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Construction sites and mining companies have a lot in common. Builders and mine operators know that when they need concrete – a lot has to go right. If a worksite runs into an unexpected event, big or small, that event can delay and even cancel the concrete altogether.
But what if there was a better approach? What if, instead of delivering concrete that had such a narrow pour window, you could simply deliver everything to site, and do it on demand?
Enter RufDiamond – a Coniston, Ontario based company that has manufactured a one-of-kind vehicle, the Agilis Mining and Tunneling Unit.
“We call it a mobile shotcrete/concrete batch plant,” said Daryl Adams, Co-Owner and Head of Sales. “There’s two ways of basically having shotcrete or concrete in a mine. One is, you can have a ready-mix truck show up from a batch plant, and it may be half an hour or 45-minute old material. And we all know concrete, it’s about set time, as soon as you add water, it’s starting to set.”
“Then it’s transferred into a trans-mixer and transported to its final worksite” he added.
“Many times, mining company’s loads are lost due to non-conformance, because the material is either too wet or too dry.”
“And the other one is dry shotcrete. Dry is where they bring it down in totes, they put it through a pump, as dry material (it’s all dehydrated) and then add water at the nozzle. Dry shotcrete results in a greater amount of rebound and more dust particulate than the wet process.
Adams says RufDiamond’s system changes the game in underground shotcrete/concrete. Pre-Blended totes from King (Sika) Shotcrete are loaded into our watertight hopper. At no time does water enter the dry hopper. When the process starts, material is conveyed into our patented mixing auger where a precise amount of water is then added per the mix design. The result is lab quality fresh shotcrete/concrete consistently, every time.
The Agilis has been three years in the making. RufDiamond partnered with Bay-Lynx, which manufactures volumetric mixers. “We’ve made this unit mine-compliant. Our machine is completely enclosed, and there’s no water that can access the dry hopper, no penetration, because if you had a full open top, in mining, it would absorb the water, the moisture, and humidity, and the material would start hardening.”
“We can replace trans-mixers with the Agilis and never have to worry about lost loads due to non conformity or unforeseen circumstances (mechanical breakdowns etc.)” said Adams.
The Agilis solves a number of problems and it’s a global exclusive to RufDiamond. “Nobody’s doing this in the world. We just finished the first one in March. And that’s our surface unit. We had a request for a large mining company in February, which made some requests for a static batch plant, so we’re in discussions with them, providing them a solution.”
Every time the Agilis mixes material all data related to the mix design is recorded and available for printout should a project manager require information such as time, date, work location, product used, water ratio and strength.
The Agilis carries 6 cubic metres of dry pre blended King (Sika) material, 1900 litres of water (that can be heated) and provides 30 cubic metres of shotcrete per hour.
Our system provides precise mixes, reliable mixes, extremely low dust mixes and high production capability due to our units being able to mix on demand whether a client requires 1 metre or 1000 metres of shotcrete/concrete.
RufDiamond has three options available to mix shotcrete/concrete on site.
1. The wheeled mine carrier unit capable of filling shotcrete sprayers in location or pouring concrete where needed as needed.
2. The stationary (with easy portability) mine unit capable of filling trans-mixers as required.
3. The tracked surface unit capable of travelling to areas inaccessible (extreme off-road conditions) to ready-mix trucks.
In addition to the Agilis, RufDiamond is the exclusive distributor of the Fat Truck in Ontario and Nunavut. The all-terrain exploration utility vehicle is unlike other amphibious competitors. It’s built in Canada and has a hydrostatic drive.
There are three main challenges for companies in the exploration business when it comes to reliable utility vehicles: unreliable equipment like pickup trucks, old buses and recreational ATV’s are often used; equipment often gets stuck or breaks down in wet, frozen or rough terrain; and lastly, workers are often being transported to remote areas and managers have to resort to expensive solutions such as helicopters.
The Fat Truck provides an innovative cost-effective, and reliable off-road vehicle. “It’s a robust utility vehicle that can operate for extended periods of time,” explains Adams. “It can safely transport multiple people along with sensitive equipment and instruments on land and through water or any inhospitable terrain.”
RufDiamond says the Fat Truck is perfect for inspections, transmission line work, emergency repairs, tailing pond inspections and environmental units.
Some companies that already use the Fat Truck include Kirkland Lake Gold, Agnico Eagle, BC Hydro, and Hydro-Quebec, HydroOne and others.
The Fat Trucks include heaters, air conditioning, automatic safety brakes, seats with 3-point safety belts, cameras, a bilge pump, ROPS and telematics.
For this article and more read Northern Ontario’s exclusive mining magazine. The summer issue is packed with 100 pages of articles on today’s mining industry happenings. Enjoy.
Construction sites and mining companies have a lot in common. Builders and mine operators know that when they need concrete – a lot has to go right. If a worksite runs into an unexpected event, big or small, that event can delay and even cancel the concrete altogether.
But what if there was a better approach? What if, instead of delivering concrete that had such a narrow pour window, you could simply deliver everything to site, and do it on demand?
Enter RufDiamond – a Coniston, Ontario based company that has manufactured a one-of-kind vehicle, the Agilis Mining and Tunneling Unit.
“We call it a mobile shotcrete/concrete batch plant,” said Daryl Adams, Co-Owner and Head of Sales. “There’s two ways of basically having shotcrete or concrete in a mine. One is, you can have a ready-mix truck show up from a batch plant, and it may be half an hour or 45-minute old material. And we all know concrete, it’s about set time, as soon as you add water, it’s starting to set.”
“Then it’s transferred into a trans-mixer and transported to its final worksite” he added.
“Many times, mining company’s loads are lost due to non-conformance, because the material is either too wet or too dry.”
“And the other one is dry shotcrete. Dry is where they bring it down in totes, they put it through a pump, as dry material (it’s all dehydrated) and then add water at the nozzle. Dry shotcrete results in a greater amount of rebound and more dust particulate than the wet process.
Adams says RufDiamond’s system changes the game in underground shotcrete/concrete. Pre-Blended totes from King (Sika) Shotcrete are loaded into our watertight hopper. At no time does water enter the dry hopper. When the process starts, material is conveyed into our patented mixing auger where a precise amount of water is then added per the mix design. The result is lab quality fresh shotcrete/concrete consistently, every time.
The Agilis has been three years in the making. RufDiamond partnered with Bay-Lynx, which manufactures volumetric mixers. “We’ve made this unit mine-compliant. Our machine is completely enclosed, and there’s no water that can access the dry hopper, no penetration, because if you had a full open top, in mining, it would absorb the water, the moisture, and humidity, and the material would start hardening.”
“We can replace trans-mixers with the Agilis and never have to worry about lost loads due to non conformity or unforeseen circumstances (mechanical breakdowns etc.)” said Adams.
The Agilis solves a number of problems and it’s a global exclusive to RufDiamond. “Nobody’s doing this in the world. We just finished the first one in March. And that’s our surface unit. We had a request for a large mining company in February, which made some requests for a static batch plant, so we’re in discussions with them, providing them a solution.”
Every time the Agilis mixes material all data related to the mix design is recorded and available for printout should a project manager require information such as time, date, work location, product used, water ratio and strength.
The Agilis carries 6 cubic metres of dry pre blended King (Sika) material, 1900 litres of water (that can be heated) and provides 30 cubic metres of shotcrete per hour.
Our system provides precise mixes, reliable mixes, extremely low dust mixes and high production capability due to our units being able to mix on demand whether a client requires 1 metre or 1000 metres of shotcrete/concrete.
RufDiamond has three options available to mix shotcrete/concrete on site.
1. The wheeled mine carrier unit capable of filling shotcrete sprayers in location or pouring concrete where needed as needed.
2. The stationary (with easy portability) mine unit capable of filling trans-mixers as required.
3. The tracked surface unit capable of travelling to areas inaccessible (extreme off-road conditions) to ready-mix trucks.
In addition to the Agilis, RufDiamond is the exclusive distributor of the Fat Truck in Ontario and Nunavut. The all-terrain exploration utility vehicle is unlike other amphibious competitors. It’s built in Canada and has a hydrostatic drive.
There are three main challenges for companies in the exploration business when it comes to reliable utility vehicles: unreliable equipment like pickup trucks, old buses and recreational ATV’s are often used; equipment often gets stuck or breaks down in wet, frozen or rough terrain; and lastly, workers are often being transported to remote areas and managers have to resort to expensive solutions such as helicopters.
The Fat Truck provides an innovative cost-effective, and reliable off-road vehicle. “It’s a robust utility vehicle that can operate for extended periods of time,” explains Adams. “It can safely transport multiple people along with sensitive equipment and instruments on land and through water or any inhospitable terrain.”
RufDiamond says the Fat Truck is perfect for inspections, transmission line work, emergency repairs, tailing pond inspections and environmental units.
Some companies that already use the Fat Truck include Kirkland Lake Gold, Agnico Eagle, BC Hydro, and Hydro-Quebec, HydroOne and others.
The Fat Trucks include heaters, air conditioning, automatic safety brakes, seats with 3-point safety belts, cameras, a bilge pump, ROPS and telematics.
For this article and more read Northern Ontario’s exclusive mining magazine. The summer issue is packed with 100 pages of articles on today’s mining industry happenings. Enjoy.
Caleb Austel and the team at Modified Concrete in Indianapolis, have been the leaders and one of the largest bridge concrete suppliers of latex modified concrete and rapid setting latex concrete. However, with this offering of very specific concrete, a standard volumetric mixer wouldn’t do the trick. Hence, when it came time to start replacing their fleet of volumetric mixers, their leadership team took a hard look in the market at different suppliers.
As they discussed their needs with various suppliers it was clear to them that the Bay-Lynx mixer was their answer, as a standard off the shelf volumetric mixer would not do for their needs. As Caleb Austel of Modified Concrete describes it,
“After he got me out to the Bay-Lynx shop and I met the team, there was no doubt Bay-Lynx was the correct fit.”
The Bay-Lynx team quickly responded to Modified and went through the details of the machine and provided Modified with a mixer that was user friendly to their operators. Specialty items such as the location of the pneumatic fill pipe and latex tank specifications were all part of the design and fit Modified Concrete’s needs.
While changing out to a different supplier is always a concern Modified also discovered that his operators would enjoy the change. Caleb states,
“Modified operators were worried about switching to a new manufacture of mobiles because they knew the other units. However, once they used the Bay-Lynx units my guys loved them.”
Lastly, Caleb was worried if the parts and service support would suffer due to the border separation. He was concerned if parts could be ordered and would arrive quick enough. He was pleasantly surprised that this has never been an issue and said,
“After 3 years of ordering parts from Bay-Lynx, this is not a concern at all.”
Since the first custom built machine, Modified Concrete has continued to grow in their leadership role in bridge deck concrete including both chassis and trailer mounted set-ups. The Bay-Lynx team thanks all the members of Team Modified for their business, and is proud to be part of their continued success.
Caleb Austel and the team at Modified Concrete in Indianapolis, have been the leaders and one of the largest bridge concrete suppliers of latex modified concrete and rapid setting latex concrete. However, with this offering of very specific concrete, a standard volumetric mixer wouldn’t do the trick. Hence, when it came time to start replacing their fleet of volumetric mixers, their leadership team took a hard look in the market at different suppliers.
As they discussed their needs with various suppliers it was clear to them that the Bay-Lynx mixer was their answer, as a standard off the shelf volumetric mixer would not do for their needs. As Caleb Austel of Modified Concrete describes it,
“After he got me out to the Bay-Lynx shop and I met the team, there was no doubt Bay-Lynx was the correct fit.”
The Bay-Lynx team quickly responded to Modified and went through the details of the machine and provided Modified with a mixer that was user friendly to their operators. Specialty items such as the location of the pneumatic fill pipe and latex tank specifications were all part of the design and fit Modified Concrete’s needs.
While changing out to a different supplier is always a concern Modified also discovered that his operators would enjoy the change. Caleb states,
“Modified operators were worried about switching to a new manufacture of mobiles because they knew the other units. However, once they used the Bay-Lynx units my guys loved them.”
Lastly, Caleb was worried if the parts and service support would suffer due to the border separation. He was concerned if parts could be ordered and would arrive quick enough. He was pleasantly surprised that this has never been an issue and said,
“After 3 years of ordering parts from Bay-Lynx, this is not a concern at all.”
Since the first custom built machine, Modified Concrete has continued to grow in their leadership role in bridge deck concrete including both chassis and trailer mounted set-ups. The Bay-Lynx team thanks all the members of Team Modified for their business, and is proud to be part of their continued success.
On March 1st, Bay-Lynx, in partnership with RufDiamond and Powertraxx, announced the release of the all new Agilis Mobile Batch Plant.
This mixer has been a project in the background for over a year after RufDiamond noticed a strong need for quality concrete in remote areas.
The Agilis is a mobile batch plant designed to bring concrete to off-road, hard-to-reach and remote areas. It differs from a volumetric mixer for a few reasons:
Remote pours have a serious problem when it comes to delivering concrete. These are the current problems facing the industry:
When the pour location is hundreds of miles away from a batch-plant, concrete cannot be delivered by ready mix trucks. Concrete has a shelf time and if the concrete takes even 90 minutes to deliver, it does not meet spec and may need to be completely discarded.
Some of these remote area pours are not accessible from a roadway. This means air transport may be required to deliver concrete. But costs of delivering concrete with a helicopter is extremely expensive and inefficient. Other options may include drum mixers on tracked units, but this is still not a good solution when it comes to delivering fresh material as the concrete is already mixed and therefore the load is very time sensitive.
If a load needs to be offloaded from a mixer due to the mix not meeting the spec or equipment failure, environmental damage and fees are extremely costly. Thousands of dollars will need to be spent to pay the fines. There have been cases of over $40,000 for a single fine.
The Agilis is loaded with preblended totes from King. These preblend totes carry all the material required to make the concrete. Water is stored in the 500-gallon tank on the mixer. Any additional material required can be delivered on site where the Agilis can reload. Mounted on the Powertraxx PT15, the Agilis will travel to the remote areas. Then when it is time to pour, the material is offloaded on the main conveyor belt where it is met with water at the mixing bowl. It is then mixed in the 12” diameter auger for immediate freshly-produced concrete.
Partnering with Ruf Diamond and Powertraxx, the Agilis will begin including a crane on the front of the carrier to independently load the totes on the unit. The Agilis has already made its debut in northern Ontario, where it is expected to highly impact government and private projects.
See more on the Agilis product page.
On March 1st, Bay-Lynx, in partnership with RufDiamond and Powertraxx, announced the release of the all new Agilis Mobile Batch Plant.
This mixer has been a project in the background for over a year after RufDiamond noticed a strong need for quality concrete in remote areas.
The Agilis is a mobile batch plant designed to bring concrete to off-road, hard-to-reach and remote areas. It differs from a volumetric mixer for a few reasons:
Remote pours have a serious problem when it comes to delivering concrete. These are the current problems facing the industry:
When the pour location is hundreds of miles away from a batch-plant, concrete cannot be delivered by ready mix trucks. Concrete has a shelf time and if the concrete takes even 90 minutes to deliver, it does not meet spec and may need to be completely discarded.
Some of these remote area pours are not accessible from a roadway. This means air transport may be required to deliver concrete. But costs of delivering concrete with a helicopter is extremely expensive and inefficient. Other options may include drum mixers on tracked units, but this is still not a good solution when it comes to delivering fresh material as the concrete is already mixed and therefore the load is very time sensitive.
If a load needs to be offloaded from a mixer due to the mix not meeting the spec or equipment failure, environmental damage and fees are extremely costly. Thousands of dollars will need to be spent to pay the fines. There have been cases of over $40,000 for a single fine.
The Agilis is loaded with preblended totes from King. These preblend totes carry all the material required to make the concrete. Water is stored in the 500-gallon tank on the mixer. Any additional material required can be delivered on site where the Agilis can reload. Mounted on the Powertraxx PT15, the Agilis will travel to the remote areas. Then when it is time to pour, the material is offloaded on the main conveyor belt where it is met with water at the mixing bowl. It is then mixed in the 12” diameter auger for immediate freshly-produced concrete.
Partnering with Ruf Diamond and Powertraxx, the Agilis will begin including a crane on the front of the carrier to independently load the totes on the unit. The Agilis has already made its debut in northern Ontario, where it is expected to highly impact government and private projects.
See more on the Agilis product page.
Bay-Lynx and BSA – a concrete partnership…
BAY-Lynx has always been committed to promoting the importance of transport safety, and it was with this in mind, that the company decided to become a member of the Batched on Site Association (BSA).
Established in 2007, the Batched on Site Association (BSA) was formed to represent the interests of operators of mobile batching plants (MBPs). The primary reason for its formation was in response to authorities trying to secure convictions against the sector for operating vehicles over 32 tonnes. The sector successfully launched a legal challenge against these convictions and the law was subsequently changed.
The BSA continues to represent the industry and works to promote high industry standards and also to keep members up to date with all the latest information from within the UK’s MBP sector.
Bay-Lynx UK is an active member of the BSA and the two organisations work closely together to raise awareness of the need for high safety standards in the industry.
Jared Dunbar is the co-ordinator of the BSA in the UK and he feels the organisation has a vital role to play in the industry. “Collectively the BSA has a stronger voice than any single operator would have and we have been able to have meetings with a number of ministers, the DfT and a number of traffic commissioners. This has enabled us to shape the outcome of legislative changes.”
The BSA also has an important job to do within the industry in promoting the importance of road safety and to this end, the organisation introduced the BSA Charter (or Declaration of Adherence) for its members to sign up to.
Jared explains: “The intention of the Charter is to drive safety standards up within the industry and introduce good practice.”
Bay-Lynx UK has signed up to the charter and continues to do its bit in making sure safety is a top priority. Bay-Lynx’s Mark Reeve is a member of the BSA committee and according to Jared is an invaluable member of the team, saying “Mark is in constant communication, providing important information on the sector and offering suggestions of ways we can take steps to try to improve the sector’s interests.”
Other professional associations Bay-Lynx is affiliated to include the AWS, CWB, NRMCA and the VMMB, all of which help to put the business on the map in the UK and globally, and give customers complete peace of mind that their business is in the hands of true professionals.
For more information on how Bay-Lynx UK can meet all your concrete needs, contact uksales@bay-lynx.com. For more details on Batched on Site visit batchedonsite.org.
Bay-Lynx and BSA – a concrete partnership…
BAY-Lynx has always been committed to promoting the importance of transport safety, and it was with this in mind, that the company decided to become a member of the Batched on Site Association (BSA).
Established in 2007, the Batched on Site Association (BSA) was formed to represent the interests of operators of mobile batching plants (MBPs). The primary reason for its formation was in response to authorities trying to secure convictions against the sector for operating vehicles over 32 tonnes. The sector successfully launched a legal challenge against these convictions and the law was subsequently changed.
The BSA continues to represent the industry and works to promote high industry standards and also to keep members up to date with all the latest information from within the UK’s MBP sector.
Bay-Lynx UK is an active member of the BSA and the two organisations work closely together to raise awareness of the need for high safety standards in the industry.
Jared Dunbar is the co-ordinator of the BSA in the UK and he feels the organisation has a vital role to play in the industry. “Collectively the BSA has a stronger voice than any single operator would have and we have been able to have meetings with a number of ministers, the DfT and a number of traffic commissioners. This has enabled us to shape the outcome of legislative changes.”
The BSA also has an important job to do within the industry in promoting the importance of road safety and to this end, the organisation introduced the BSA Charter (or Declaration of Adherence) for its members to sign up to.
Jared explains: “The intention of the Charter is to drive safety standards up within the industry and introduce good practice.”
Bay-Lynx UK has signed up to the charter and continues to do its bit in making sure safety is a top priority. Bay-Lynx’s Mark Reeve is a member of the BSA committee and according to Jared is an invaluable member of the team, saying “Mark is in constant communication, providing important information on the sector and offering suggestions of ways we can take steps to try to improve the sector’s interests.”
Other professional associations Bay-Lynx is affiliated to include the AWS, CWB, NRMCA and the VMMB, all of which help to put the business on the map in the UK and globally, and give customers complete peace of mind that their business is in the hands of true professionals.
For more information on how Bay-Lynx UK can meet all your concrete needs, contact uksales@bay-lynx.com. For more details on Batched on Site visit batchedonsite.org.
Safety first is the message from Bay-Lynx and Dawes Highway Safety…
BAY-Lynx has been announced as the latest official supplier of enhanced side-guard safety systems on their fleet of volumetric vehicles.
James Dawes of Dawes Highway Safety made the announcement last week saying: ““We are absolutely delighted to announce Bay-Lynx as our latest official supplier of enhanced side-guard safety systems on their complete range of industry-leading volumetric vehicles.”
This sentiment is echoed by Michael Barr, operations director at Bay-Lynx UK, who said: “We are constantly looking at ways to enhance the safety of our vehicles and as soon as we came across ‘people panels’ we knew we had found the perfect product to cost-effectively enhance our fleet.”
Bay-Lynx has always been committed to transport safety and is constantly looking for ways to make its vehicles as safe as they possibly can be.
So, when Bay-Lynx came across a product called a ‘People Panel’, the brainchild of pioneering road safety company, Dawes Highway Safety, they immediately began using them for their vehicles to further enhance their safety profile.
The relationship between the two companies has since gone from strength to strength and Bay-Lynx is now an official supplier of People Panels, helping to cement their partnership and further consolidate their joint commitment to safety.
So, what is a People Panel? And why are they so vital? In a nutshell, People Panels are enhanced side-guard safety systems which completely close in the side of a vehicle, in order to prevent entanglement in the event of a collision.
Research by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) has found that cyclists and pedestrians are five times less likely to suffer fatal or life-threatening injuries where an enhanced safety system is fitted.
The panels are strongly recommended by road safety schemes such as FORS (Fleet Operators’ Recognition Scheme) and DVS2020 (Direct Vision Standard 2020).
As well as the obvious physical benefits of the safety system, the panel displays a positive message to the public and promotes green modes of transport such as walking and cycling whilst also highlighting the principle of corporate social responsibility, which Bay-Lynx is so passionate about. Bay-Lynx has also added an additional feature in the form of a rear panel which helps to reinforce the safety message even further.
For more information about volumetric vehicles fitted with enhanced side-guard safety systems contact Bay-Lynx UK on uksales@bay-lynx.com.
Safety first is the message from Bay-Lynx and Dawes Highway Safety…
BAY-Lynx has been announced as the latest official supplier of enhanced side-guard safety systems on their fleet of volumetric vehicles.
James Dawes of Dawes Highway Safety made the announcement last week saying: ““We are absolutely delighted to announce Bay-Lynx as our latest official supplier of enhanced side-guard safety systems on their complete range of industry-leading volumetric vehicles.”
This sentiment is echoed by Michael Barr, operations director at Bay-Lynx UK, who said: “We are constantly looking at ways to enhance the safety of our vehicles and as soon as we came across ‘people panels’ we knew we had found the perfect product to cost-effectively enhance our fleet.”
Bay-Lynx has always been committed to transport safety and is constantly looking for ways to make its vehicles as safe as they possibly can be.
So, when Bay-Lynx came across a product called a ‘People Panel’, the brainchild of pioneering road safety company, Dawes Highway Safety, they immediately began using them for their vehicles to further enhance their safety profile.
The relationship between the two companies has since gone from strength to strength and Bay-Lynx is now an official supplier of People Panels, helping to cement their partnership and further consolidate their joint commitment to safety.
So, what is a People Panel? And why are they so vital? In a nutshell, People Panels are enhanced side-guard safety systems which completely close in the side of a vehicle, in order to prevent entanglement in the event of a collision.
Research by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) has found that cyclists and pedestrians are five times less likely to suffer fatal or life-threatening injuries where an enhanced safety system is fitted.
The panels are strongly recommended by road safety schemes such as FORS (Fleet Operators’ Recognition Scheme) and DVS2020 (Direct Vision Standard 2020).
As well as the obvious physical benefits of the safety system, the panel displays a positive message to the public and promotes green modes of transport such as walking and cycling whilst also highlighting the principle of corporate social responsibility, which Bay-Lynx is so passionate about. Bay-Lynx has also added an additional feature in the form of a rear panel which helps to reinforce the safety message even further.
For more information about volumetric vehicles fitted with enhanced side-guard safety systems contact Bay-Lynx UK on uksales@bay-lynx.com.