Safety
- Enhanced access and egress with 45-degree rear-facing boarding stair; non-slip stairs, platforms and walkways; and dual-door design that facilitates cab entry and exit and enables a quick escape.
- Panoramic view from the operator's seat for the best far-side visibility in the industry; cameras that feed five in-cab, overhead monitors to augment line of sight and elevate situational awareness; and high-efficiency, adjustable LED lights.
- Operator training seat that facilitates safe operator training, with additional emergency stop within reach.
- Safer maintenance with deck-mounted crowd machinery that allows the majority of crowd maintenance to be completed with protection from machinery house deck; stored energy locations that are clearly marked, and lock-out/tag-out points.
- Safety-enhanced electrical system, with high voltage DC bus located in the back of the drive cabinet; centralized control rack that keeps personnel away from high voltage components when troubleshooting; and shielding blocks induced currents that eliminate the need for high frequency bonding.
Operator Cab
- Reduced fatigue-causing vibration resulting from bolstered support and stability of extended machinery house underneath isolator mounted cab.
- Effortless operation and improved control response resulting from new joysticks with custom-designed ergonomic handles and “finger touch control” spring tension.
- Climate control system that automatically maintains a preset temperature.
- State-of-the-art, ergonomic operator seat, plus seat, armrest and footrest that adjust to perfectly fit wide range of body sizes.
- Intuitive and visually aesthetic display screens that adjust for brightness and contrast to meet operator preference.
Operator Productivity
- Enhanced in-cab training environment, with first-in-industry three-seat cab design; adjacently positioned trainer seat that provides optimal view of working face, facilitates communication during training, and provides ready access to the trainer emergency stop button; plus elevated observer's work station positioned behind the operator seat, which provides space for laptop and optimum visibility of operator station and digging environment.
- Optional Payload technology, which calculates material moved, monitors overloading of trucks, and empowers operators to study their loading efficiency and shift performance.
- Optional Operator Assist–Enhanced Motion Control, which enables operators to efficiently load materials and avoid poor digging practices, creates consistent machine performance across operators, and provides equal or better cycle times.
Reliability & Durability
- IGBT electric drive system with robust welded drive cabinet designed to withstand severe and consistent vibration; isolated, positive-pressure room that protects drive/controller cabinet from dust and debris; and mine-grade components that ensure performance and long, trouble-free life.
- Robust front-end design with highly crack-resistant one-piece, forged dipper handle; rotating handle design that transmits torsional stress into the hoist ropes, extending boom and dipper handle life; and crowd and retract ropes or hydraulic fluid to absorb kickback force and reduce wear and cracking at the boom/dipper handle junction.
- Crowd systems that reduce torsional stress and extend component life thanks to both traditional and innovative designs that deliver high uptime: HydraCrowd, which eliminates routine crowd/retract rope replacements and extends maintenance intervals, and traditional rope crowd, with crowd and retract ropes that absorb shock to reduce front-end crackins.
- Improved swing rack design, with one-piece piece casting that eliminates vertical segment cracks; reduced web core holes, aligned to low-stress zones on the truck frame; relocated core holes for increased web strength; and Improved weld process to provide better weld quality.
- Propel system and thermal stress-relieved crawlers and structures that eliminate residual stress in complex welded structures and offer extended life and consistent reliability; upward slanted propel motor shelves that protect components from rocks and water; and elevated drive tumbler that isolates planetary drive from ground impact shock loads.
Efficiency & Productivity
- Faster swing times resulting from reduced swing inertia of lighter front-end plus improved left-hand line-of-sight with deck-mounted crowd machinery that reduces components on the boom that would impede visibility.
- Wide-set boom point sheaves for more productive and efficient digging. with twin hoist ropes that balance dipper pull in the bank and automatically distribute digging force where it is needed most.
- Reliable dippers that boost efficiency and reduce downtime to deliver greater productivity: LatchFree Dipper design increases efficiency by reducing lost loads and eliminates maintenance on the latch assembly; and FastFil™ Dipper that is manufactured from high-strength steel and offers larger payload range and improved fill factors thanks to trapezoidal shape that accommodates the natural configuration of the load.
- More responsive integral fast propel transfer switch, which improves mode transfer and reduces dig and propel mode transition – from 2.7 seconds to 700 milliseconds.
- Third rail swing system designed to keep the rope shovel swinging longer and filling trucks faster, delivering optimum speed and cycle time; features easy-to-replace third rail, rather than roller flanges or swing rack, which serves as the primary wearing part in the system, and provides roller access without jacking up the upper half of the machine.
Ground Engaging Tools & Wire Rope
- X-4 System hammerless G.E.T., featuring Whisler style adapter matched with CapSure retention — making installation and removal faster, safer, easier and less complicated than hammered alternatives.
- Lip systems delivered ready to work, with fully machined lip surfaces that ensure a perfect fit, reducing wear and extending lip lifecycle.
- Adapter that is secured to the lip with either hammerless or traditional C-clamp and wedge retention, plus hammerless wedge retention assembly that is often reusable, helping to lower your operating costs.
- Five tip profiles designed for a broad range of applications; superior penetration and lip protection with hammerless shroud system.
- Quality Cat wire rope options for hoist, retract and crowd and well as dipper trip ropes and suspension strands; manufactured using thermal injection process that provides complete penetration of plastic into the rope to resist the unwanted effects of abrasion and impact damage by encapsulating the strands to reduce steel-to-steel contact and seal in lubricants that prolong wire life.
Technology
- Integrated Technology Package, which provides the platform to support technology expansion and features six standard technologies that enable proactive maintenance, provide data, and deliver real-time information on productivity and performance: Machine Health, Vibration Monitoring, Cat Electronics, Payload Management, Cycle Segmentation and Bearing Temperature Monitor.
- Operator Assist Technology Package, with enhancements that provide operator assist and machine self-protection without sacrificing productivity: Enhanced Motion Control, which protects the machine from operational practices that causes damage by intelligently controlling how motions are allowed to operate under certain conditions; and Machine Self Protection, a control system that detects and avoids machine self-collisions and, if a collision is imminent, arrests the machine motion to prevent or mitigate the collision.
- With Integrated Technology Package, seamless integration of Cat MineStar™ Solutions, including Fleet, which provides real-time machine tracking, assignment and productivity management; Terrain for loading, which enables high-precision management of loading operations through the use of guidance technology; and Health, which delivers critical event-based machine condition and operating data for the entire fleet.
Serviceability
- Automated maintenance procedures, including an automatic lubrication system that covers all regular lube points and a HydraCrowd system that self-monitors pressure, contamination and pump condition.
- Extended maintenance intervals thanks to HydraCrowd, which eliminates routine crowd/retract rope changes, extending major maintenance interval to two years; and LatchFree dipper, which eliminates the daily hassle of maintaining a latch bar and extends major maintenance interval.
- Easier maintenance activities thanks to walkways and platforms, factory-installed ladders inside boom, easy-to-remove roof hatches, an electro-hydraulic crowd rope take-up system that simplifies crowd rope tightening, an onboard accessible diagnostic system, and a third-rail swing system that offers access to center rollers without jacking up the shovel’s upper works.
- Streamlined AC system design with a single, centralized control rack that reduces parts requirements, and simplifies maintenance; single, compact drive cabinet that houses the controller and drives to simplify assembly, troubleshooting and maintenance; and elimination of fuses, circuit breakers and line filters.
- Third Rail Swing System, with an easy-to-replace third rail, rather than roller flanges or swing rack, which serves as the primary wearing part in the system; system provides roller access without jacking up the upper half of the machine.
- Upgraded propel drive system with accessibility from the outboard side that allows the drive tumbler and propel drive shaft to be replaced without removing the propel transmission.
Sustainability
- Entirely electric machines, which are more efficient than diesel powered machines, resulting in less heat loss and lower operating costs.
- Regenerative braking technology, which converts kinetic energy from shovel motions into electrical energy when braking, feeding that electrical energy back to the grid.
- Less waste thanks to change-out intervals that are generally longer than those for similar-sized hydraulic machines — leading to fewer component change-outs.
- Motors and gearcases that can be rebuilt, preserving raw materials, conserving energy and reducing the emissions generated when manufacturing new.
- Cat Reman and Cat Rebuild programs, which return end-of-life components to like-new condition.