Matching Shovels
©Dr. B. C. Paul 2000 revised 2008
Note – Matching procedures depicted in these slides are widely
understood among those schooled in the subject and can be
found in many handbooks or manufactures literature. These
slides include reproductions from the Caterpillar Performance
Handbook and equipment literature from P+H. Also included
are screen shots from the FPC computer program by Caterpillar
Equipment Company.
Match Up a Hydraulic
Front Shovel
• As with FELs we want a shovel that
• Fills the truck in a logical integer number of
passes
• Can get the material over the edge of the
truck
• Center the load in the truck
• For Material
• Easy Load stockpile 1 to 1.1
• Average 0.95 to 1
• Rather Difficult 0.9 to 0.95
• Difficult 0.85 to 0.9
• Note Hydraulic Front Shovel get better fill and
have better bucket maneuvering
Zoom in on a Bucket Size


About a 0.93 fill is quite safe to
guess
102/0.93*#of passes = bucket
size
• 3 passes 36.56 yd^3 (pretty big)
• 4 passes 27.42 yd^3
• 5 passes 21.93 yd^3
Go Shopping for a Front
Shovel
Cat’s Front Shovels are
Somewhat limited (we will
Use them in our example)
Hitachi and others have some
Excellent offerings.
Only the 5230B is in the
Size range we are looking
For with a 22.2 yd^3 bucket
Buckets Limited in Front
Shovel Configuration
Fill Factor = 102/(5*22.2) = 0.9189 – ie about 92%
Reasonable for our material and matches the truck with an
Integer number of passes
Checking on Loading
Height and Reach
Over 36 feet up – ya that
Will load a 16 ft high truck
Well over 12 feet
Extension definitely
Reaches the center of the
truck
Just in case we are not
Sure it shows the dimensions
Of a 785 truck
Note This


Even a big front end loader
struggles with lift and reach
Hydraulic Front Shovels really
have almost no challenge if they
are sized anywhere close to
right
Time to Input into FPC
I will create a 2nd
Fleet for comparison
Click Add New Fleet
Input name and
description
Input My Same Truck Info
Now we will
Select a loader
Pick My 5230B Front
Shovel
Select Cat Standard
Machines
Select Hydraulic
Excavators
Pick the 5230B from
The list
Click Ok
Check Out Cycle Time

The Cat program defaults to single
truck loading
•
•
•
•

0.7 for the truck exchange
0.05 to dump first bucket
0.48 min for each subsequent pass (4)
Total 2.67 minutes
20 minute truck cycle / 2.67 loader
cycle
• One loader can handle 7.5 trucks
• Pick 2 loaders
Adjust My FPC inputs
2 loaders
92% Fill Factor
85% availability
Try Matching a Cable
Shovel



Cable Shovels Favor Larger
Sizes
Their buckets are called dippers
Their Dippers are rated on
struck- not heaped capacity
Fill Factors by Material
Constraint





Cable Shovels have more limited motion
than a hydraulic front shovel
Easy - Sand and Gravel get about 0.95 to 1
Medium - Unconsolidated - some boulders
0.90 to 0.95
Hard - Well Blasted - has void space
(Limestone) 0.8 to 0.9
Very Hard - Interlocking Chunks 0.7 to 0.8
If We Estimate Fill Factor
at 0.93

Size Dipper = Truck
Volume/(#passes*fill factor)
• 102 cubic yard truck volume limit



3 Passes 36.6 cubic yard
4 Passes 27.4 cubic yard
5 Passes 21.94 cubic yard
Cat Handbook Limitation

Cat Does not make cable
shovels
• They do put P+H products in their
program
Lets Fish a Little with the
Program
I created a 3rd fleet
And put in my 10 cat
785s
When I selected a
Loader I picked Cat
Standard Machines
(even though P+H is
Not Cat)
Picked Power Shovel
List shows 2300 and
2800 are my size
Checking Out the Choices

2300XPA has a 27 cubic yard
standard dipper
• 4 Pass load
• 102/(27*4) = 0.944 still in range of
medium material
• 3 Pass load – 2800XP
• 102/(39*3)= 0.872 this will probably
be limiting fill by truck size
• Lets pick the 2800XP
Information Goes In
Now we need some
Number and availability
Adjustments
Cable Shovels are
Rugged and very
Available – usually
0.9
We also back calculated
Our fill factor at 88%
Input the Easy Pickens
88% Fill
90% availability
Now we need to
Estimate how many
Loaders.
Cycle Time For Loading a
Truck





0.7 minutes truck change out
0.05 minutes for first dump
0.5 minutes for each of 2
remaining
Total = 1.75 minutes
Truck Cycle 20/ 1.75 = 11.4
trucks
• Lets go with just 1 loader
What if I Want to Check
Loading Height Etc.
Go to My Courses
Web Site
Pick the Reading
Room.
In the Reading Room Scroll
down to Surface Mining
Scroll Down to Electric
Mining Shovels
Pick the PDF file for
A P+H2800
Pick off the Manufactures
Specs You Need to Check