Boss Attachments’ Xcentric Ripper drives progress on the $11B Sun Zia Wind clean energy project, boosting productivity across tough rock conditions
Who would believe an eight-ton hammer would be out produced 12-to-1 by an Xcentric Ripper. Read on if you want to find out more.
The $US11 billion Sun Zia Wind project is said to be the largest clean energy infrastructure project in U.S. history, located in New Mexico and Arizona. It includes a 3.5 GW wind farm with over 900 turbines and a 1200-kilometre high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line to deliver power to Arizona.
The project is designed to provide clean, affordable energy to about three million consumers in the Western U.S. and has an expected commercial operation date around 2026.
Boss Attachments is now playing a significant role in the ground-breaking project that will involve over 1200 km of trench across a combination of rock types: hard basalt, sun baked granite and flinty limestone.
“When the project started the contractor was relying a large number of eight-ton hammers mounted on 87-ton excavators to break and clear the rock,” says Paul Herbison of Boss Attachments.
“They quickly realised this option couldn’t cope with the hash insitu conditions and spoke to us about our Xcentric Ripper range.
“Long story short – the eight-ton hammers were replaced with an Xcentric XR82 Ripper and the results have been literally earth shattering.”
When the project started, the best result achieved by the hammers was around 30 metres a day. Livio Pace from Boss supervised the set-up of the XR82 in association with Anthony LaFata from A&D Equipment (US distributors of Xcentric Equipment) and on the very first day, the XR82 was able to achieve over 200 metres.
Since then, as the operators become more familiar with the XR82, daily output has been upped to almost 400 metres – around 12 times that of a hammer.
“And now – with the purchase of a second XR82 – that performance is going to increase even further,” says Paul.
“The benefits delivered by the XR82 go a long way past just the daily production output. For starters there is a significant reduction in vibrations and wear on the excavator – as well as less fuel consumption needed per metric tonne and greatly reduced downtime for repairs and service.”
Developed with a patented system of ‘impact technology by accumulation of energy’, the Xcentric Ripper can be up to five times more productive than hydraulic breakers.
“The Xcentric Ripper range increases production at lower operating costs and reduced noise levels – it has become a revolution for high volume rock extraction,” says Paul.
For more information, contact bossattachments.co.nz or Paul Herbison 027 290 830