Independent drive four-wheel quarry front-end loader.
The hefty bucket of the LE TOURNEAU loader is 7.2 m wide. Two limousines stacked on top of each other can easily fit in.
Technical characteristics of the LeTourneau L 2350 loader
Power -1715 kW.
Carrying capacity - 72.574 tons.
Engine - Detroit 16V Series 4000.
Promotional video:
Bucket volume - 40.52 cubic meters.
Digging depth - 0.25 m.
Clearance - 0.5 m.
The length of the body is 20.3 m.
The wheelbase is 7.88 m.
Weight - 262,176 tons.
Arizona, Ray Quarry, where ASARCO is mining copper ore in an open pit. There is so much copper here that even the water that is poured over quarry primers to nail down the swirling dust immediately turns green due to the oxidation of copper salts in the ore.
Stand at the bottom of this giant funnel, which has already occupied 200 km2 of the earth's surface, follow your gaze up the stepped walls, and the history of this quarry will open before you in full view - right up to the first level, which was developed a century ago, using mainly pickaxes for this and shovels.
And here, at the bottom, the world's largest wheel front loader, LeTourneau L-2350, is picking the ground. "In one bite" he picks up almost 75 tons of ore with his giant bucket.
The engine power of this monster is 2300 hp. Hefty steel teeth welded into the bottom of his bucket gleam brighter than silver. This monster constantly cleans them, biting into the ore deposit.
Its eternally gaping mouth is sharpened to slurp rock, crushed by explosives, without stopping. Before him is an endless line of huge dump trucks, waiting for their portion to take it up for processing. Like almost all such wheel loaders, the LeTourneau has an articulated frame and maneuvers by turning the front of the frame relative to the rear.
This immense steering gear is powered by a suitable hydraulic drive with a working pressure of 240 bar. Detroit Diesel's 16-cylinder V-diesel is the size of a Ford F-350 pickup.
The giant cannot accelerate to more than 15 km / h, but even in this mode, the L-2350 consumes 4000 liters of diesel fuel per day. The car, which cost $ 7.6 million, has such awkward dimensions that it turned out to be impossible to transport it entirely, and they assembled it right on the spot, in a quarry.
When the hard worker LeTourneau L-2350 has outlived his life, he will be dismantled for scrap in the same quarry. All his working life - from cradle to grave - he is doomed to spend in this pit.
Only veteran tractor drivers are allowed to operate the machine. Such is, for example, Ruben Rosalez, who began his career in the mine. His ponderous figure, graying hair, gathered in a ponytail, faded jacket would look great in the saddle of a Harley. He says, either jokingly or seriously, that the main thing in his profession is to learn how to orientate in the surrounding space, to feel the world both in width and in depth.
It is worth seeing how he controls his hippo, using only two joysticks for this - one commands the movements of the loader itself, and the second - manipulates the bucket. The work of such a professional is truly a ballet on an iron elephant.
My perch, a small reclining chair next to the operator's seat, reveals a four-meter wheel far below, wrapped in chain mail of steel chains. “These chains are not from slipping,” says Rosalez. "That way the tires last much longer."
The whole tractor is covered with a thick layer of dust - if you wash it, you will probably gain a couple of kilograms of pure copper. But today we climbed into the cockpit to make the L-2350 even dirtier. “Our game is to fill all these trucks with ore,” explains Rosalez, making himself comfortable in a chair and pointing at a line of empty trucks. With these words, he gives gas and forcefully plunges the bucket teeth into the dirt slope. Having collected a full bucket, LeTourneau lifts it up and almost rears up. Its sides are banging against the slippery soil walls of the quarry, and in general you feel like on board a boat while mooring in good waves.
Here Rosalez attaches his bucket over one of the dump trucks and, with a deep exhalation, dumps the entire load into its body. “I’ve already gotten used to this rhythm and almost don’t feel all my movements,” says Ruben. “In general, I like this game”. Without losing the rhythm, he fills the body in three runs and presses the whistle: "Next!"
This truck is equipped with BRIDGESTONE / FIRESTONE tires. Their height is 4 m, and their width is 170 cm. If these wheels are not put in a chain mail cover, the tires will last only six months. The cost of one wheel is $ 105,000. It is not a cheap pleasure to change tires on this giant.
The integrated LINCS system takes part in the control and management of the forklift. Thanks to it, the most important information about the machine flows to the operator: the mass of ore in the bucket; current state of mechanisms and assemblies; cycle time.
Through the main system module (MSM), it is possible to control traction, power unit speed, hydraulics, limiters. More than three and a half hundred MSM inputs and outputs are installed at critical points of the loader. All the necessary information for the last month of work is available at any time.
The loader has an articulated frame. A standard solution for this class of vehicles. The operation of the grandiose steering mechanism provides a hydraulic drive with a working pressure of 240 atmospheres.