Basics of Building a Truck

and Loader Fleet

Dr. B. C. Paul 2000, revised 2008,2009

Note- General steps and methodologies found in these slides
roughly follow material found in Surface Mining manuals by
SME and literature published by Caterpillar Equipment Co.
This presentation includes screen shots from the FPC program
compiled by Caterpillar Equipment Company.

Materials Handling
Alternatives

Most surface mining will require

material to be removed from a
hole in the ground and be taken
somewhere

Conveyor Belts
Railroads
Aerial trams
Slurry Lines

The Fixed Infrastructure

Problem

All those named alternatives need

fixed loading points

But mining faces move

Need some way of feeding from face to
load point

Mobile Alternatives

Dozers very short range

Scrapers only good for soft material
Trucks and Loaders ultimate in flexible
haulage

Learning How Do Design a

Truck and Loader Fleet
30 years ago would have been
all manual methods
Today have computer aided
versions of same manual
methods
Also have versions that consider
event probabilities
Full computer simulation

Class Approach
I will build it around an example taken
from an old class exam
We will solve the problem using FPC, a
program by Caterpillar Equipment
The program is a computer implementation of
manual methods not a full simulation (may
get some in 435)
I will illustrate a few manual alternatives
Of course decision making criteria cant be
just a computer

My Case Study

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (the President of Iran) is

planning a large oil shale operation handling
70,000,000 tons of oil shale each year. While it may
seem strange for a country with large conventional
oil resources to pursue a more expensive source of
oil such as oil shale President Ahmadinejad knows
that about 5% of the oil shale is also high in
uranium and he plans to divert the trucks carrying
this uranium ore (disguised as oil shale) to a secret
plant in the desert that will process the uranium to
peaceful weapons grade for use in sacred peace
heads on intermediate range missles that will allow
President Ahmadinejad to share the warmth of his
love with the Jews in Israel while helping them to
return to their God.

The Mine

The mine itself is a strip mine with the oil shale being extracted
from 3 benches, each 30 feet high and 100 feet wide (Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad claims that Allah revealed that he should use the
measurement units of the Great Satan in the spirit of
international brotherhood). When the oil shale is blasted in
preparation for loading, the bench is not collapsed and material
is dug from the face of the bench. The material is considered to
be well blasted. (If there is one thing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
knows how to do it is blow things up ok , hes not bad a rigging
elections or killing protesters in secret jails either). At the
bottom of the third bench the oil shale is on a very wet, slimey
sinky underclay that is impossible for anything to maneuver on
without becoming mired in. Because of these conditions, none
of the haul roads entered into FPC allow the truck to drive
across the terrain at the bottom of bench 3 since the very high
rolling resistance and low coefficient of friction will always
cause the truck to become stuck. Thus trucks getting material
from the 3rd bench will have to be loaded while they sit on the
top of the bench, not at the bottom of the bench.

The Route

Mine to Oil Shale Plant

About 17,000 feet one way from

the mine (little over 3 miles)

Mine to Secret Uranium Plant

Also about 17,000 feet but about

2,000 feet are across open sand
dunes

Have to keep things a secret so cant

build a road

Lets Start Out With Our

Software
(Caterpillars FPC)

Starting FPC
Of course can also
Be done from a
Desktop icon

After a Picture of a Truck

We Get the Initial Screen

Highlight File and Pull

Down the Menu
Pick New
(for New
Project)

FPC Opens With the

Project Tab Active
I start out entering a
1- Job Name
2- Job Description
3- Prepared For
4- Prepared By
5- Study Date

I Must Pick My Unit and

Display Standards
Pick Metric or
English Units with a
Radio Button
Pick production
Targets measured in
Weight or volume
Pick Decimal Format
Pick Currency

Pick Project Specific

Information
Enter Your Fuel Cost
For Diesel
Enter Your Planning
Time unit
Enter Your Number
Of hours per planning
unit

And We Enter Our Project

Project Planning

First Step is to develop a general

vision for the project
Im going to load material at a mine
Truck it to one of two destinations

Ill have 3 mile hauls

Its going to be hot

70,000,000 tons is a lot of material

Big trucks and long hours will reduce the

number of trucks I have running around
Probably cant use lights on a secret route at
night

Operating Hours

Start with 365 days per year

But what about Holidays, and weekends

In U.S. may actually have a miners vacation
block at some coal operations
52 weeks per year
Lots of holy days in Iran
Lets do 42 weeks of 6 day weeks
252 days

Now my cant run at night

Lets do 11 hour days (8, 10 or 12 hour shifts would

be more common in US) I want as many hours as I
can likely get in the winter
2772 hours per year

Enter My Adjusted Hours

Need to Pick Realistic

Equipment to Try

My Trucks should be compatible

with the material, the haul, and
my pit geometry
Lets consider trucks