Goonyella Riverside Mine had been looking for solutions

in respect to an alternative option to the huge antiquated pedals that had been around for some 30 odd years.

 

The original design was problematic in the fact that the pedals were heavy and cumbersome and operator fatigue was a real problem. When these pedals were designed many years ago parts weren’t an issue and now we were finding that 30 year old parts were hard to find, expensive and the repair/maintenance time was a long and difficult process.

 

The cost of downtime from old part failures (or any parts failure for that matter) costs a fortune, anywhere from $1,000 - $3,000 a minute depending on the size of the dragline and this really cuts into the bottom line profit.

 

Another problem we were faced with was the machines uncontrolled movements and this in itself caused safety issues. We were looking to reduce this as safety is paramount on any mining site.

 

We were looking to increase our operator comfort as well and anything that would do this we were willing to look at.

 

When we originally tested the Owen Slim Line Pedal on the Spohn and Burkhardt Console we did so with around 80 operators and  listening to their feedback! We compared it at the same time with another console and  pedal package on the market and the results/comments  on the Owen Slim Line Pedal were outstanding .It was based on this feedback that we made our decision to purchase the Pedal and the console as a package. Because of the design of the Swing Pedal we now have been able to address the ergonomics of reduced movement to the ankle which had been a concern for our Work Place, Health and Safety officers.

 

The ease of serviceability was also a huge plus for us. It was actually designed with ease of serviceability in mind. If there is a need to change over a unit for servicing or replace any of the electrical components, we simply unplug the cables, unscrew four bolts and the unit is out.

 

Since we have  converted to this new swing pedal system there have been 0 failures, no safety incidents, good operator feedback and lower fatigue issues.