Leading Caterpillar® dealer WesTrac, in collaboration with its subsidiary Hushpak, has delivered 19 Cat ®793F Large Mining Trucks that feature sound suppression.
WesTrac delivered these Cat® 793F trucks over the last two years to Hunter Valley-based mining customer The Bloomfield Group.
WesTrac was tasked to deliver a solution that would align the noise level of the Cat® 793F trucks to Bloomfield’s requirements at its Bloomfield and Rix’s Creek mines, located near the residential areas of Maitland Singleton, respectively.
“Caterpillar offer ready-to-order sound suppression kits for mining machines, but in some cases, there are gaps in the product offering. Many of our customers have unique needs, especially in areas like the Hunter Valley, where mine sites are in closer proximity to towns and residential areas,” WesTrac NSW Strategic Growth Manager Alan Corcoran said.
WesTrac’s equipment specialists and engineers collaborated with Hushpak, a standalone engineering business focusing on sound suppression and attenuation on mobile and fixed plants.
The solution for the 793F trucks considered airflow, weld locations, centre of gravity, visibility, and access for maintenance.
“Working with our subsidiary Hushpak, we devised a solution that passed the sound output tests in the first instance,” Corcoran added.
Bloomfield Plant and Equipment Manager David Worboys and his team settled on the 220-tonne class Caterpillar 793F Large Mining Truck after their extensive market research in 2020. Since then, they have accepted 19 units of the 793F trucks from WesTrac’s Tomago branch.
Worboys added that the trucks that feature the Hushpak-engineered sound attenuation package contributed to ongoing site noise compliance and minimising impact on nearby communities.
“We pride ourselves on being good neighbours, and therefore we make every effort to minimise the noise impacts on them. We use engineering best practice where we can, to achieve as high sound output reduction as we can,” Worboys said.
