Elaborating on achieving milestones with marking 100,000-hour achievement in their EX2500s, BKR Prasad of Tata Hitachi talks about how IoT technologies are enabling customers to remotely monitor operational, maintenance, and health data remotely, promoting closer collaboration, as stated by BKR Prasad of Tata Hitachi.

How is the mining equipment industry in India further contributing to the sector’s growth?

The mining equipment industry has geared up to support the growth of Infrastructure in the country. The manufacturers in the Mining equipment space have started introducing new products and technologies and exploring the possibilities of local manufacturers, which would help the industry with cost optimisation and better equipment availability. The introduction of new technologies is also the need of the hour for the mining equipment industry, which will help improve the equipment’s performance, thereby resulting in better efficiency in the projects where they are deployed.

With the massive expansion plans of roads and highways, which sustainable practices are in place to perform safe and sustainable mining?

As the expansion of roads and highways is in process, safety has become the utmost concern. This has allowed manufacturers to explore innovations in the offered products without compromising the reliability and productivity of the equipment. Attachments like rock breakers, vibro rippers, drum cutters, and others are being tried out. These can work in the areas without controlled blasting, resulting in safe and sustainable mining.

What competitive advantages do your mining excavators offer, leading to increased productivity and reduced operational costs?

Tata Hitachi has been in India for over 60 years and has been continuously working to provide the latest products to the Indian market, having manufacturing facilities in Kharagpur, West Bengal, and Dharwad, Karnataka. We manufacture excavators from 0.5 CuM to 6.5 CuM bucket sizes and wheel loaders from 1.5 CuM up to 3.0 CuM. As a joint venture company and a subsidiary of Hitachi Construction Machinery Japan, we also promote equipment manufactured by Hitachi Construction Machinery, which manufactures shovels from 0.2 CuM up to 45 CuM, dumpers from 35T to 290T, and payloaders up to 12T.

Hitachi Construction Machinery manufactures the EX8000, the largest excavator in the world. The EX8000 is fitted with a Face shovel bucket of 45 cu m and is available in diesel and electric drive variants. With this enriching experience, the excavators manufactured by us are the most reliable and can work for years. We recently celebrated the excavator EX2500, which completed 100,000 hours.

Tata Hitachi excavators now have the latest IoT technologies, enabling customers to remotely monitor the machines through granular, real-time operational, maintenance, location, and machine health data. Periodic reports are provided to customers to analyse the performance, efficiency, and machine productivity, allowing customers to visualise the operation and health status of their machines, improve the efficiency of the machines, improve maintenance management, and work closer with Tata Hitachi.

How do you ensure operator and worker safety with advanced features in your mining excavators, setting them apart from other manufacturers?

Safety in mining equipment in the Indian context is driven by the regulatory body of the Directorate General of Mine Safety (DGMS), which releases the mandates for features that are to be included in any machine going into mines at regular intervals. However, we are using engines that comply with EPA Tier I and II, are environmentally friendly, and have long-drain hydraulic oils, reducing the Pb content to be disposed of in the environment.