SANY is one of the best known and most successful Chinese OEMs in the particular global construction and mining markets. In this article, IM Editorial Director Paul Moore reviews its exploration line-up based on a Shenyang factory visit in 2019 plus developments since then .
Before typically the pandemic, IM completed an extensive tour of China, visiting with six of the major gold mining equipment Oes in this country in addition to meeting along with two others at major mining events – seven of the resulting articles have since been published. The last visit was to arguably often the most globally well known of the companies – Changsha-headquartered SANY – but at their largest mining equipment factory inside Shenyang. This article reviews that visit as well as some of the key developments at SANY since then, especially in the area of gear electrification and even automation.
Overall SANY sees the market strength as being able to offer high quality together with reliability but still at the lower price than Western companies due to their extensive domestic manufacturing capabilities. Of all the Chinese groups it also has a very nicely established global sales and additionally service organisation plus a lot of direct global experience – as an example it made a ground breaking deal for Chinese language construction machinery groups found in 2012 when it acquired shotcreting equipment leader Putzmeister.
Globally the company sells mining equipment both directly not to mention through dealers. Under SANY Group there is Sany Heavy Industry ( Sany HI) which is managed from the HQ inside of Changsha and also works through dealers but also has a new direct presence in Brazil, Germany, India and South Africa. Sany Heavy Equipment ( Sany HE) also has an international department and works closely together with Sany Weighty Industry around the world on different projects. A major focus for your company is also to develop more in country dealerships for Sany HE. “Having a local dealer staffed by local people is very important, particularly within supporting exploration equipment but additionally to develop good community relationship as well as enable some customisation of equipment for local markets, ” Deng Wenxu, Sany HE International Dept Manager told I AM .
SANY ’s Shenyang manufacturing location comes under SANY THIS INDIVIDUAL and will be one of the major subsidiaries of SANY Group, which is the largest construction equipment company inside China, and was listed by Forbes as the second in the world after Caterpillar for 2021 in it is Forbes Global 2000 list. At the Shenyang factory, this produces rigid mining trucks from 33 t in order to 290 t class, wide body “tipper” trucks for mining and construction, coal and soft rock mining roadheaders, plus finally longwall shearers with regard to coal gold mining. It argues that it is number one in the exact world regarding roadheaders with in excess of 50% associated with the worldwide market, with its sales about 95% for coal mining and 5% for tunnelling. This is usually despite SANY only beginning roadheader production in 2005. It states that before this, the available roadheaders in China were regarding poor quality while it introduced reliable in addition to robust models that now include it has the 160-570 kW EBZ Series for fossil fuel seams, 467-570 kW STR Series intended for mixed rock and coal duties plus the hard rock 757- 867 kilowatt SCR Collection for tunnelling. The roadheaders all include independently developed technologies such as variable-volume pumps, double telescopic oil cylinders and smooth transmission.
In the roadheader market, domestic sales still dominate given that China’s fossil fuel production now exceeds 4 billion tonnes. But it has exported roadheaders to many main coal mining countries including India, Russia and Ukraine, with a lot of the particular success becoming driven by Chinese contractors. In Indian in particular it has worked closely using Singareni Collieries, which operates 24 underground mines.
INTERNET MARKETING Editorial Director Paul Moore with SANY HE Intl Dept Manager Deng Wenxu at the manufacturing plant in Shenyang
SANY ’s focus on longwall mining began in 2016 and it quickly became typically the only China OEM to offer the whole system of shearers, roof supports and even AFCs, with other companies focusing on one involving the three components. Users of complete SANY longwall systems consist of Shandong Energy Group. It has also exported longwall products to Russian federation, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Indonesia amongst other people.
Innovations possess included this development connected with a water based hydraulic system to get roof supports instead of oil, that is more environmentally friendly together with also lower cost. These supports were created in conjunction from 2018 onwards as part with a JV with Shenhua Group, which merged having China Guodian to become China Energy Investment Corporation which usually is also known as CHN Energy and additionally remains simply by far China’s largest coal producer.
Rigid trucks not to mention global achievement
Discussing often the Chinese firm mining truck market, it is interesting that will SANY ’s Wenxu emphasises how small it really is in The far east relatively speaking – dominated by a small number of very large coal open pits centred on Inner Mongolia such as Heidaigou and Haerwusu, part for CHN Power; SPIC’s Huolinhe and Huaneng Group’s Yiminhe, plus the Bayan Obo iron ore & rare earths mines about Baogang Group; plus a group of other folks such as the Antaibao coal mine of Tiongkok Coal Pingshuo in Shanxi, Dexing Copper Mines at Jiangxi and the huge Julong copper exploration complex in Zijin Mining in your Tibet region.
IM’s John Moore throughout Shenyang by using one of the SET230 rigid gold mining trucks made by SANY
The market for large rigids for these mines is in the hundreds on an annual basis and spread across quite a mix from OEMs, but mostly XCMG, SANY , XEMC and also NHL. SANY produced two 230 to SET230 trucks which have been used in fossil fuel and iron ore operations and offers designs pertaining to larger versions including the 290 t SET300. Both these vehicles have Wabtec electric drive systems (GE240AC and GE320AC) with Cummins QSK60 engines (C2500 as well as C2700 variants) which are produced in Daventry, UK. A recent project is the SET150S mining truck in the 136 capital t class. It is available through a Weichai WP17 or DEUTZ TCD18 engine yet also SANY ’s own RQ150-SYA560B electric push. The model has already been trialled extensively in Cina and is being marketed internationally, particularly around South Africa and Russia.
SANY has built up quite a successful export marketplace for mechanical drive rigids, notably meant for its 95 t class SRT95C truck which offers been released in the exact 100s to be able to mining procedures especially for you to Africa which includes Zambia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Eritrea plus Tunisia but in addition to Of india and Philippines amongst some others. Its smaller class rigids, such as the thirty-three t SRT33, 45 big t SRT45 plus 55 testosterone levels SRT55D model have also been effective globally, notably in Argentina and Asia and also Chile, Vietnam in addition to elsewhere. Both the 55 t and even 95 p models use Cummins motors and Allison transmissions and have front disc brakes together with rear all-enclosed, multi-disc, oil-cooled brakes. The particular 95 testosterone model includes a Cummins QST30 engine, again imported from your UK.
SANY ’s Wenxu informed IM OR HER : “We have been successful utilizing rigid pickup trucks around the world, where other Chinese OEMs have not, because we are closest on quality to help Caterpillar and additionally Komatsu but with a price up to 20% lower. Our trucks are simple to maintain with the particular same quality including Cummins engines, Allison transmissions not to mention McPherson strut front suspensions plus high quality axles and typically the frame, chassis and cyl all tested to very high specifications. We furthermore recognise how important availability is for rigid vans and we support all our vehicles with service and spare parts – this includes our support engineers and also technicians being with the pickup trucks for in least six months after delivery. We already have global customers having manufactured two or even three repeat orders with us for inflexible trucks. ” This includes in Zambia where a customer bought two units during 2017 after that followed up with the help of nine more in 2018. As a service support example, one customer in India has a large SRT55D fleet and it is supported with a permanent team of three SANY technicians as well as containerised spare parts supply onsite.
Leading a wide body revolution in vans
Moving on to broad body tipper trucks, SANY has some sort of huge market presence for China but has also been really successful through exporting this concept associated with tipper trucks and its SKT Series to export markets – each diesel models but battery electric. So why are wide body trucks doing so well in mining? “Wide body trucks can be as little as 30% of equivalent rigid pickup truck prices : yes they have a good shorter lifetime but our trucks have got been shown to be able in order to last within a mining environment designed for five years or a lot more. The suspension on our tipper trucks is definitely very important – all of us use cylinder based suspension systems just as we all do just for rigids, unlike many of our competitors, so we think this gives us an edge. ”
It is undoubtedly the case that the tipper truck market is fiercely competitive ~ beyond SANY you have XCMG, Liugong, SDLG, LGMG, Sinotruk, Zoomlion, Tongli and many other individuals. Plus they are competing with Western off-road tipper brands like Volvo with its FMX products but also Scania and others.
Iron ore major CSN is one of SANY’s key partners in Brazilian including on battery electric trucks
But to give some examples of SANY ’s success, in Brazil, Sany do Brasil, since 2021, provides been investing in the exploration market along with wide body truck imports in often the form regarding the 60 t SKT90S off-road truck as well as the Sany SKT90E electric off-road pickup truck. Sany do Brasil was able to formalise, in May 2022, the sale of 23 SANY SKT90S off-road pickups and 3 SANY SY750H excavators to be able to CSN Mineracao for its Casa de Pedra iron ore mine. I n Q1 2022, CSN Mineracao likewise signed an important agreement with Sany aiming at become your first gold mining company inside Brazil for you to use 100% electric passenger trucks in the fleet. Already this year, 2 trucks of which will make up the fleet to transport mining tailings came into operation. These are usually 60 d class SKT90E models which usually arrived in South america in mid-May 2022. This particular SANY model is also autonomous-ready. This specific year alone SANY has also delivered fleets of SKT90S trucks to help cement significant Grupo Votorantim to their Araçariguama quarrying operations; as well as to quarry operator Grupo Itaquareia and metal ore miner JMN Mineração, part involving Grupo J Mendes. SANY operates in the exact country the two direct plus through dealer Irmen Máquinas based present in Sao Paulo.
SANY autonomous in addition to battery electric powered SKT90E pickups during testing in China and taiwan
Moving to Thailand, in November 2021, 18 units connected with SKT90S wide-body mining lorries and six units with SKT90E wide-body battery electric power and autonomous-ready mining trucks were delivered by China’s SANY to a key mining contractor client in the country having recently been shipped from China in order to Laem Chabang port. Typically the order was handled by simply local subsidiary Sany Vietnam Fuli Machinery along together with in-country heavy equipment seller Leadway Heavy Machinery using the client being leading Thai exploration contractor Thaidrill Co Ltd. With 10 units from the 90S already purchased by the client throughout 2020, there are currently a total of 34 SANY passenger trucks in the Thaidrill navy, that are around service on two big mining areas in Lopburi Province and even Nakhon Si Thammarat Province.
Within India, a key handover celebration was held in September 2021 during the existence of top management through both the particular companies wherein SANY The indian subcontinent handed over to be able to the gold mining group Durga Infra it is 100th SANY wide entire body dump vehicle of design SKT90S. This SKT90S is a tipper style truck with a 60 w not payload, having a number for improvements over more basic models of this design which include a hydro-pneumatic suspension to replace the traditional leaf spring structure, vastly improving typically the machine life and owner comfort in the machine as well as upping availability. It in addition has full hydraulic steering making operating the pick up truck easier together with safer. Tens of thousands of these tipper design trucks are operating here in India nevertheless operators are usually now looking for greater reliability. SANY states that this SKT90S features “a core advantage of efficiency, comfort and your superior payload capacity” with the majority about the 100 machines working at Durga Infra Mining’s lignite mining operations for Gujarat. Durga Infra Exploration Private Limited operates even more than eight mines across India using a fleet in 1, 000+ mining machines.
Looking at it has the battery electric model, often the SKT90E features a payload of sixty t and a maximum speed of 44 km/h. Often the battery is really a Lithium Iron Phosphate type from CATL with some capacity from 350 kWh, which can be charged quickly through 60-70 minutes. The truck is also autonomous ready. At a mine in China based online stores in 2020 two unmanned battery power SKT90E wide-body mining lorries successfully realised connection and additionally coordination which has a teleremote 5G-controlled excavator not to mention cloud platform in place of operators working using the pit, which creates both a fabulous safer and also more efficient unmanned procedure. The two SKT90E wide-body mining commercial transport trucks SANY says demonstrated high-level environmental identification and positioning capacity. They can conduct timely decision making and accurate route planning in your operational region. The deviation of the horizontal control of the exact unmanned functioning can be kept under 30 cm. Your trucks can independently total route-tracking, loading and unloading of material, as well as parking. With the support of an integration of multiple sensing technologies like millimetre-wave radar, laser adnger zone and visual sensor, the truck can conduct the particular scanning and tracking associated with obstacles within 150 m and it can as well implement distance ranging plus identification inside 100 meters in response to various weather conditions appearing in different seasons.
Battery swapping experience
There can be still an important debate in surface exploration about whether battery charging or electric battery swapping is certainly the best option. Inside February 2022, battery giant CATL in addition to SANY Group celebrated typically the operation regarding the Fujian battery changing demonstration project for heavy-duty on road trucks. The exact electric trucks are all installed with CATL ’s large-capacity LFP batteries, which often can not only achieve net-zero emissions and even zero pollution, but at the same time allow high-power fast getting and are capable of rapid battery replacing within 3-5 minutes, relieving anxiety in terms of charging time and range, which has greatly improved the effectiveness of vehicle operation. The swapping approach also possesses potential within mining. CATL recently advised INSTANT MESSAGING : “Unlike applications of passenger vehicles together with commercial vehicles, the gold mining application involving traction batteries is faced with unique challenges as well as recharging. Uphill driving of heavy-duty mining automobiles requires high energy consumption and additionally subsequently multiple rounds connected with battery recharging. We see battery swapping is an effective solution to address this challenge. The vibration and shock caused by means of the rough and bumpy grounds may be two to three times stronger than those on the roads, and collision and overturning might happen in mining areas, which in turn requires higher damage resistance of large-capacity battery systems and increased level with safety after thermal propagation is caused by destruction. ” After all, battery swapping is currently becoming this dominant approach in underground mining, so why not on surface?
SANY heavy truck docking at a battery swapping station
And a full range for excavators
The particular company is also making excavator strides to match its truck or van progress. In the large end of often the scale, SANY Heavy Industry’s first 300 t electric-drive front (face) shovel, your SY2600E, just this season rolled off a production line in Kunshan Industrial Park in Suzhou. This is currently SANY ’s biggest crawler excavator product (building on the 200 ton model launched in 2008) and is also 15 m long and 8 m higher, and about three stories large. It has a fully electronic control system having eight penis pumps and about three valves. Typically the bucket capacity reaches fifteen cubic metres, plus the shovel bucket can handle regarding 20 h of ore or overburden.
SANY said it is a new breakthrough as part of ‘electric drive + front shovel’ by using low energy consumption, huge load, great reliability, user comfort not to mention other characteristics. In terms of power saving, the product adopts an advanced fully electronically controlled closed-centre hydraulic system, which has faster dynamic response and also lower pressure loss by way of using a new 6, 000V, 900kW high-power motor. Thanks to long-life reinforced structural parts along with a four-wheel belt chassis, “the machine contains a longer existence and a lot more reliable performance; in addition , the exact product is equipped with an automatic lubrication program, a centralised filling system…and the maintenance parts are centrally designed, making the overall maintenance convenient. ”
Chen Jiayuan , Chairman about SANY Large Machinery stated: “In the future, the SY2600E product will be introduced for you to the global mining market, as well as the Sany Heavy Industry excavation team will continue to strive for the purpose of the research and development goal of 400 t or perhaps even 800 t great excavators, plus contribute to help the large-scale excavator tools manufacturing industry in China and tiawan. ”
SANY’s SY2600E shovel rolled off the Suzhou manufacturing line in 2022
At the lower end of the particular large designs for exploration are the SY870H (78. 6 t), SY980H (95. eight t) in addition to SY1250H (125 t). These are all moreover made in Suzhou. Looking at the two larger types, “robust and even highly productive, ” typically the SY1250H excavator the company says “features the latest technological upgrades together with exceptional overall performance as a result of SANY ’s decades in expertise inside developing this ultra-large excavators. The excavator offers some sort of fuel-efficient, reliable and intelligent solution with respect to large scale earthworks including earth excavation and additionally open-pit ore mining. ”
This SY980H excavator is powered by a high-pressure, large-flow electrically controlled hydraulic system through reduced fuel consumption not to mention dynamic response engine, “offering stable functions for various heavy-load excavation missions this kind of as stone, coal, metal and even more. The machine boosts the superior matching manage technology that is designed to comprehensively increases efficiency by just 30% compared to the previous generation. ”