Sandvik is celebrating 1,000 deliveries of its 51- and 63-metric-ton trucks, Toro TH551 and TH663. The 1,000th truck, a Toro TH663i for a mine in Portugal, recently rolled off the production line in Turku, Finland, for a delivery ceremony.
The two large trucks were born from a 2011 customer workshop in Perth, Australia. Close collaboration and engagement with customers started in the very early phases of product development to ensure the trucks met customer needs.
At the time of their introduction at MINExpo INTERNATIONAL 2012, the underground trucks included new leading technology, such as an integrated jacking system to facilitate tire change underground and integrated weighing system for measuring truck payload. The switch to Volvo engines reduced fuel consumption and emissions and improved reliability and efficiency. The Volvo engine system became available with new options such as a diesel particulate filter.
In 2017, TH663i and TH551i models were upgraded to become part of Sandvik’s Intelligent Trucks series for autonomous haulage. In addition to being automation-ready, as i-series equipment, the trucks can utilize OptiMine Mine Digital Platform (MDP) to optimize fleet operations, and the Knowledge Box for efficient data utilization.
The trucks today belonging to the underground Toro family are known as Toro TH551i and TH663i. Through extensive R&D efforts, Sandvik keeps driving the industry forward. The company is actively developing diesel-electric technology for underground mining equipment and a fully battery-electric truck, Sandvik TH665B, is currently tracking trial hours in Australia.