Holcim’s Lynwood Quarry was the host of the latest IQA Southern NSW Region Sub-Branch event. Image: ONTRAC Group
Examining the recent IQA member event at Lynwood Quarry and the demonstrations that took place, including ONTRAC Group’s live demonstration of the XMOR Bucket.
When Craig ‘Shine’ Summerfield organised the latest event for the IQA’s Southern NSW Region Sub-Branch, he wanted to showcase new insights and an innovative product.
The answer was the XMOR Bucket from Australian-owned and operated manufacturer ONTRAC Group, which he heard was drawing some strong reviews from Holcim’s Lynwood Quarry and other quarries abroad.
Some of the industry’s best and brightest gathered at Holcim’s Lynwood Quarry to witness an exclusive demonstration of the XMOR Bucket from ONTRAC Group. One XMOR Bucket was live for observation from the pit viewing platform and another XMOR Bucket was on display on a flatbed truck.
In the evening, the IQA members gathered for a dinner and presentation from ONTRAC product specialist Nick Espie about the history, unique design and potential savings the XMOR Bucket could deliver to their quarries.
Quarry spoke to Summerfield, the IQA Southern NSW Region Sub-Branch chairperson, about the event, which saw 50-plus industry figures in attendance.
The event took place just prior to Australian Made Week, which celebrates local manufacturers. Summerfield told Quarry the connection with ONTRAC was a “no-brainer”.
“It’d be so cool to do everything domestically if you could, and it is just a bit of a no-brainer if you can see these locals innovate for our own industries and export it,” he said.
ONTRAC Group had a live demonstration of the XMOR Bucket. Image: ONTRAC Group
The XMOR Bucket is one of ONTRAC’s best-selling products. The licensed design is manufactured in Australia and features Hardox 500 Tuf wear plates and Strenx️ 700 structural steel to make it bigger yet lighter than standard attachments. Unlike traditionally made buckets, some of the XMOR Bucket’s wear parts are bolted on rather than welded, which enables maintenance to be performed in hours rather than days.
The unique keel design further reduces weight and enables more structural stability. The inverted shape of the keel helps minimise ground contact and wear on the bottom of the bucket, which saves customers time on maintenance and repairs.
Summerfield said the XMOR Bucket was one of the more innovative products he’d seen in his time in the industry.
“With buckets, in the quarry industry, for example, there hasn’t been a lot of change for a lot of years. You might get double radius curves on the back of buckets to avoid drag or you might get different wear packages or steel wear components.
“This XMOR Bucket has been quite a large shift in design, like it is totally out there. The XMOR is totally at the forefront of innovation.
“It looks totally different, we refer to it as the ‘bum bucket’ with how it looks from behind.”
Nick Espie and Shine Summerfield. Image: ONTRAC Group
The attraction of the XMOR Bucket saw the event attended by quarry operators and civil construction workers, given its versatility across different sectors.
“To draw them to the event, if you’ve got something different, innovative and practical that they are going to use in the industry, that is a sweetener on the hook,” Summerfield said.
“The bucket was able to bring in civil construction people as well, not just quarry people, because that bucket is multi-dimensional across different groups.
“Networking is important in any industry, (at) the IQA, we seem to enjoy that. It is about saying ‘this works really good’, from an industry perspective, we’re here to help each other along as well.”
The XMOR Bucket’s bigger size, combined with its unique design, has led some quarry operators to report they shaved one to two, sometimes three passes, off their truck loading. Other operators have reported to ONTRAC that the XMOR Bucket is wearing very well despite being used daily in a hard rock environment.
The event included a dinner presentation from ONTRAC Group. Image: ONTRAC Group
ONTRAC Group manufactures a wide range of bucket variations for 45-tonne-class excavators and above. Each bucket is carefully suited to the application.
Nearby Lynwood Quarry is Hy-Tec’s Penrose sand quarry, which purchased a premium bucket from the ONTRAC Group.
Summerfield, who works as an application engineer for Komatsu, said the premium bucket from ONTRAC had performed well attached to the site’s Komatsu PC450.
“It’s the wear factor and the wear components because the (ONTRAC premium bucket) is a similar size in volume, but you’re saving money in downtime because of the wear in that application,” he said.
“ONTRAC has other solutions (for quarries), and the XMOR is probably one of their more innovative solutions. (Whereas) the premium standard bucket looks like a normal bucket, but it has that nice steel in it.”
ONTRAC’s warehouse stocks a full range of wear and spare parts for all its buckets. The company can conduct a complete excavator loadout productivity study for interested quarries that considers production levels, machinery, environment, and similar sites’ achievements. •
For more information, visit ontracgroup.com.au
The post How the XMOR Bucket is at the ‘forefront of innovation’ appeared first on Quarry.