Special Adaptations CAT6015 - Snijder BV

SPECIAL ADAPTATIONS // CAT 6015B WORLD EXCLUS IVE

3-MONTH GESTATION

FOR BIG CAT

Dutch firm Snijder has turned one of Cat’s new baby miners into something quite remarkable writes Steven Vale

Cat 385 to a Hitachi EX1900. A recent request aterpillar’s old 5000 Series was to take a factory-fresh Cat 6015B and convert excavators have been used as the it so that it could lift over seven tonnes at basis of many extreme conversions 34 metres from the centre of the slew ring. over the years, but Europe’s supply of suitable used examples has dwindled to next Their in-house engineering department soon had a detailed design worked up and after to nothing. Conversions of small Hitachi client approval it was then down to the mining excavators have proved popular, but workshop team to bring the drawings to life. the market has long awaited a replacement Unfortunately that from Cat of their once meant cancelling the popular 5110B model.

“TAKE A FACTORY-FRESH workshop’s summer The new 140-tonne 6015B model certainly CAT 6015B AND CONVERT holiday plans, as the brand new excavator had got heads turning at the IT SO THAT IT COULD LIFT to be stripped, re-worked, Bauma show earlier this assembled, tested, year and the first OVER SEVEN TONNES dismantled and prepared examples have already AT 34 METRES” for shipment on a vessel started to appear on that was due to depart for European job sites. As the remote jobsite on an Indian Ocean island reported in the October issue STC, the in just three months time. well-known Dutch engineering firm, has already got their hands on an example and converted it to a 30-metre long-reach machine capable of REQUIRED CHANGES wielding a 3cu.m bucket. However, the 6015B There was no requirement for the excavator’s that recently left Snijder’s yard is truly unique. standard front-end equipment, nor any of its Examples of Snijder’s work have graced these hydraulic cylinders. The four vehicles carrying pages on many occasions over the years, from a the components of the rest of the excavator

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On this much-modified Cat 6015B the new front-end equipment stretches 34 metres from the centre of the slew ring.

arrived at Snijder’s yard at Hoorn to the north of Amsterdam in mid-June.

Prior to the excavator turning-up, the Snijder team had started to fabricate a new boom and dipper. This workshop had previously made 45/46m specialist long-reach booms and dippers, but this project represents the longest front-end equipment they have made that is designed to carry a bucket, in this case a 3.4-cubic-metre example from a Cat 385.

The new three-piece design comprises a 5m base boom, a main 15m boom and a 14m dipper stick. The base boom is similar to that made by Snijder for its other monster excavator projects. The 21-tonne boom is secured to the boom base using one of two sets of attachment points. This arrangement allows the angle of the main boom to be quickly

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SPECIAL ADAPTATIONS // CAT 6015B altered to provide either maximum horizontal reach or maximum digging depth.

When finished, this will be done hydraulically, but at the time of our visit the boom was pinned mechanically.

There was no need to make any changes to the excavator’s engine, as the 813hp Cat C27 block provides plenty of power. The standard 1700-litre diesel tank was deemed to be sufficient, as was the 956-litre hydraulic oil tank.

But when the excavator arrived it was all hands on deck and there were several seven-day weeks, and the workshop lights often burned until late in the evening. One of the first of many big jobs was to separate the excavator’s H-frame from its track frames. The running gear was then removed and the track frames sandblasted to remove the paintwork.

It sounds incredible, but the brand new components were then cut in half. An additional

metre of metal was then inserted, one result of FINAL ASSEMBLY which was that the lengthened 8m-long tracks The most challenging part of the whole project gained additional bottom rollers and an extra was meeting the non-negotiable three-month top one. The 6015B’s standard track pad width deadline. Given extra time, the Snijder team is 700mm, but would like to have widened the cab and Cat also offers increased its height, principally both 900mm to accommodate the barrage of “THE WORKSHOP TEAM and 1000mm computer screens the excavator HAD TO PULL OUT ALL THE will carry in its new role. But versions.

Naturally, STOPS JUST TO COMPLETE they did not have time and, as Snijder chose it was, the workshop team had THE JOBS THAT HAD TO for the widest to pull out all the stops just to option for complete the jobs that had to BE DONE ON TIME” maximum be done on time. stability. All told, We were sworn to secrecy each track unit now weighs around 25 tonnes. until now, but with kind permission from The track frames are connected to each the Snijder family we were invited to follow other by a pair of substantial nine-tonne the most exciting part of the project, the beams, which provide an overall track width final assembly process that began in the last when using 1000mm pads of just over 7m. few days of July.

The first job was to tow the 48-tonne upper-structure out of the workshop and lift it on to its new undercarriage. The excavator’s H-frame was rotated by 90 degrees and bolted to the top of the track widening beams. It was a flawless lift, and all 72 of the M36 securing bolts were quickly put in place. The same bolts were used to connect the two new widening beams to the track frames. Each one weighs nearly 4kg, that’s nearly 600kg in undercarriage fastenings alone!

The next job for the day was to fit the new boom base that, complete with three main lift cylinders, weighs around 17.5 tonnes.

Previously a counterweight extension frame had been fabricated and welded to the rear of the excavator. This provides space for a pair of additional 13.5-tonne wafer weights. With these weights bolted in place the excavator’s standard 17-tonne counterweight was lifted

From start to finish the conversion took just three months and the 200-tonner is now at work on a remote site in the Indian Ocean.

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SPECIAL ADAPTATIONS // CAT 6015B able to swap the position of the dipper cylinder into place. The counterweight features provides the best of both worlds, dependent extended sides that conceal the two wafer upon if the excavator is being used for either weights. materials handling or for digging work.

When fitted it is a neat and tidy job, which With all the plumbing in place and the gives the impression of there being just a single hydraulic lines pressurised, outsized counterweight on the rear of the machine. When all “ALL ATTENTION IS, the excavator was finally ready to try out its new metal three weights were in place QUITE RIGHTLY, muscles. Extensive tests to they were joined at the top by a couple of steel plates, FOCUSED ON THAT confirm its maximum lift capability – it managed safely providing a total weight just MIND-BOGGLING to lift nearly 10 tonnes at shy of 45 tonnes to balance the metres – then followed. long front end.

BOOM AND DIPPER 34The excavator stands taller Subsequent days saw the COMBINATION” than a standard 6015B, necessary preparations to get thanks to its H frame being the engine running and the bolted to the widening beams, not directly to hydraulics ready to receive the front-end the track frames. Snijder’s changes to the components. counterweight blend in so precisely with the Snijder was only too willing to assist with the rear end of the excavator that, at first glance, basic technical specification of their latest it looks as if it left the factory that way. All this creation, but who the client is and much of the means that all attention is, quite rightly, detailed design work must remain under focused on that mind-boggling boom and wraps. This includes the in-house designed dipper combination, which will work with a hydraulic cylinders, all of which are described 3.4cu.m bucket at a reach of 34m. as more powerful that the standard Cat units.

The precise weight of Snijder’s creation is Tweaks to the hydraulic system also remain a yet to be confirmed, but we reckon that the secret, but we are able to reveal that Snijder modifications to the standard 140-tonne 6015B added a third hydraulic service together with mean that it now tips the scales at over high-tech joysticks. The third service is to 200 tonnes. But with the deadline day fast provide a bucket tilt function and will also approaching there was not much time to allow the excavator to work more effectively admire their handiwork, as the excavator had with a hydraulic hammer. to be stripped down and the components The next major task was to fit the massive trucked to meet the ship’s loading schedule. boom and dipper. Unlike the top-mounted By the time this issue appears the excavator position of the dipper stick cylinder on a – the largest Cat Snijder has ever modified standard 6015B, Snijder has fitted their front – will have arrived in its new Indian Ocean end with both an upper and a lower mounting point. A technique they have employed on previous extreme conversions, the firm say that being

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It was all hands on deck to meet the three-month deadline, but by the middle of August the excavator was ready for testing.

home, will have been assembled and put to work. The modified 6015B is expected to be kept busy on the remote island for the next couple of years. It joins three other Snijder creations at work on the project; a 32m-reach Hitachi EX1200 and a 250-tonne version of an EX1900 that lifts 20t at 28m and, last but by no means least, the Rockbuster. This is a modified Cat 385 that when configured with its 21m boom, an 18.3m main dipper and a 7m-long supplementary stick, is able to stretch out and nudge the 45m mark.

With two 6015Bs already modified by separate companies to provide long-reach capabilities, it looks like the Dutch excavator conversion industry has, at long last, found a suitable replacement for a 5110B. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS EARTHMOVERS would like to thank everyone at Snijder for allowing us to document the proceedings.

Special thanks to Richard and Ronald Snijder, Mark Vreeburg and 6015B project leader Daan Wolkers and his team.

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