N.C.B. Test Heavy Dumpers
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FOR three days last week, four makes of heavy dumper in the 10-cu.-yd category were demonstrated over an arduous course at Arkwright Colliery, near Chesterfield, to about 150 representatives of the National Coal Board from all parts of the country. Earlier this week, a timed trial of each of the vehicles was conducted
by the field investigation group of the N.C.B. on separate days. Working throughout the day, the vehicles travelled from the colliery tip to the weighbridge and thence round a test track to the tipping dump and back to the hopper,.
The vehicles taking part in the demonstrations and trials included a Scammell Mountaineer fourwheel-drive 12-ton tipper, an A.E.C. Mammoth Major 6 x 4. 10-15-ton dumper, a Euclid B FD 15-ton four-wheeled tipper and a Foden FE6 sixwheeled dumper. The test course included • sections with 2 ft. of soft Material based on a farfrom-hard bottom surface, and a hill-climb section 04
with a nominal gradient of 1 in 6, on whic stopping and starting were compulsory. A wale: splash was devised to provide the maximum hazar without making failure a certainty. Railway sleepei were placed in the path of. the vehicles to provic additional obstacles.
The demonstrations and trials will be valuable i determining the merits of heavy dumpers for collier operations and whether they can be used as an ahem live to aerial-flight conveyors. Experience has show that vehicles .above a certain weight compact tt material at the colliery tip to such an extent that II fire hazard is eliminated by the exclusion of the ai Unlike many civil-engineering projects, colliery se vice necessitates work being continued throughout tF year in all weathers, and the traction capabilities ( a dumper are of first importance.
The Euclid and A.E.C. vehicle s were each fitted wit a levelling blade at the front. The results of the tes of such equipment will decide whether the blade ca be used to clean up the tip periodically between visi
by a bulldozer, which would circulate between a numb. of collieries. This would save the cost of a bulldoz. and driver being attached to every colliery.
If the use of the levelling blade proves successfi the dumper will tip short and nose over the materi at the end of the day. The blade might also employed to scarf off ruts and soft kick-ups.
In addition to the main demonstration, " side shows were given of smaller vehicles, including dumpe of Foden and Aveling-Barford manufacture, a Chas side excavator, a Blackwood Hodge sweeper, a Bn Hydraloader and a Coventry Climax Bulkloader,