ABSTRACT
Diesel trucks increased in size and recent trends indicate a shift to 200 ton mechanical type vehicles. The cost and availability of qualified labor is an additional factor in today’s mine planning. In North America, within the last 10 years, there has been a trend to apply loading units, front end loaders principally, with crushers and conveyors again in the cement and aggregate industry. To replace the trucks with conveyors in the loading transport cycle requires that crushing be added so that the material sizing is compatible with conveyor transport. The principal of multiple benches has been employed for years by compact and smaller type bucket wheel excavator (BWEs) to overcome the limited height capability of this type of BWE. A description is presented of five applications of the shovel - crusher - conveyor system. This chapter presents several applications that were evaluated in the use of shovels directly coupled to mobile crushers - conveyors.
