In order to boost productivity and to move coal quicker, Solar Sources needed a larger truck scale. METTLER TOLEDO supplied a heavy-duty truck scale capable of weighing new off-road trucks with higher capacities. The scales include POWERCELL® MTX® load cells which protect against costly downtime caused by lightning strikes.
As an experienced veteran of the mining industry, Solar Sources is always focused on efficiency and continuous improvement. At its mine in Cannelburg, Indiana, the company had relied on contractors to haul the coal from the mining site to the coal yard where it is staged for testing and blending. The contract trucks were limited to hauling 25t loads, and the availability of the trucks was never guaranteed. Solar Sources determined that productivity could be improved significantly by purchasing its own larger trucks. This would allow the company to haul more coal each trip and ensure that vehicles were available when needed.
In 2008, Solar Sources purchased six new Caterpillar 770 trucks for the Cannelburg mine. These off-road vehicles typically haul 40 tons of coal, a 60% improvement over the contract trucks that had been used. Each truckload of coal that is delivered to the coal yard must be weighed to track inventory and mine output.
Because the new trucks were too heavy and wide for the existing truck scale, Solar Sources turned to Premier Scales and Systems for the best off-road truck scale on the market, a METTLER TOLEDO Model 7566 with a rated capacity of 250t. Solar Sources is now able to weigh the massive Caterpillar trucks, increasing the productivity of its operation. Today, the Cannelburg mine weighs about 5,000 tons of coal per day across the new METTLER TOLEDO truck scale.
Over the years, Solar Sources had experienced first-hand how lightning could disable its analog truck scales. Lightning strikes had shut down the company’s scales, costing days of lost productivity and requiring the replacement of destroyed components. Each incident cost the company thousands of dollars and required the scale to be recertified.
The new truck scale uses POWERCELL MTX load cells with the StrikeShield lightning protection system. The StrikeShield lightning protection system gives Solar Sources the assurance that its scales will keep working through the worst storms.