Energy company Shell Lubricants South Africa’s new Shell grease truck will improve efficiencies and safety standards in the mining sector by servicing openpit, plant and underground heavy-duty equipment such as draglines, shovels, excavators, mills and kilns.

The new truck was launched last month during an event at Shell’s office in Bryanston, Johannesburg.

Shell Lubricants South Africa GM Jan Willem Zuidema said at the event that the truck was the second grease truck that the company had produced, but the first one that it had fully designed and manufactured in South Africa.

“The new grease truck is a result of Shell’s experience with grease-pumping services in the mining sector, where we continue to deliver value through partnering with the sector.”

Zuidema highlighted that local mining operations could save up to R40-million over five years when using the new truck in conjunction with Shell Lubricant’s existing services.

“To put this figure into perspective: our customers inform us that downtime, without using heavy-duty equipment, can cost them up to R450 000 an hour in lost production revenues,” he explained.

Zuidema asserted that Shell achieved these savings for customers because of its team of lubrication experts, who work directly with mines to understand existing challenges and identify inefficiencies.

Shell Lubricants South Africa technical manager Hentie Spangenberg explained during the launch that the first grease truck was designed to Australian specifications, while the second truck was designed specifically to South African specifications.

“The first truck was designed to transport heavy loads over generally flat areas and was an eight-wheel configuration with a double front axle.”

Spangenberg stated that the first grease truck’s design was not ideally suited to local opencast mining operations, which generally had harsh and rough terrains.

“Therefore, the new grease truck is far more mobile and versatile than the previous one, which makes it well suited to local mining conditions,” he said.

Additionally, Shell Lubricants South Africa lubrication services expert Kobus Visser highlighted that the new six-wheel-drive truck took about one year to design and manufacture.

Further, the truck is equipped with 1 400 kg rockets – bulk tank facilities with hydraulically driven grease pumps – that are powered solely by the truck’s engine, thereby ensuring that they do not require any additional power sources.

The new truck also has grease-flow meters and hose reels.

Visser highlighted that the company had also gained more insight regarding the flow characteristics of grease, subsequently leading to the improved design for the new grease truck. This ensured that the flow of grease from the rocket to the pumps was significantly better, thereby making the whole process “faster, more reliable and user friendly”.

The truck pumps grease into a mine’s machines at rates of between
30 kg/min and 50 kg/min.

Visser noted that an additional benefit of the new truck was its closed lubrication system, which reduced the potential for contamination and safety hazards.

“Safety is a key consideration in the handling of lubricants and the truck enables us to meet the safety standards that we set for ourselves and to support our customers [in their efforts to be] fully compliant with the latest mining regulations,” added Zuidema.

Shell’s grease trucks will service mines in Witbank and Middelburg, in Mpumalanga, and the company is also considering opportunities to use the trucks at mines in Rustenburg, in the North West, and in the Northern Cape.