As the world record holder for the land’s largest machine, the Bagger 293, a German bucket-wheel excavator, is certainly a sight to behold. Standing at a jaw-dropping 310 feet tall, the colossal machine looms over the Statue of Liberty at twice its height, and sports a massive 722-foot length. What’s cooler than the world’s largest ground-wrecking machine? One with remote technology!
Despite its appearance, the Bagger 293 is anything but a siege engine of war bent on global domination. What appears to be a giant saw blade is the bucket-wheel apparatus used for open-pit mining. Here are some statistics from Popular Mechanics showcasing just how impressive the steel giant really is:
- The Bagger 293 weighs in at approximately 31-million pounds, about the weight of over 2,000 adult elephants. It’s a miracle the thing hasn’t shifted the Earth’s orbit.
- It’s equipped with 18 buckets, each of which can hold up to 1,452 gallons. According to WIRED magazine, that’s approximately how much 80 bathtubs can hold.
- It decimates 8.48 million cubic feet of earth daily, which is equal to 96 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
And now, the moment we know you’ve been waiting for; here’s a video of this mechanical monster in action:
A machine like this obviously sports a hefty price tag: $100 million. Unless you plan on using its massive surface area for selling ad space, you probably have little reason to drop that kind of cash on the king of bucket-wheel excavators. However, if you dig a little deeper, you’ll realize that the Bagger 293 can teach the average business owner a valuable lesson.
Even though the Bagger 293 looks like it was built to instill fear into the hearts of men with its bucket wheel of doom, it’s a fairly sophisticated machine which takes advantage of remote monitoring technology.
Automation of the BWEs requires integrating many sensors and electrical components such as GPS, data acquisition systems, and online monitoring capabilities. The goal of these systems is to take away some of the work from the operators in order to achieve higher mining speeds. Project managers and operators are now able to track crucial data regarding the BWEs and other machinery in the mining operations via the Internet. Sensors can detect how much material is being scooped onto the conveyor belt, and the automation system can then vary the speed on the conveyor belts in order to feed a continuous amount of material.
This, by far, makes the Bagger 293 one of the most impressive things in the Internet of Things. Can you imagine what kind of chaos would ensue if it were to fall into the hands of hackers? It would probably just dig a giant pit wherever it happened to be at the time, since it can only move about half-a-mile per hour. At least it wouldn’t be difficult to outrun.
The Bagger series of bucket-wheel excavators were designed to automate the entire mining process. By taking advantage of automated and remote technology, the Bagger 293 can do the work of 40,000 miners with only a team of two-to-five people. How’s that for efficiency?
The Bagger 293 might only need a couple of workers inside her belly, but the remote team monitoring its systems is sure to have their hands full. They use an Internet connection to monitor the performance of the machine’s critical systems and optimize its functionality. This is the same kind of technology ClearView IT’s remote monitoring service utilizes, albeit for a different purpose; to protect your network and prevent basic issues from preventing bigger problems.
ClearView IT knows how to give your business earth-shattering performance and operational improvements. With remote support and automation solutions, your company can enter the realm of legends akin to the Bagger 293. Give us a call at 866-326-7214 to learn more.
