Perth W.A. Our uniquely engineered patented design is made entirely from a hard wearing steel plate developed for DT Australia.

The Hercules body has many unique and cost saving features that enhance the performance of haul trucks whilst increasing efficiency and productivity. Our key features address body weight, reduced wear, reduced maintenance, durability and reliability.

Our unique wear management strategy ensures that the body weight does not increase over the life of the body maintaining maximum payload advantage. Maintenance downtime is reduced through our design, which enables individual panels to be easily replaced. Use of the Hercules body increases safety in maintenance and operation and also, lowers environmental impact through the use of less fuel, thus producing less emissions.

Our design process produces a body which is optimum for the parameters set by customers. It is custom designed to be mine specific and fits all truck models. We manufacture a first class, high performance body which lasts and can be found operating in mining applications all over world.

At DT Australia , the company specialises in dump truck trays for all rear dump truck models, including Caterpillar, Komatsu, Hitachi, Liebherr, Belaz and Terex.

Other companies may make trays for dump trucks, but few rival DT Australia’s Hercules High Performance Dump Truck Body. Designed to suit all OEM makes and models, the company’s trays feature a unique, patented design, and are built entirely from a hard wearing steel plate.

In addition to offering superb wear resistance, the company’s innovative panel construction is considerably lighter than other trays, and more durable, allowing for increased payloads, less maintenance, increased productivity and greater bottom line profitability for the world’s demanding mining industries………..

When asked about the company’s increasing product popularity, particularly in tricky-to-manage hard rock mining, Lang says that in a word, it’s all about innovation driven by productivity.

“A lot of the mines that were previously negative about innovation and change are now prepared to consider a lightweight heavy duty body, like ours, a high performance body. Quite a few players in the market who previously weren’t interested by taking the leap to innovation and getting the extra payload are now doing so,” he explains.

“The reality is that you don’t need that many extra tonnes on each load in order to get an acceptable payback on your investment. Often you could throw a brand new tray away and put our tray on and still get an acceptable return.”

In outlining the basic value-adding opportunities presented by DT HiLoad products, it becomes clear quite how crucial this turn towards open innovation could prove to be in the wider mining cost context. Luckily, this company is at hand to ensure that the haulage portion is well-catered to……….

Take this typical minesite scenario: There’s a truck cycle time of one hour and each truck carries 200 tonnes. If each truck could take another 20 tonnes —220 tonnes per cycle—completing 5,500 hour cycles per year, it is a saving of 110,000 tonnes more material for each individual truck making its way to and from the processing plant. It isn’t rocket science, it is just basic economics, but what exactly might it take to make this simple, highly desirable equation a reality?………..

“The main advantage that drives the economics and gives us our unique selling feature is that our body is a heavy duty, lightweight body. Because our body weighs less than the competitors, the end result of that is our customers get 10—15 per cent more payload in their trucks and they don’t fall to bits in hard rock.”

There is that desirable equation once more, and Lang says that resultantly, someone could actually throw away a brand new tray, replace it with a DT HiLoad Australia Hercules product and still enjoy an economic investment. Of course, the benefits don’t end there……….