Air Radiators - Heat Transfer and Air Movement Systems

In partnership with our customers, Air Radiators is committed to the innovative design of heat transfer and air movement solutions for a range of industrial markets including mining, power generation, rail, defence, and heavy truck. 

Mining applications are demanding operating environments and involve unique characteristics relative to each specific area. Typical areas of application for our heat transfer and air movement slutions are:

• Loaders
• Drill rigs
• Excavators
• Dump trucks
• Underground and surface mining
• Coal and hard rock applications
• Maintenance and service vehicles

EARTHMOVING EQUIPMENT COOLING SYSTEMS

Earthmoving applications are demanding operating environments and involve specific requirements relative to each area. Typical areas of application are scrapers, graders, loaders and haul trucks.

Cooling systems in earthmoving equipment must equally be designed to suit the purpose, and Air Radiators has the technology and application engineering expertise to meet all challenges.

ENGINE COOLING SYSTEMS

Quarrying and similar earthmoving applications place extreme demands on engines and cooling systems. Excessive vibration levels, high ambient temperatures, dusty environments and impacts from processing operations are all threats to the integrity and service life of equipment. Air Radiators has developed significant experience in designing engine cooling systems customised to operate successfully in these environments, an example of which is striker crushing.

The design brief for the C12 Caterpillar powered rock crusher called for the cooling system to be extremely robust, easily serviced, flexible and have low fouling characteristics.

The cooling package design is based on a modular format, using heavy-duty plate fin cores for the Jacket Water (JW) and Charge Air Cooler (CAC) circuits. The JW and CAC coolers also use bolt-on header tanks to facilitate maintenance and ultra-fused header joints to ensure adequate service life.

As the JW and CAC coolers are arranged in a ‘single deck' configuration, customers have the choice of using a blower or suction fan without any modification to the unit or effect to cooling performance.

FUEL COOLER KIT

The complete kit incorporates fan and belt guarding, fuel cooler, core guard, deaeration tank, plumbing and vent line kit and frame mounts to the engine skid. Guard systems comply with Australian standard AS4024-2006.

A high-performance multi-wing fan is used to meet the functional air flow requirements, and can be configured in blower or suction arrangement. A key element to the success of this project was the use of 3D design software -this capability significantly reduced development time and prototype first-time fitment.

Air Radiators has a significant number of units operating successfully in Striker rock crusher applications, using a variety of Caterpillar engines, including C9, C10, C11, C12 and C13.

MODULAR COOLING SYSTEM

When MTU-Detroit undertook a project to re-power Hitachi EX-3600 excavators they turned to Air Radiators to supply a cooling solution compatible with this challenging application.

The 350t EX-3600 excavator is capable of moving up to 21M3 of earth in each bucket load, and given its critical role in mining production, reliability is a key requirement of this piece of monster equipment.

The repower project is replacing the existing engines with the state-of-the-art MTU 16V4000, rated at 1,600kW. The new MTU engines deliver improved reliability and power. Air Radiator’s challenge was to develop a cooling package to meet the technical requirements of the new MTU engine, while meeting the physical constraints of the existing installation - all whilst achieving a high design ambient capability, designed to facilitate maintenance.

Using 3D design software, the modular cooling system was developed as a ready-to-fit module, and includes a two-section radiator, deaeration system, and interface mountings.

Over 23 EX-3600 excavators have been re-powered to date, with machines already exceeding 10,000 hours trouble-free operation. This project is another example of Air Radiator’s ability to develop a solution uniquely customised to the client's needs.