Happening

The Rotem mine is located in the Negev desert in southern Israel. The phosphate belt crosses Negev, extending from Turkey to Morocco, and contains rich phosphate deposits in Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Israel. Rotem is one of the deposits, owned by Rotem Amfert Negev Ltd., a company that produces phosphates, fertilizers, chemicals and phosphates. The Rotem mine was operated by three contractors using a Liebherr 100t excavator.

Liebherr R9150 mining excavator

One of the contractors is Taavura Holdings Ltd., which has been a distributor and customer of Liebherr earth-rock equipment, mining excavators and mobile cranes since 1979. In 2015, Taavura received the task of increasing the annual total amount of topsoil to be removed by 33% from 2014.

New R9150 Outperforms Mature R984C

In order to increase efficiency, Taavura decided to gradually replace its six R984C fleet with the new Liebherr R9150. The first hydraulic excavator R9150 was put into use in the summer of 2015. The other two will be delivered in 2016 and will be delivered one after the other. Taavura's R9150 team will be equipped with a 10.6m3 backhoe bucket ( more than 8.5m3 of R984C ) to remove topsoil material with a bulk density of 1.5t/m3. In order to optimise the efficiency of Tavuura, Liebherr delivered its "high performance" bucket solutions, increasing capacity while maximizing the useful life of the bucket structure. Depending on the truck type loaded, the R9150 will be 15%-20% more efficient than the R984C. At Rotem, R 9150 loads 100t trucks six times, compared to eight times for R984C. In the performance test, the average cycle time measured was 22 seconds, which increased the efficiency of the R9150 by 26% compared to the R984C.

High fuel efficiency V12 Liebherr engine

The R9150 mining excavator is equipped with a Liebherr D9512 diesel engine developed specifically for the Liebherr 100t mining excavator. This is a 12-cylinder engine that uses the latest engine management system to deliver high performance in mining applications. The engine is turbocharged and common-rail direct injection and provides 565 kW ( 757 hp ) output power ( 1800 rpm ). The R9150's working weight is 10 tons larger than that of the R984C, and its total power is increased by 12%. Therefore, the theoretical fuel consumption of the R9150 is expected to be about 5% higher than that of the R984C.

Construction Site

Performance tests conducted at Rotem indicated that the R984C and R9150 had similar hourly oil consumption. Although the Liebherr D9512 is a new engine, it stems from Liebherr's extensive diesel engine development and manufacturing experience; this engine is designed to meet Taavura's requirements for machine availability (more than 5,500 hours of machine use per year) and operational cost efficiency. .

Continuous operation under harsh conditions

The Negev region is a well-known dry place with very little precipitation: these conditions can easily create large amounts of dust. The temperature in this area often climbs to 50°C (131°F) with very little air circulation. Without adequate protection of the excavator, these climatic conditions will degrade the performance of the excavator. The R9150 uses a high-performance cooling system that uses a hydrostatic transmission fan and electronic immediate-response speed control to allow the engine and hydraulic system to operate reliably and continuously in this hot environment.

Technical data

working equipment

In order to cope with dust pollution, the intake system is equipped with an additional centrifugal prefilter installed upstream of the base air filter. This advanced filtration system, coupled with a dust removal system, helps to extend the air filter replacement cycle and optimize the internal combustion of the engine. Finally, the cab is equipped with a booster system to keep dirt out of the cab and ensure maximum comfort and safety for the operator. (This article comes from Liebherr)