Cleanaway Australia, a waste management and recycling company, has been operating two Komatsu WA430-6 waste spec loaders for the past 12 months in a critical 24/6 waste handling facility catering for Melbourne’s south-eastern region.
Cleanaway Waste Management operates the SEMTS (South East Melbourne Transfer Station) in Dandenong, which was purpose-built in 2017 as a commercial drop off and disposal facility, receiving general waste, construction and demolition waste, and timber for Melbourne’s south-east corridor.
Operating 18-19 hours a day from Monday to Friday, the two Komatsu loaders are logging around 4500 hours each a year, according to Oliver Walther, Cleanaway’s National Fleet Manager.
Each loader is fitted with a 9 cu m waste handling bucket, and solid tyres to eliminate punctures.
“Their main role is moving and separating waste material as it’s received so it can be shredded and compacted for transporting to the next facility,” said Oliver.
“Our SEMTS site ships out around 1500 tonnes a day, with each road train’s payload averaging 38 tonnes, six times a day.
“This means it’s essential that the two loaders are able to keep up with the required cycle times, as well as maintaining high levels of availability.
“We’ve had the loaders on site for over 12 months now, and aside from a few minor issues, we’re getting excellent reliability from them,” he said.
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“We’ve got a full maintenance agreement with Komatsu so any issues are quickly addressed and our operators are supported with training for correct application.”
Oliver said that Cleanaway had opted for Komatsu in this critical application on the basis of reliability, specifications, price and machine availability.
“Nationally, we run a fleet of 10-12 Komatsu machines in our waste management operations, so we knew they would be able to meet our stringent reliability and availability requirements,” he said.