MINING SERVICES
Mining’s most intelligent bull bar With a focus on customer collaboration and consultation, SmartBar is always striving to further its product – and the mining industry is better for it. The SmartBar complies with the most stringent safety standards.
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he SmartBar vehicle protection systems are some of mining’s most evolving assets. With the health and safety of workers at a premium and the necessity to protect machinery at the core of any mining operation, having trusted protection systems in place is quintessential to the modern-day mining practice. Manufactured and designed in Australia, the SmartBar bull bar complies with the most stringent safety standards and comes with the verification of the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP). SmartBar Australia general manager Kevin Baker says having the ANCAP stamp of approval solidifies the safety of the bull bar – an inherent attribute in no uncertain terms. “We’ve crash-tested three vehicles through ANCAP themselves and all three passed,” Baker says. “When ANCAP do an impact test, they
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record the data of the forces throughout the cabin of the vehicle and the pressures placed upon the driver and passenger, and the results that we got were actually better than the front of the vehicle that was on the previous Hilux.” Baker says SmartBar engineers its bull bars in reverse order – analysing and roadtesting the safety considerations first before arriving at the right recipe. “All of our bars are designed in line with the ANCAP requirements; they’re tested to that standard and the design of the product is based on the data and information that we’ve received from the actual physical crash test that we’ve conducted,” Baker says. While heavy machinery takes much of the limelight on mine sites, light vehicles serve an equally important purpose when it comes to incidental transport and getting around quickly and easily. SmartBar vehicle protection systems are
currently in use all across the Australian mining industry, including by many of the major miners. “The SmartBar is used heavily in the mining sector for a number of reasons. One is the close proximity of the vehicles and pedestrians in both above-ground and underground mining,” Baker says. “Secondly, the salinity level in a lot of underground mining areas is 11 per cent saltier than sea water, so what they’ve found is their vehicles rust really quickly. “I’ve been to mine sites with vehicles that have been there less than three months and you can already see the degradation caused through rust, so our bars being made of plastic give the vehicles that longevity.” As opposed to a traditional steel bull bar, SmartBar’s product is a copolymer, made of a special blend of rust-resistant polymers. This not only means the bull bars are more durable, but they’re also more
