Truck bodies in Hardox® 450 help RMB Sateci drive more efficient mining operations

Double the payload and lower vehicle weight. To meet their customers’ demands for transporting more payload, at a lower cost and more efficiently, RMB Sateci, a body builder based in Peru, developed a 22 m³ (777 cu. ft.) truck dump body and a 20 m³ (706 cu ft.) body for trailers using Hardox^® 450 and Strenx^® 700MC steels in a joint project with SSAB. 

The result? The company doubled the current transported load from 40 to 80 tons of payload, using a single truck for one of the largest underground mines in Peru. This was possible thanks to a project where the company upgraded from commercial mild steels, such as A36 and A572, to Hardox^® 450.

“This design, a combination of Hardox^® 450 in the body and Strenx^® 700MC in the top rails in both tippers, results in a lightweight product that is resistant to impacts and abrasion from rocks,” says Jose M. Saldaña Lacunza, assistant project manager of RMB Sateci. The joint project with SSAB also resulted in a weight reduction of the structure by 10 percent.

RMB Sateci used high-strength steels to improve their designs and provide more payload to their customers. “Daily use of this material has been much better implemented and we want to continue to grow as strategic partners of SSAB, which is not only a company that sells high-strength steels, but a total solution,” he says.

For the manufacturer, working with high-strength steel like Hardox^® steel brings certain benefits: the drop-bottom tipper bodies are lightweight and their designs innovative. And the benefits of the vehicles for the end user include fuel savings, less pollution, lower maintenance costs and increased profitability in the business, as well as increased transport efficiency.

RMB Sateci has a strong focus on engineering, research and product development and builds truck bodies for the demanding mining, construction and agriculture industries. Major customers include San Martin General Contractors, Stracon and Coansa del Peru. The company currently has a 54 percent market share in truck bodies and 3 percent in semi-trailers. A new 40,000 square meter (431,000 sq. ft.) production facility is located about an hour’s drive from Lima, Peru’s capital. 

Saldaña says that the project with SSAB is a prototype for field testing and quantifying savings. “We are convinced that our customers will recover their investment in the short term by the increased efficiency that the project represents,” he says. “We are projecting a future purchase of 15-20 complete drop-bottom tipper bodies and trailer units.”

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