Wheel Measuring Machine for Above Floor Portal Lathe at BHP Billiton Iron Ore, Port Hedland


New prototype wheel measuring machine installed on the recent retrofitted Above Floor Portal Lathe for train wheels at BHP BILLITON IRON ORE, Ore Car Repair Shop in Port Hedland, Western Australia.

The new measuring machine was produced by Hydratech Design from Sydney and installed in cooperation with ICON Technologies, Perth.

This is a new machine concept for wheel measurement. The machine is installed as an add-on to the BHP's recent retrofitted Hegenscheidt wheel lathe. The machine is measuring the wheel profile very accurate and permits a better optimization of wheel cutting, increasing the wheels life. This external measurement of the wheel profile gives more productivity to the machine by
shortening the machine cycle time.

This is an expansion of the project completed last year. The customer is very happy with the machine since was retrofitted and the new measuring machine gives new dimensions in the important task of managing the wheels of the very busy iron ore transportation system.

Information taken from the current machine setup directly in the BHP SAP system enables real time tracking of the wheels and enables the efficient management of the business. According to Russell Donnelley - Manager of Rail Road Work Shops and Murray Lynch - Foreman of the Ore Car Repair Shop, the current setup installed on their shop is one of the most efficient and controlled in the world. The customized wheel lathe, now fitted with a state of art measuring machine is one of the fastest and powerful in the field and now we can consider it also one of the most precise giving to the owner the maximum life for their wheels. (12/05/2003)