Need Heat?

Has this ever happened to you? Or, are you afraid it could …?

It’s all about a solution for fleet managers who worry how unpredictable bad weather might impact their equipment fleet…. Cause unscheduled downtime, and require reactive maintenance … or worse, destabilize job site productivity and profit margins, even upset safety records.

Thermex has created a cold start system for mining and construction fleet managers;

(1) Who work hard to keep equipment running smoothly year-round so that operations never slows down and production targets are met;

(2) BUT who are frustrated by unpredictable, harsh winter weather that can strand equipment for hours or days at a time and force unscheduled equipment maintenance;

(3) AND who are disenchanted with conventional recovery practices, such as all-night idling sessions, or complex maneuvers involving ‘frost fighters” and military parachutes. Truth is, these methods are often NOT really effective, but they sure can be time-consuming, wasteful and expensive, dangerous, and environmentally-unfriendly, to boot.

Today’s heavy equipment operations are highly integrated and use larger and more powerful equipment than ever before. This has brought significant economies of scale, and high levels of productivity and profitability.

But an large scale operation is only as good as its weakest link: Stalled equipment that sits frozen solid out in the field is potentially far more than a nuisance – it can immediately impact the ability of others to do their jobs. Stranded equipment can drag down the productivity of an entire operation…and disrupting an integrated production cycle can quickly cut into the bottom line.

Because lost production is not an option, it is absolutely critical to get downed equipment up and running again as soon as humanly possible.

You cannot predict when bad weather will hit and what it will do to your equipment, but there is one thing that IS predictable – the effectiveness of a recovery solution that is quick, safe, economical, and most importantly – proven:

Thermex’s cold start system is called PortaThaw®. Have you heard of it?

As the name suggests, it’s a portable cold start system designed for diesel-operated (mining) equipment; it was developed specifically for North America’s harsh northern climates.

PortaThaw® has been commercially available since 1997. The system has been perfected over many years in co-operation with major mining operators who provided industry feedback and made R&D requests.

How does PortaThaw® work?

PortaThaw® is equipped with a diesel-fired unit that drives a coolant pump which rapidly circulates heated coolant through the frozen equipment’s engine block. From there, cold engine coolant is returned to the PortaThaw® unit for re-heating, and the cycle repeats.

How effective is PortaThaw®?

PortaThaw® allows stranded equipment to be recovered quickly and efficiently, much faster than with conventional “solutions”.

At frigid temperatures of minus 20 to 40 Degrees, the following average warm-up rates have been documented. (Warm-up rates are defined as the time it takes to bring equipment from a frozen state to safe operating temperatures).

It takes PortaThaw®:

• Merely seven minutes to warm up a PC-300 Komatsu excavator;
• Only 10 minutes to recover a D-8 Cat dozer;
• As little as 45 minutes to get a Cat 785 haul truck running again.
• A single PortaThaw® unit can typically service 10 pieces of equipment. In fact, the use of a quick coupling device allows a single PortaThaw® system to start multiple trucks and pieces of heavy equipment, even in the harshest weather.

Check out more information about our PortaThaw® Cold Start System or feel free to Contact Us for more information.