We assist in creating more sustainable mining operations
Can you provide an overview of Austin Engineering and its role in the mining equipment sector?
Austin Engineering is a leading global designer and manufacturer of customised loading and hauling solutions, including truck trays, buckets, water tanks and other equipment used in the mining industry.
We partner with mining companies, contractors, and OEMs to create innovative engineering solutions that deliver productivity, efficiency and safety improvements to multi-commodity open-cut and underground operations.
We have operations and manufacturing facilities across APAC (Australia and Indonesia), North America and South America, plus an extensive global partner network. We ensure a complete service through the product’s life cycle, offering on and off-site repair, maintenance, and spare parts.
What sets Austin Engineering apart from other companies in the design and manufacturing of dump truck bodies, buckets, and other mining equipment?
At our heart, we are a design and engineering company. We have been building mining equipment for more than half a century and therefore our intellectual property on customised mining equipment is a significant advantage.
We continually use technology and innovation to stay leaders in design and manufacture in order to provide high quality products that deliver returns on investment to our mining customers across the globe.
Our global reach also sets us apart from our peers. We have operations across the world’s principal mining regions with teams on the ground that work with customers to design products that specifically suit a particular mine site and commodity application. We are also specialists in providing solutions that are particular to an operation or solving problems or mining challenges.
We can export product anywhere in the world and provide customer services and technical support across the life of our products, providing repairs, maintenance, replacement, and spare parts.
What are the current trends in the mining equipment industry that Austin Engineering is focusing on?
Customers want flexibility in design because they want to get the most efficiency out of their operation, and therefore want products that provide that efficiency and a real return on investment.
Because we have local teams on the ground across a number of global locations, our customers know that we understand the specifics of mining in different jurisdictions. We make products that suit different ores and levels of moisture that accommodate different terrains and environments. And our products are all designed to perform optimally in each of these scenarios.
Customers also demand the best in customer service, and customer focus has been an increased business priority for Austin. Over the last 12 months we’ve have increased the size of our sales and product support function, which has helped sharpen our customer focus.
Using the latest technology an innovation to keep customers interested and grow market share is fundamental to our business. Our Mainetrack condition monitoring software is one example of where we are not only value adding to the business but providing customers with a superior product.
Mainetrack offers the most precise data on the condition of equipment so customers can track wear and time replacement of their equipment more accurately. This is an excellent monitor of equipment health but also avoids early replacement of equipment, CAPEX spend and allows for better maintenance planning.
Our ITrip bucket door latching, and control system reduces maintenance intervals and increases the service life of the components by up to 18 months in some instances.
As the mining industry seeks ways to further decarbonise, we have responded to offer more sustainable product solutions in terms of the amount of steel used in manufacture and offerings that mean trucks can carry more ore per load, reducing overall tyre wear and fuel usage per tonne carried.
How does Austin Engineering stay competitive in the global market for mining equipment?
As mentioned, having local presence in the world’s major mining jurisdictions means we have excellent knowledge of the regions we operate in, and we can directly liaise with and support our customer base on the ground.
We are a fully integrated global business, and our manufacturing processes are almost fully streamlined, or like-for-like, which means we can use our various operations to support each other. For example, if capacity was ever stretched in one facility around a large order, another facility can absorb the overflow and provide exactly the same product and quality.
In the past couple of years, we have established another business unit called AustBuy, which is leveraging our size and scale to procure inputs in bulk, particularly steel. This is enabling Austin to stay cost competitive in the market.
As I said before, we are primarily engineers and so we are coming up with mining products that are outperforming the previous offerings all the time. We are abreast of the latest technologies and are constantly evolving the business and its offering. It’s resulting in better, more sustainable products.
What steps is Austin Engineering taking to promote sustainability within your manufacturing processes and products?
As the mining industry continues to decarbonise and reduce emissions, we are providing products to assist in creating more sustainable mining operations. We offer lighter-weight products that require less steel in manufacture but are engineered to retain strength and limit wear. Our high performance trays and buckets have a higher payload, reducing fuel, tyre wear and emissions per tonne of material carried.
Internally, we concentrate on optimising steel usage across the business, meaning there is less scrap to recycle. We currently recycle 96 per cent of any waste we do generate across our operations globally. We are installing solar panels into our fabrication facilities where we can deliver renewable energy for manufacturing in the future.
Externally, we are participating in a couple of collaborations that are improving sustainability in the industry. The first is the provision of a customised lightweight tray for a diesel Cat 777 haul truck that has been retrofitted with batteries to convert to fully electric with a run time of eight hours. The project has been undertaken by Electric Power Conversions Australia and the truck is currently being trialed on mine sites in Australia.
We are also providing Thiess with refurbished chassis at its Rebuild Centre in Batam, where it’s rebuilding mining trucks and their parts instead of replacing them with new diesel trucks. It lengthens the life of the trucks and equipment and allows for time for alternative fuel technologies to come to market.
How do you see the future of mining equipment evolving, and what role will Austin Engineering play in that evolution?
Mining attachments are continually evolving to become lighter, but also more robust. At Austin, we’ve made huge progress in the design of equipment that requires less steel in manufacture but has more strength and durability than previous models.
We also anticipate a continued emphasis on alternative materials in the industry. Austin collaborates with its steel suppliers to enhance the raw steel materials used to achieve greater resistance to impact and wear, while maintaining manufacturability. We have several examples where significant improvements have been made in the raw material grades used in mining products.
Austin sees enhancements in steel continuing given its recyclability and alignment with greener practices in mining. Austin is directing efforts towards producing higher-quality products that withstand the rigors of the mining environment. Our commitment extends to offering complete turnkey solutions, incorporating recycling processes to minimise the environmental footprint of mining operations.
What are the value added services that Austin provides to the customers?
We have increased our customer relations efforts in the last 12 months, namely the size of our sales and product support function, which has helped enormously to attract and retain customers.
We provide support for the full life cycle of our products, with maintenance manuals and site inspections to encourage appropriate maintenance and operational practices. Our teams provide on-site product inspections and reviews of operating conditions, providing a detailed report and recommendations for clients. Customer visits and services including on-site truck tray fittings and spare parts support are available.
Our Mainetrack tool for trays and buckets is a major value add for customers to optimise asset efficiency and productivity. Mainetrack gives customers real-time insights and analytics to ensure assets perform at their peak.
The system offers user-friendly dashboards, predictive maintenance algorithms, and streamlined reporting tools. Similarly, customer support for Mainetrack is also provided.
A-303, Navbharat
Estates,
Zakaria Bunder Road,
Sewri (West), Mumbai - 400 015,
Maharashtra, India
+91-22-24193000
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