INTELLIGENT SPRAY WITHOUT WATER WASTE

ETT’s water trucks have earned the reputation for being the most reliable mine support equipment on site. This reputation is built on over 25 years of engineering and production experience, coupled with a deep understanding of customer operations and expectations.

With the increase of awareness and regulations around dust pollution, as well as mining operations becoming increasingly water conscious, ETT has worked with customers to come up with an effective solution to combat dust, whilst increasing operational efficiency and safety.

The CDR (Constant Deposition Rate) Spray System is designed for optimal dust suppression, whilst avoiding overwatering and wastage. The CDR Spray System works by taking water truck ground speed into account and then controlling pump speed to achieve a desired optimal water deposition rate. The deposition rate can be adjusted on the fly, allowing the operator to increase or decrease the deposition based on road conditions.

Spray systems on mining water trucks are traditionally simple in design. The water pump speed is directly dependent on hydraulic flow, which in turn is engine speed dependent. This lack of control over deposition often results in under or overwatering of roads, which can become a safety hazard on steep gradients. The CDR spray system is designed to address these shortcomings by precisely controlling deposition.

At the heart of the CDR system lies the pump and motor. The centrifugal water pump is driven by a variable displacement hydraulic motor which is governed by the CDR control system. The CDR controller is loaded with ETT’s in-house developed advanced Deposition Control Software. The system receives input from a range of sensors and set parameters to actively control the hydraulic motor speed and water flow rate.

Spray Head selection also plays a key role in the overall performance of CDR. The CDR Stepped Head is the base level spray head option which consists of clusters of two to three brass nozzles, with hydraulic valves between each cluster. As the ground speed increases and the flow demand increases, the system will activate more nozzles on the spray head to allow for the increased flow demand.

A step up from the stepped nozzles is ETT’s latest variable aperture spray head, CDR-V. This stainless-steel spray head is fabricated with corrosion resistance componentry and features a high precision variable aperture. The CDR-V spray head integrates seamlessly with the CDR Control System which intelligently varies the nozzle aperture to maintain a constant spray width along with constant deposition.

There are several tiers to the CDR system as well with many optional features to further increase automation and efficiency improvements. Some of the optional features include geofenced deposition control, automatic gradient sensing, remote diagnostics, and report generating.

As for Water Cannons, Batter Sprays, Low Spray Bar and Front Bumper Sprays, all other ETT spray options are compatible with the CDR pump setup. This allows customers to configure their water trucks to a configuration that suits their operational needs.

By collaborating closely with customers and working towards finding innovative solutions, the ETT engineering team was able to design a product which caters for the wider mining industry. The challenges of dust suppression and road wetting are met head-on with the CDR Spray System.

To find out more about ETT, visit https://www.ett.com/us/cdr-spray-system