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.

The 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 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

than half the weight of a typical steel bull bar, which offers its own benefits to fuel efficiency, rider comfort and a light vehicle’s payload.

In a narrow underground environment where abrasion is a common risk, copolymer offers an additional safety net for mining companies.

“Another key point for miners is the possibility of gases that are underground. Because they’re driving in tight spaces they’ve got to be mindful of friction, where metal on rock can cause sparks,” Baker says.

Baker adds that given the SmartBar can compress to up to 85 per cent of its depth, in direct collisions it better protects the vehicle, occupants and whatever the bull bar collides with. This is particularly important in the tight confines of an underground mine.

While the SmartBar is simplified and logical in its purpose, it doesn’t mean there isn’t room for customisation or adaptation.

SmartBar prides itself on its customer collaboration – an approach that puts the client in the driver seat to pursue an outcome specific to their unique working environment.

“What we like to do is work with the organisation to come up with solutions for them; because they know the problems, it’s about trying to find the solutions,” Baker says.

“That’s our key value proposition – the capacity to be able to work on a one-on-one basis with all of our clients to find solutions for them.”

Baker uses the example of custom recovery points – a critical bull bar safety consideration – to highlight SmartBar’s client-first focus.

“We’ve built custom solutions regarding recovery points with some of our customers. They’ve found the recovery points they had been using were so far back up against the vehicle that they were really hard to access when they were in compromised situations underground or above ground even,” he says.

“We’ve worked with them to design recovery points that were easily accessible from a winch frame. It’s that ability to be able to work one-on-one and work between our engineers and their engineers to come up with the best solution, and we’re really open to that.”

To further extend SmartBar’s service capability, the company offers rear protection bars and under-vehicle armour, and has the ability to make modifications to already-installed bars to make them more suitable to the client.

The SmartBar is also available in different colours and can be made hi-vis. Fundamentally, there are two different variants of the SmartBar: the SpartanBar (the original SmartBar) and the StealthBar, which is 30 per cent lighter and comprises just the lower section of the bull bar frame.

The versatility and adaptability of the SmartBar is a result of decades of work and improvement on the product.

However, while the company has come a long way, SmartBar never rests on its laurels – a restlessness that drives the constant evolution of its bull bars.

“We have a really strong focus on continuous improvement on our products and associated products. If we can make it more absorbent or more relevant for the customer to then use for what they want it for, then we’ll make updates,” Baker says.

“As I said, that’s where the one-onone focus is really beneficial because we learn things and they learn things at the same time.”

The SmartBar evolution has seen the company start developing polymer under-vehicle protection to respond to issues of salinity and hot water coming up underneath and degrading the base of vehicles.

With only three models available at this stage, the company acknowledges under-vehicle protection is still in its infancy. However, from initial performances, there’s enough to suggest SmartBar could be adding another reliable string to its bow.

SmartBar Australia general manager Kevin Baker.