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Using FPC to Size Truck and Loader

Fleets
2012 Dr. B. C. Paul
Note This presentation demonstrates fleet sizing using Caterpillars FPC program
and includes screen shots from the program. Credit is given to Caterpillar for the
program and interfaces. Caterpillar has produced helps and directions for using the
program which of course have common subject material with these slides. These
slides also draw on earlier work done by the author.

What Is FPC?

It is an easy to use tool for sizing truck and


loader fleets for hauling ore over simple and
consistent haulage routes

What Will We Do In This


Demonstration?

We will consider a fleet of trucks moving


16.5 million metric tonnes of rock every
year out of a pit that is 500 meters deep.
Similar to the final pit we developed in
MineSight.

When FPC Starts it Takes You to Its


First Tabbed Screen
Some Items Just Involve
Labeling Your Project

You Also Make Your Unit Selection

You Need to Enter A Fuel Price


Normally the fuel is Red Dog
Diesel.
Most Trucks run on Diesel Fuel
Most Mining Trucks do not run
On public highways. As a result
Their diesel fuel is not subject
To highway taxes.
To keep untaxed diesel fuel from
getting into the highway truck
Fleet it is dyed red. Thus the
Name Red Dog. If a highway
Truck is cought with red fuel or
Red fuel stains there will be big
Trouble.

Working Time is Also Considered


You enter the number of hours
Per year of work
And the so called shift efficiency

Hours Worked

One Begins Considering How Many Hours to


Schedule Mining Operations and trucks.
You could claim 24 hours a day and 365 days per year
But that would imply Christmas, New Years, and other
Holidays being worked
That would also imply no weather delays or scheduled
maintenance down-town
It would mean no weekends off
It would mean if you ever got in trouble on production there
would be no place to add time for catch-up

Not Surprisingly 24 hours/day 365 days per year is


not a usual choice

Some Possibilities

5 days per week


52 weeks per year about 260 days/year

A month off for Miners Holiday


Mines shut down and use crews for heavy maintenance
and prep work
Leaves around 330 days with a few major holidays

6 day work week 52 weeks/year about 312

Weather or Not You Like It

Consider how many days you may loose for


weather or catastrophic break-down events
For my example I selected 325 days/year
I was going for a 7 day per week operation with
reasonable holiday, maintenance, and weather
or break-down days.

Be consistent with existing or intended


practice.

The Shifts/Day Issue

In theory three 8 hour shifts make 24 hours per day.

In practice changing crews takes time


Idea behind hot seat change outs start the next shift before
previous ends

Of course that will end the idea that three 8 hour shifts = 24 hours

Some mines use 2 work shifts and a maintenance shift

If they are 8 hour shifts you might get 14 or 15 hours not 16 with
hot seat change outs

Some mines use 10 hour shifts

Works with 4 days on and 3 off schedules may not be


accommodating to workers with fixed weekend needs (Saturday or
Sunday Church for example)
Can probably get 18 or 19 hours
Often run two 10 hour work shifts with a 8 hour maintenance

More Shift Issues

Day-Light hours

Lower 48 U.S. usually have around 10 or better of


some type of daylight
Not an issue if you have an artificial light grid

Counting on running massive haul trucks off of head-lights


is not likely or safe
Do you have an artificial light system?
If your planning the mine is that light system in your cost
projections?

Many quarries lack artificial light so 10 hour days is


almost forced on them
If you are in the Arctic Circle you have whole months
with no light

My Assumption

21 hours per day


Its a three 8 hour shift schedule without hot
seat change outs and planned non-utilized time.

Often your days per year and hours per day


decisions are not independent of each other

The Shift Efficiency Issue

Reality is you never get 100% work time to match a


schedule
First factor is Available

The fact that I planned on using something does not guarantee it


will be running

Second factor is Utilized of Available

There are scheduling complexities you seldom use something


just because its running

Third factor is Shift Efficiency

Workers are required by law and biology to have breaks in an 8 or


10 hour period
Typically you get about 50 minutes out of every hour about 8384%

Cat FPC

Cat FPC has shift efficiency


I put in 83%
The program builds shift efficiency into every shift
Dont use this to cover planning related non-utilization when
equipment is available non-use is seldom evenly spread
across every shift
Legal and biological breaks are distributed across and shift
which is what FPC assumes

FPC will use shift efficiency to make sure your tires


dont overheat
If you use shift efficiency to cover unevenly spaced
scheduling difficulties you may blow-out tires in the field
when you try to implement the plan

More on FPC

Although We Have not Seen it Yet FPC allows


you to identify percentage available
Ie allow for what % of the time the equipment is in
running order

Note FPC does not have Utilized of Available


You have to build that into your working hours per year
entry (which I tried to do by scheduling 21 hours per
day for three 8 hour shifts)

The Last Issues are Bunching and


Operator Efficiency

What Is Bunching?

If you have 5 trucks and one loader in theory the


loader always has a truck available and when-ever
a truck arrives the previous truck is just pulling
away.
But this requires perfect spacing between trucks
Drivers tend to congregate, three trucks may arrive to
be loaded and have to wait
Then the loader has all the trucks away and nothing to load into

This is called Bunching


It reduces the theoretically possible production

FPC and Bunching

Cat did extensive studies on production losses


from bunching

It is one of the few programs to build bunching losses


into predicted Production.

I picked average (which means to use the Cat


typical statistics)

I could pick none and not using bunching losses at all


(but they will likely happen anyway)
I could pick min
I could pick max more typical of what would
happen if the road was congested and did not allow
passing

Operator Efficiency

The Truck speed is limited by its own engine size


and drive train limits
Or by road imposed speed limits
Trucks usually dont travel at the maximum
possible speed
Cat has compiled statistics on the ratio and found it to
be a function of distance.
I picked the button to use the Cat empirical study
I could alternately choose a fixed percentage of the
ratio of my average speed to the theoretical maximum
speed.

Note!

There are 4 quick to enter numbers on the


first panel that have huge policy and
practice implications
Fill those numbers out with a full
understanding of what you are planning
Dont just blow them off and expect to get good
results.

FPC is Set Up By Moving Directly


Across the Tabs at the Top

Now we go to Fleet Input

You Can Try Different Fleets of


Trucks

Each fleet has a name you give it and a description you or your team use to keep
Straight what you are doing.

Now Start Building Your Fleet


Click Add Hauler

The Select Hauler Window Opens


I wanted a Cat Standard Machine
(others require user input)
I wanted a Truck
(When I select this the blue list
Below opens)
And obviously for my Cat 793
Fleet I wanted a Cat 793.

A Bunch of Truck Specific Default


Data Comes Up

Note that this is where I get access


To the working availability time
Of the truck unit.

Availability Considerations

Newer trucks tend to have higher availability

90 to 95%
Some people rent fleets and simply pay a cost per ton
Cat maintains and usually guarantees around 95%
availability

Old highly worn trucks tend to drop down to about


60%
85% is usually regarded as an old middle of the
road average standby
In a more complex run I could change the value as
my fleet aged.

Im Using an old 85% Middle of the


Road
I will now move on
And select my loader.

Interesting note I am
Holding out on inputting
My number of trucks
And cost data till I get
An idea of how many
I need.

On the Select Loader Panel


I will again pick Cat
Standard Machines
Im going to try a Cable
Shovel first
It brings up the P+H line
At this point we need a
Discussion on matching
Trucks and shovels.

The Loader and Truck Need to Be A


Match

The Loader Should be able to fill the truck


in a reasonable number of passes
The Loader Should be able to lift the load
up over the side of the truck and dump the
material in.
At this point we better have our Cat
Handbook handy.

Need to Fill in a Reasonable Number


of Passes

If you fill a truck with less than 3 passes you cant get the
load distributed youll kill the suspension system in the
truck
If you take too many passes to fill the truck will spend a
large part of its cycle time sitting to be loaded.
Guidelines exist as to what tends to be workable

Cable Shovels (3 to 4 passes)


Hydraulic Shovels (4 or 5 passes)
FEL (4 to 6 passes)
Backhoes (often 5 to 7 passes)

Looks like well be shooting around 3 or 4 passes.

But How Much Will The Truck


Hold?

A Truck can be Weight or Volume Limited


Which depends on the material

Our Cat 793 holds 169 cubic yards just in


the bed, but 230 cubic yards if you heap it
and it can carry 250 tons.

Material Weights Tables Exist in


Many Handbooks
This one is from the Caterpillar
Performance Handbook
Porphyry Copper ore is GraniteLike
2800 lbs/cubic yard loose
4600 lbs/cubic yard bank
With a load factor of 0.61

A Material Caution

In place rock is a solid with only internal air


spaces and pores
For loading and hauling rock tends to break
into chunks that have air spaces between
them
If youve ever tried to put dirt back in a hole
after digging it out you know what Swell
means

Always Distinguish Between Bank


and Loose Volume

The difference between bank and loose weight is huge


Saw some students foul up homework by looking on the internet
And grabbing a weight number with no idea what it was. Many
Internet numbers are bank weights since loose weights are often
Important only in mine planning.

In Our Case We Are Given the


Loose Weight

2800 lbs per cubic yard


169 cubic yards * 2800 lbs/yd^3 / 2000 lbs/ton
237 tons
Rated weight for truck is 250

Because this truck hit the volume limit before the


weight it is called Volume limited
I bet you can guess what would happen if we were
weight limited

Well we dont have to if we heap it a little we


can get up to 230 cubic yards

Continuing Our Calculation

230 * 2800 / 2000 = 322 tons > 250 tons


Reality is that this truck is weight limited
We can slightly over or underfill a truck
Less than 95% of rated weight usually wasting
truck carrying capacity
More than 105% of rated weight and youll tear
up the suspension
Usually a good idea to aim for the middle and
allow the play for iregularities in loading

More Calculations on the Side

250 tons *2000 /2800 lbs/cubic yard


I need about 179 cubic yards to fill

Now my loader needs to do this in an


integer number of passes
3.5 passes is not a real number, I can only dump
dippers of material in integer amounts

How Much Can a Bucket or Dipper


Hold?

That depends on the material its digging


And on the degree of control the operator
has for the bucket through the dig path
A Bucket or Dipper has a manufacture rated
capacity based on the volume of the Bucket
But filling up all that space exactly is a trick
We have Fill Factors that give the percentage
of the capacity that actually gets used.

By Material and Machine Type

The Hydraulic shovel can pivot its bucket in most


of the ways you can pivot your hand helps get a
good fill
It has the best fill factors
Loose material out of stock-pile 100 to 110% (also written 1 to
1.1)
You do need an unusual material stacking angle to get over
100% (the bucket is already rated heaped)

Average well-blasted bank 0.95 to 1


Hard digging 0.9 to .95
Very hard digging blocky and poorly blasted 0.85 to .9

Moving Down the List

Cable Shovels come in next the dipper pushes


through on the end of a rigid arm
But the Bucket is rated on struck capacity not heaped.
Loose Stockpile Like Materials
Sand and Gravel 0.95 to 1
An unconsolidated face with a few boulders 0.9 to 0.95

Well Blasted Rock called Hard digging for a Cable


Shovel 0.8 to 0.9
Poor Blasted with interlocking large blocks called
very hard digging 0.7 to 0.8

Our Worst

The Front End Loader

It has little pivot and a bucket as wide as the machine


It has to use its drive system to try and ram into what it digs
Stockpiles
Uniform moist or sand-like 0.95 to 1
inch uniform pee gravel 0.9 to 0.95
Larger sizes 0.85 to 0.9

Well blasted face easy to dig 0.8 to 0.95


Average blasted rock face 0.75 to 0.9
Poor blasting 0.6 to 0.75
Very hard digging - wont go through at all

Of course operator ability can play any of these numbers


toward the top or bottom of the range

Consider a Cable Shovel Match for


Our Truck

A 4100 has a 56 yard bucket

Average blasted face about 0.85 fill (0.8 to 0.9)


Target is 179 cubic yards
3 passes 143 cubic yards
4 passes 190 cubic yards
We are between
If we got 0.9 fill 3 passes would hit 151 cubic yard

It will be 4 passes
179 / 4 = 44.75 cubic yards
44.75 / 56 = 0.8 well within range for our expected digging

Note at the very end the fill factor must match a loaded
truck with an integer number of dipper passes

Considering Other Shovel Sizes

I had thought about a 2800XP but Im


already at 4 passes with a 56 cubic yard
bucket so a 39 yard not a good candidate
I had also thought of the really big 5700XP
with a 70 yard bucket
70*3*.85 = 179 cubic yards

I can do a 4100 with 4 passes


Or a 5700 with 3 passes

I Picked the Midsize 4100

If I wanted to try
More than one
Fleet I could
Select Add New
Fleet and then
Pick my 793
Matched to a 5700

Now I Need to Deal with


Availability

Cable Shovels today use modular solid state


electronics

Boards can be swapped out fast and sent for rebuild


Structural design of Cable Shovel is Simple
Does not have a lot of dirt sensitive highly stressed
hydrualics
90 to 95% availability should be fairly easy
(old units with motor generator sets more like 80 to
85%)

Remaining Panel Issues


Does your haul
Road allow trucks
To pass?
(This is highly
Related to your
Mines traffic
Control plan)
Im deliberately
Bypassing the
Exact number
Of trucks or
Loaders and
Their cost.
I could include support equipment for this fleet within
FPC or deal with it somewhere else dont miss it in your plan

Why am I bypassing?

FPC is designed with the intent you put the cost of


your equipment in now
It also is designed with the idea that you guess a
number of units
Personal Style
I like to go quick and dirty and get routines to tell me
about what number of units to try
Then Ill make a second pass with more detail
FPC will work for a first pass rough size and that is
what I like to do. (You may be different)

What is This Support Equipment


Issue?

Trucks 250 ton and up are called Super Trucks

They are very productive and have longer lives than an


average truck
They also depend on a solid haul-road
That means you are doing sub-bases and almost designing the
haul roads like highways

Means for road work I have dozers and road


graders and probably a compactor
Dirt roads probably mean I have water trucks both
for environmental reasons and also to moisted
road base for maximum compaction

Other Support

Cable and Hydraulic Shovels are messy creatures


They spill part of their rock
Some sort of front end loader or scoop is used to collect
spills
If the loader is large enough it loads into trucks

If you allow rock to build up in your loading area


it will cut your truck tires
There are about 40,000 + good reasons to not want that
to happen ($$$$)

Decisions about Support Equipment


in FPC

I generally do not do my support equipment in FPC


My road requirements are a function of my road length and
how often I have to relocate roads
These functions are more associated with my mine plan than the
number of trucks in my fleet

My clean-up loader is sensitive to the position of my


loading points and where else in the mine I may use them.
I keep them out of FPC because I find their specifications
tend not to correlate well with exactly what Im doing with
my trucks and loaders.

When I Try to Move On I Get a


Hysterical Message
My loader and truck
Costs are zero.
FPC really likes me to
Enter now but Im
A rough first pass
Designer
Ill tell it Ok and move
On.

Whats Under Those Subtabs


Its the rimpull and
Retarder curves for
The truck.
(If I did not pick
Cat standard I would
Get to enter this stuff
Myself)

On to the 3rd Tab

In this tab I will describe the road that my trucks must travel to deliver their ore or waste
Loads.

Name the Course and the Amount of


Material
Im going to consider the route
For ore to the mill.
I know from some things in the
Next unit that I will be moving
Around 9,000,000 tons of ore.

Input My Information

If I already know my material loose


And bulk density I can enter it
Direct. Or I can click select material
To use Caterpillars built in data
Base.

On the Material Window


I select broken
Granite as most
Similar to porphyry
Copper ore.

Once I have selected


Granite Ok becomes
Available to click.

Now I Need to Describe My


Haulage Route

I will need to identify the length of the segment, the grade resistance,
A rolling resistance, a speed limit (if needed), and a description (which
Comes in very handy during later review)

How do I Divide a Continuous Road


into Segment?

Road Segments Divide When


There is a major change in grade (slope)
There is a major change in underfoot conditions
There is a major change in vehicle operating
considerations

Starting
Stopping
Major Turns

What is Major?

Depends in part on what you are doing


Computer Methods favor greater detail
Hand methods favor more moderation

Good intuitive Check is whether sustained


enough to change vehicle speed

My Haulage Profile

My loading bench is level and I will go 550


feet to the ramp to get out of the pit.
Issue #1 part of that distance will be in a
congested loading area
I will probably want a speed limit on that area
different than for the bench as a whole

My First 150 feet in a Congested


Loading Area

Another line appeared for more of the route. I entered 0% grade


Because the bench itself is level.
Now I need a speed limit

Congested Area Guidelines

(From Surface Mining - First Edition)


Im going to consider my conditions average.

Enter the Data and a Description

Now I need to deal with grade and rolling resistance

Roads Produce Forces that Influence


Vehicle Movement

Roads slope up hill and down

This will cause gravity to work for or against the


forward movement of the truck
It is called grade resistance

The common unit of Grade Resistance is %

Example if a road goes up 1 foot for every 10 feet of


distance it is called 10% grade (note that 1 is 10% of
10)

Note that we are not using slope angles

Other Forces

Trucks are subject to wind or air resistance


Air resistance increases dramatically with speed
For a car going 70 mph wind resistance is one of the largest
opposing forces

Haul trucks lumber along at slow paces and wind


resistance is usually considered 0 for an engineering
approximation.

Rolling Resistance

Tires Sink into Ground - softer ground sink


more
Tires Flatten
Driving uphill out of a rut on a flat tire spot
Need to Know Underfoot conditions and
Type of Tire (Radial or Bias Ply)

Grade Resistance in %

Number of feet up (or down) for every so


many feet forward (or backward).
Im on a level bench so I go up 0 feet for
every 100 feet thus my grade resistance is
0%
Rolling Resistance will depend on the road
and the tires.

Hard Smooth Stabilized Surface

I like 1.7 for our established haul road with


Radial tires

Enter the Information

Next 400 more feet across the bench.

Enter the Data

Now what about the grade resistance what is positive and what is
Negative?

Sign Conventions and Resistance

Standard Convention
A positive resistance resists motion
A negative resistance favors motion

Note that rolling resistance will always be positive


because it always resists motion no matter what
the direction
That 10% grade out of the pit is +10
That 5% grade down the canyon is -5

Now We Need to Do the Return


Route
I will click on
The return
Radio button
If the haul road
Back is unique
I enter as before

If I just reverse
Directions I can
Click Mirror
Haul Road (and
It reverses route)

The Forth Tab Lets you Match a


Truck Fleet and Route for Study

Since we have only entered one of each this is not to big a choice. If youve entered more
Than one route or truck fleet you could have quite a few choices.

Tab 5 Production and Costs has


Large Number of Subtabs

As before you generally work the subtabs left to right.

Oddity #1 Double Select Buttons

The select process is really two tear. The select tab lets you create a subset of cases to work
With. Ultimately FPC can only do one case at a time the second select picks one from the
Sublist we created. (Again my one truck one road combo is boring).

One of the Most Critical Tabs


The Cycle Time Tab is Where
We Deal with Load Time,
Dump Time, and any fixed
Delay times on the route.

Before We Will Be Allowed to Do Anything


We Must Disclose Our Unload Time

FPC will start blocking your


Other inputs on the page
Until you cooperate.

Typical Unloading Arrangements

Back the truck up line it up with a dump point and dump


into the point
Such as back-up to a gyratory crusher and dump into it.
Requires precise placement
Depending on number of open gyratory dump points trucks may
have to wait for a previous truck to get clear.

Back up to a general point and dump


Such as backing up to the edge of a leaching pile and then
dumping material over the side
Requires less line up
Usually more open space and not forced to wait for a truck in front
of them

Unloading

Tailgate
The truck dumps pulling forward and spreading load
behind it.
May or may not require a total stop of the truck
Truck is moving forward and avoids backing manuver
Truck ends its unload cycle already in motion

Pull forward to dump point


Pull over a dump point and unload
Usually done with bottom dump trucks

Size of Truck and Difficulty of


Maneuver Control Time

Typical Mining Truck can dump the bed in about


30 seconds
Big lumbering one might be closer to 40.

A general backing maneuver takes about 30


seconds

Make it more like 45 seconds if the dump target is


small or the truck real big
Make it about 1 minute if I have to wait for another
truck to clear out first

If you can just pull forward and stop on a point it


can probably beat 10 seconds

My Case

Ill assume I back up to one of two gyratory


crushers and dump into the crusher
I have 2 gyratories so I wont have a wait time.
I do have a big truck backing up to a small
specific target
45 seconds

I have a big truck bed so Im about 40 seconds to


dump
Total about 1.5 minutes

Input and Enter and I Get My First


Truck Cycle Estimate

Note that my dump strategy means


I will make a full stop at the end
Of my haul and will be starting my
Return trip from a full stop
Position
(This would not be true of all
Unloading arangements)

Now We Reconcile Loader Passes,


Fill Factors and Truck Volumes
We have discussed the
Principles before but now
We have to get it right.

I Remember I Needed 4 Passes at


80% Fill
Note this is a great place to
Find or commit a screw-up.
If my loader was a lousy
Match for my truck Im going
To get a bad number of
Passes.
The program does not check
To see if your fill factor is
Realistic for your material.
You can input garbage but
Guess what youll get!
You must work this till you get an integer number of passes.
The program will not check you.

Now I Need to Deal with My Load


Time

The times that come up on the list are for smaller loaders doing single truck
Loading under ideal conditions.

The Loader Cycle Time

How Long Does it Take a Loader to take a scoop


turn dump it in a truck and return to a ready
position for the next scoop.
Hydraulic Shovels have fastest movement
About 20 seconds for a little one with an easy dig
About 35 for a big one

Front End Loaders are worst they have to back,


maneuver and scoop.
About 40 seconds for a small one
About 50 seconds for a big one

For A Cable Shovel


Graph of Dipper
Size and Digging
Conditions for
Impact on one
Loader Cycle.

But Wait There is More

Most manufactures cheat on published data


(This does not impact front end loaders)
They assume the angle between the digging
face and dump point is 90
For the most common configurations the angle is
120 so the swing time is longer
To adjust for 120 swing the published cycle needs
to be multiplied by 1.1 to 1.2

Getting My Number

I Have a Cable Shovel with a 56 yard


dipper
Im assuming an average blasted face which
is Hard Digging for a Cable
Ill be Shovel
about 32 seconds * 1.15
About 37 seconds

Now Lets Consider the Hauler


Exchange

This is the time it takes one truck to pull away and then another to move in and
Spot and be ready to load. For larger trucks this is more like 1 minute rather than
0.7
This leads to what is the First Bucket Dump?

First Bucket Dump

It is assumed that during the lag time when one truck is pulling out and another
Pulling in that the loader is getting a scoop of material ready. When the truck is
Positioned only the short time to dump the dipper is involved.

Actual Times Depend on Field


Loading Configurations

Depends on the type of equipment used


On the space available
Shovels and Hydraulic Excavators tend to
load in one set of ways
Backhoes have some variations
FEL have some unique ones

Single Truck Loading


Loader near the face
Truck backs up next to the
loader on the drivers side
(Gives the loader operator a
better view
Loader working into cut in the
face
Loader swings about 120
degrees to dump

Advantages of Single Truck


Loading

Simple
Truck doesnt have to back tires into the
rockiest areas
The shovel faces armor of the tracks into
the dig face
Shovel operator has optimized view of
truck bed target

Disadvantages of Single Truck


Loading

Backing into place can take around 1


minute and may require a spotter

Loaders expensive and idle


Back time is an unproductive bottleneck
Can form large ques because trucks tend to bunch

120 degree swing angle can be slow


Manufactures often rate on 90 degree

More Disadvantages

Limited Space Available for Oversize Material


Can set to side
Do a bowling ball drop into truck
Hydraulic shovels can set - but cable shovels drop
bucket bottom open

Extension cord problems with electric


equipment
Cord has to cut across truck path
Putting on poles can cost time

Using Single Truck Loading in FPC

Its easy the screen layout assumes single


truck loading
Do it just like we just finished doing.

Double Truck Loading


Same Arrangement as
single truck loading only
the trucks pull up on both
sides

Advantages of Double Truck


Loading

Second Loading Spot Allows a second truck


to spot during loading operations
Avoids dead time on the loader
Doesnt help the truck cycle time other than
eliminating some queing

Disadvantages of Double Truck


Loading

Still have extension cord problems on


electric units
Oversize boulder problem is now even more
severe
Forces Loader operator to load on the blind
side (most big loaders put the cab to one
side of equipment)

Doing Double Truck Loading in


FPC

Loader cycle time


On one side of the truck the loader operator will
not actually be able to see the truck bed till
he/she is on top of it
Note how late the operator will
Be in actually seeing his dump
Target.

Cab
Shovel
Tru
ck

Youll need to slow the cycle down


About 5 to 10%

Double Truck Loading in FPC

Hauler Exchange time


By having a second load point the loaders wait
for another truck drops to 0
Hauler Exchange time goes to 0

Side Effect
First Bucket Dump now takes the full cycle
time since the loader did not have a time break
while trucks backed in.

Another Impact

The Loader has no truck wait time


The truck may not wait for another truck to
pull out but backing into place still puts
about 30 to 45 seconds onto a truck cycle
For single truck loading FPC automatically
adds the loader exchange time to both the truck
and the loader.
By zeroing that time for the loader I have lost
the back time for the truck

I Need to Add This Time Back for


My Truck
I would add about 0.75 minutes
Into my dump and maneuver time
(even though the extra
Maneuver is actually at the load
Point).

If You Get The Feeling Im Forcing FPC to


do Something it was not Designed For

Your Right
FPC was designed assuming all trucks use
single truck loading
They left a loop-hole large enough to allow it to
do something else.

Drive By Truck Loading


Shovel Lines up Along
the face
Trucks pull forward and
stop beside the loader
Shovel Swings 90 to 180
degrees to dump

Advantages to Truck Drive-By

Greatly Reduced Spotting Time - no


backing cycle
Cable doesnt cross the Trucks Path
Can Set Oversize Beside and out of the way
Machine marches on a steady forward
advance
Can do in a narrower space your working
benches dont have to be as wide.

Disadvantages of Drive -By

Often have problems with dipper swinging


over the top of the drivers cab
Loader gets revenge for the truck running over
its extension cord
If the dipper comes open your truck driver can
get dead

Trucks get to drive those expensive tires


through spills

More Disadvantages

Lack of spotting makes it a one shot that


can lead to long swings
Tracks are broadside to long face area

Doing Drive-By in FPC

If the truck drivers stop well this will get a 90


swing will speed up the loader cycle
Lower your loader cycle time about 10%

One truck still has to pull forward and another


follow in
This is about a 10 to 15 second ordeal instead of a 45
second to 1 minute ordeal
Put in a smaller time
Since this affects truck and loader alike there is no need
to add extra time to the truck dump and manuever

FPC and Drive-By

The Truck change-out time does indeed


reduce the first pass time for the loader
First Bucket Dump = Loader Cycle Exchange
Time

Since Drive-By is often used in strip pits,


Cats FPC accommodates it without really
forcing things.

Modified Drive-By (Or Getting


Fancy)

Shovel in Drive-By Position


Truck Drives up to Shovel as if it was a
drive-by
Loading drops onto a moving target

While the Loading goes for the next bite the


truck backs into a single load like position
Shortens swing distance

Advantages

Get most of the positioning advantages of


single truck load without the idle spot time

Disadvantages

Dump onto a Moving Target


With swinging over cab can be a real
adventurous feeling for driver

Gets the tires into some real rocky


conditions

Modified Drive-By in FPC

Loader cycle time usually no change


Loader exchange time drop to 0
No need to add time to truck dump cycle
he spots while the loader scoops
Loader First Bucket Time Increases
The loader is trying to dump onto a moving
truck

Backhoe Loading Methods

Backhoe works below grade


Can allow work to be kept off wet pit floor
can also provide multi-level loading

Backhoes generally need good size machine


relative to bucket. Doesnt wear as well generally used for special conditions

Can Work Double and Single


Truck Loads

Can also Load on Multiple


Levels

Multilevel Loading

Double Loading configuration


has extra room for oversize and still two trucks
Because truck has to come in on right level
does require some additional advance data to
send truck to right spot

Can also get 3 position loading


often a bit of overkill

FPC Handling

Like Single or Double Truck Loading


Remember to use loader cycle time suitable
for backhoe
Since backhoe buckets tend to be small you
are more likely to have 5 to 7 passes to
load.

Front End Loader Configurations

FELs are less expensive than the trucks and


are mobile
Makes practical to consider more than one
loader providing loading service
Limited lift heights make truck match more
critical
Tires can tear up bad underfoot

Single Truck Loading

Common Loading Arrangements

Drive By Loading

Arrangements Putting More Than


One Loader at a Loading Point

How to Chain Load in FPC

FPC assumes the number of loaders is equal to the


number of load points
If I need 5 loaders to Chain Load a Truck

Lie tell FPC you have a loader with a load cycle time of 0.05
minutes
Tell it your loaders first bucket is also 0.05

(When you do enter cost tell FPC your one loader that
is as fast as 5 loaders also costs as much as 5 loaders)
When you count your loaders at the end of the computer run
multiply the number of loaders by 5

This gets the truck loaded in the right time

The problem is if the program sends another truck to be loaded


0.25 minutes later the loaders will not be ready to chain load
(it takes each loader about 0.75 minutes to really scoop
material and load it).

Building in loader lag time

Of the 0.75 minutes a real cycle takes about 0.05


is the dump
This I did account for so I have 0.7 minutes left out

While other loaders are loading the first has time


to start its cycle
In this example I used 5 loaders to chain load
There was 4*0.05 minutes while other loaders worked
Now my unaccounted time is 0.5 minute

Entering the Loader Lag Time

Look at the Hauler exchange time


What really happens is the truck just pulls
through the chain and is loaded on the fly
Thus there is no real hauler exchange time

To Cope with Loader Lag Time


Lie in this case say there is a hauler spot time
of 0.5 minutes
This will keep FPC from sending the load point
more trucks than it can really handle.

Now We Have Problems With Truck


Cycle Time

The truck now has 0.5 minutes added to its cycle


that does not exist
Lie cut the dump time by 0.5 minutes
Now the truck cycle time is right

One more truck adjustment


The haul end speed is about 3 to 5
Mph not 0. The same is true of
The start speed.

Tandom Loading

This time I put two loaders on one truck


The truck backs between two loaders that
then load it from both sides

Using Tandom Loading in FPC

Tell FPC you have one loader


But this loaders cycle time is twice as fast as a
normal loader
Its cost is also twice as much as a single loader
When you count up the number of Loaders at
the end of the run remember to double the
number of loaders you buy
The money for this was already handled when you
created one loader that cost as much to buy and
operate as 2

The First Bucket Load Time


Problem

While the truck spotted the loaders got ready to


dump thus they only need 0.05 minutes for the
first bucket.
The FPC problem it allows one bucket to take only
0.05 minute in reality two buckets go in at the same
time

Solution Lie
It takes about 0.7 to 1 minute to spot the truck
Cut the time savings from the zero time second bucket
off of the spotting time.

Staggered Tandom Loading


As the truck comes in the first
Loader hits it on the fly like it
Was chain loading.
The truck then spots
During that time the two loaders
Were filling their buckets and
Are ready to go in dump time
Only.

Illustrative Case

Suppose the truck will take 4 passes to load


It will take the truck about 1 minute to spot
During that 1 minute loader #1 has dumped the
first bucket in
Loaders #1 and #2 have loaded buckets and are
ready to dump in 0.05 minutes

At the end of 1.05 minutes the truck has 3


buckets in place

My Motion Timing Continued

Now Loaders #1 and #2 go for another


bucket
Loader #1 takes its bucket and positions for the
next truck
Loader #2 dumps its bucket into the truck
This takes 0.75 minutes

1.8 minutes after the truck comes in to fill


it is out the door and loader fleet is ready
for the next truck

Now Lets Try to Get That One into


FPC

We report the truck exchange time as 1


minute
We now have 0.8 minutes to put in 4
buckets of material
Tell FPC the loader cycle time is 0.2 minutes
Tell FPC the first bucket time is 0.2 minutes
Done.

Front End Loaders

We are not using Front End Loaders in this


example but front end loaders are a
trickier match to trucks
You need to check loading height
How high must the loader lift the material to
get it over the side of the truck and then nicely
centered in the truck bed.

Loading Height
21 5 to get over the side of a Cat
793

Check Out a 980

A 980 can only get up to about 11 feet no go on 21.

In Fact a 994 (The Big One) Cannot


Dump Above the Edge of a 793 Truck

Be Careful of loading height limits for Front End Loaders

Commentary on Loading

We have spent tremendous amounts of time


analyzing miniscule details of such things
as how a truck loads or dumps Why
Suppose we lower the cost per ton for loading
and hauling ore by 1c
9 million tons is $90,000 your salary for the whole
year

Little parts of a cycle done millions of time


each year become big differences

Penny Pinching In Perspective

If a mine comes out non-economic the first


impulse is to begin nit-picking every dime
The decisions that shift NPVs by hundreds of millions
of dollars deal with mine size, mine method, cut-off
grade, and financial structure
If the Air-Craft Carrier sized decisions have been
made wrong penny pinching will usually not save the
day.
Dont rely on Penny Pinching to decide whether you get
to play the game
Penny Pinching deals with how you play the game
after you get into the game.

Understanding How Loading Relates


to Other Mine Plan Issues

Loading Configurations change the width of the space


needed for loading
Drive-by is usually chosen because it works in narrower spaces

Your working bench width influences your working slope


which greatly alters your stripping ratio a major effect on
economics.
Your working bench width also controls the size of a
practical mining push-back in an open pit mine
Sketch out your loading plan considering vehicle sizes
berm widths, prudent clearances and turning radiuses
Then pick your loading configuration.

Loading Configuration and Mill


Operation

Some of the Loading configurations discussed can


greatly alter the truck loading time.

For an open pit where 30 minutes is a common truck


cycle, saving 1 minute off of loading time will probably
not revolutionize cost
It can greatly alter the number of trucks that one loading
point can handle
This in turn can change the number of loading points

Smaller numbers of loading points or loading


points close together usually cause feed quality to
the mill to swing more wildly.

Mills hate unstable ore conditions and usually protest by


sending recoveries to well you know where.

Point

Understand that just a few numbers going


into FPC represent major decisions in how
you will run the mine
Make wise decisions about how to run the
mine and then make your FPC entries
match those decisions.
Dont just blow numbers into FPC and expect
good results.

Now I Will Close In On That Rough


Design I Talked About
Ill use the Fleet Size
Sub-Tab what it does is
Show me what I can do
With a variable number
Of trucks and 1 loader
(Remember I wanted to
Avoid committing to
A number of trucks or
Loaders until I had an
Idea of cycle time)

Tip on a Frustration
The default number
Of trucks FPC tries
Is 1 to 4.
I wanted 1 to 10.
I typed in the 10
And nothing
Happened.

I had to click in
Another field to make
The change take.

Look at Results

Things I see #1 I can reach 9 million tpy with just one loader
#2 I need 4 of 5 trucks
#3 My production per truck keeps going up fairly linearly suggests that I
am not really over-trucking my loader

Jump Back to My Cycle Times Tab


It takes about 38 minutes for a truck
To make a trip but only 3 minutes
To load
38/3 = 12.67
I would need 13 trucks to over-truck
My loader.
(Over-truck means I have so many
Trucks that the loader is the
Production limit).
This is under-trucked availability of
Trucks controls production.

What Did I Do?

I just got the program to help me ratio my trucks


and loaders without me doing any guessing or hand
calculation.
Now Ill go back and change # of trucks to 5.

Check My Fleet Production

Yup I need 87% of my scheduled


Time to do 9,000,000 tons of ore
With 5 trucks and one cable shovel.

Issues that Remain

I need to check my Ton-Mile-Per-Hour


Ratings
(make sure Im not running my trucks around
so fast that I overheat and blow-out the tires)

I need to enter my cost data and see the cost


I need to consult with my mill and ore
reserve modeling people.

Why the Consult

I am feeding the mill from one load point only


My ore reserve people can estimate the typical changes
in ore grade going to the mill
My mill people can tell me whether this will upset my
recovery rates at the mill (financially upsetting the mill
will cost more at most metal mines than optimizing my
truck and loader fleet can save)

It is very possible we will be told that our trucks


and loaders are too darn big for practical grade
control at a mine this size.

Lets Put the Tire Heating Issue to


Rest

A Cat 793 needs 46/90R57 Tires

The tire is rated at 630 ton miles per hour


(ie a load of 1 ton on 1 tire traveling at 1
Mile per hour is 1 ton mile per hour)
(The tables are from the Cat Handbook)

Enter This Into FPC

I am going to the fleet input tab and using the Tmph Limit field.

Now For Results


Go for the Production and
Cost Tab and the
Tire Temp Subtab.

We See the Average Number of Tons


Load on Each Tire

Interesting to note that its the front tires that take the worst load (these tires are
Not double like those in back)

We Check Tire Heating at the Technical


Maximum Speeds for the Truck

As we can see we are just barely over-rating on the front tires.

Then We Adjust

A real operator never operates the truck and mechanical theoretical maximum and
A real operator does not work an 8 hour shift with no breaks (remember the 84%
Shift efficiency). Assume this allows some tire cooling and we are at 82% of
Tire capacity. We wont blow out the tires.
(if the temperature is 120 or 140 for long periods of time we would have to reduce
The tire rating. If we ran a driverless truck we might also have an issue).

Time for the Cost Issue

For this I will simply illustrate putting in


information for another truck. (not our 793)
but it gets the point across.

Truck Production Costs

Divided into Ownership and Operating Costs


Ownership includes

Annualized Investment Costs


Taxes and Insurance
Tax advantages

Operating Costs are Incurred as Vehicle


performs service

Operating Costs

Fuel
Tires
Lubricants
Repair
Operators

Setting Costs In FPC


On Fleet Input Tab
Use the Hourly
Cost Button

Sub Menu Divides Owning and


Operating Cost

Using Menu Requires a lot of side


calculations
Latest Editions of Cat Handbook
Has removed cost estimating
Sections. Have to revert to
Earlier issues (which we have
Online)
Lets Go for Fuel First

Getting Fuel Consumption Rates

We get
About
17 gallons/hr
Our truck is
A 777

We assumed
$2.0/gal.
17*$2=
$34/hr

Our Conditions are Medium

Info from 29th Ed Cat Handbook

Input Our Fuel Cost


(Ok you would not buy $1/gallon really)

Lets go for the Lube


Filter, Oil and Grease

Enter the Lube/Filter/Grease

Terex rule of thumb was


High and 10% of fuel

Undercarriage is a dozer
Or tracked machine
Thing 0 here
Repair Reserve Next

Vehicle Life Impacts Repair Costs


Table from Cat Handbook
29th Edition (online)

Cat 777 will last 40,000 to


60,000 hours
Under Average Conditions
About 50,000

Repair Reserve Tables


Cat 777 has a base
Repair reserve cost
Of $10/hour

Actual cost Varies with Life of


Machine
If we go for
A 50,000 hour
Life we will
Pay about
1.5 times what
Is in the table
Or $15/hour

Enter Our Data

Lets do Tires
Next

Need to Get Tire Life


Where most tires wear out
But some cut is zone B
An average is 3,000 hours
If retread cost is about 1.5
Times normal tire and
Life is about 1.75
Cat Handbook does not
Give a cost.

Western Mine Cost Service Has


Books of Costs

Including Tires in the


Supply section

This resource is
Available online for
Students or by
Subscription fee for
Commercial users.

Find Our 100 Ton Cat 777

Lists about $8,881

A Calculation of Tire Cost

6 tires * $8,900 each is $53,400


Because of heating considerations Im not
retreading
$53,400 / 3,000 hours = 17.8/hour

Adding into FPC


Now Lets Go for
Operator

Western Mine Cost Service Has


Labor Surveys

Production Truck
Drivers getting
About $15.6

Another Source Is the US Bureau of


Labor Statistics
Note that I can pull
Pay and Benefit by
Area and Occupation

Industries Are Listed By NAICS


Code Numbers

Find the Best Match

Looks like mine


Machine operators
In quarries average
$15.9 /hr

Comment on Estimating

In addition to books, manuals and internet sources


Remember the Buddy Network
Excerpts from Trade Journals
Your Companies Own Historical Cost Records
Local Union Contracts or State Wage Scales
Vendor Quotes

Cooking Our Estimate

Normally there are other costs

Unemployment, workers comp, social security,


vacation, health etc.
You can calculate specifically or use rule of
thumb estimating
40-60% burden
Ill go at low end for quarry

1.4 * $15.75 = $22.05

Input and Switch to Ownership

Hmm Looks like


It costs about
$70.2/hr to run.

One of My First Issues in How Long


it Will Last

Input My Knowns
I already scheduled
2772 hrs per year
With 80% availability
In my example

I also know the truck should last about 50,000 hours


At 2,218 hours per year that about 22.5 years

Getting My Truck Cost


Using Western
Mine Cost
Service

Looks like Ill be


About $1,062,000
For my Cat 777

Price and Tires


Truck weighs 161,000 lbs or
1,610 units of 100 lbs use $4/100
Weight rule to estimate freight about
$7,000 double for assembly

Most Prices are Quoted at the


Factory Your have freight
And assembly (I added a little
Extra as you saw)

Tires are a wear item so often


They are deducted from the price
To avoid double counting

The Issue of Taxes and Insurance


Rule of thumb is that Tax and Insurance
Are about 5% (2.5% each) of
Average Annual Investment
(I wish they would call it average annual value)
As vehicles values go down so does tax on insurance
Average value of calculation is
(N+1)/2N * Cost where N is life
Substitute and crank
33/64*$1,600,000 = $825,000 * 0.025 = $20,625

Griping About FPC

FPC does not handle time value of money


Taxes and Insurance are high in the early
years and low in the late years
A mathematical average does not show what
this can do when investors are looking for a
return on money

The Interest Problem

If money is borrowed most of the interest


comes early
Ill show a method for getting time value of
money into it even if FPC tries to ignore it.

From Engineering Economics Get the Interest


Rate Comparison Spreadsheet
Standard Fixed Period Compound Interest Loan

9
1
0.09
1
0.09
10
1600000
0
0
0
0
0

Interest Rate
Number of Compounding Periods/Year
Period interest rate (as a decimal)
Number of Payments/Year
Payment Interest Rate (as a decimal)
Years for Loan Payoff
Loan Amount
Down Payment Required
Set Up Fees
Set Up Fees Rolled into Loan
Points Up Front
Points Rolled into Loan

249312.1 Initial Guess for Payment

249312.1
249312.8
893121.7
0

Payment Amount
Final Payment Amount
Interest Paid
Fees Paid

Put in that I borrow


Money at 9% over
10 years to pay for
The Truck
0 Points Cost
0 Points Cost

The Spreadsheet Gives a Yearly


History of Interest Payments
Period
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Debt
1600000
1494688
1379898
1254776
1118394
969737.6
807701.8
631082.9
438568.3
228727.3
0
0

Interest
144000
134521.9
124190.8
112929.9
100655.5
87276.38
72693.17
56797.46
39471.14
20585.46
0
0

Payment
249312.1
249312.1
249312.1
249312.1
249312.1
249312.1
249312.1
249312.1
249312.1
249312.8
0
0

Principal
105312.1
114790.2
125121.3
136382.2
148656.6
162035.7
176618.9
192514.6
209841
228727.3
0
0

Use Excels Copy function


And copy the interest
Column and paste it into
Class Assistant
(Another Engineering
Economics Spreadsheet)

Paste My Interest Cash Flow Into the


Cash Flow Analyzer in Class Assistant

Get the Total Life Cycle Cost of the


Interest
A typical mine looks
For 15% rate of return
The truck goes into
Almost immediate
Service time zero
Lasts for 32 years
An equivalent stream
Of interest over 32
Years is $79,378

Plug it Into FPC


I could have done
The total life
Cycle cost trick to
The Insurance
And Property Tax
Too

At this point I know it costs me


$107.85/hr to own the truck

When I Click Ok on the Subscreen I Know


Have Total Hourly Cost for My Truck

See! There it is!

This Still Needs to Be Done for My


Loader

Much will be the same as we just did for our truck


A Couple tid-bits for cable shovels
The repair cost is a function of digging conditions and
tonnage moved

Very Hard 5 cents/ton


Hard 4 cents
Medium 3 cents
Easy 2 cents

Cable Shovels use about 0.6 KWH of electricity


per cubic yard of loose rock moved.

FPC Strengths and Weaknesses

It goes into truck and loader fleets in a very


complete way.
Weakness It calculates a specific load of material
over a specific road with a specific truck fleet
May be more than one road to move the load to the
destination
FPC has no selection capacity beyond what you select

MineSight has a built in haulage routine

If there is more than one route it just picks the shortest

In practice roads may have different capacities and you


regulate traffic flow on the fly
No standard package can optimize this

FPCs Catastrophic Weakness

Probability of Available
It treats the entire truck and loader fleet as one
entity each.
Ie if the trucks are 90% available then the entire
truck fleet is available 90% of the time and the entire
fleet is down 10% of the time.
If loaders are 90% available then all loaders work
90% of the time and all loaders are down 10% of the
time

Over-all production available 0.9*0.9 = 0.81


81% of the time

The Impact

FPC is right if you have 1 truck and 1 loader


Reality of 5 trucks is that

You can have 5 trucks running


4 trucks running
3 trucks running
2 trucks running
1 truck running
The whole darn fleet down

No it does not all average out you bunching and fleet


match very
FPC under-predicts your fleet capacity
(some suggested cycle times are optimistic so they get some
cancelation by luck but for millions of dollars luck is rather
lame)

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