April 23, 2019
An Epiroc Pit Viper used by BHP in Australia
The Inspired by Innovation Award honors Epiroc’s most innovative technical development that has had a proven commercial success. It is presented this year to Tyler Berens, Tim Ledbetter and Dustin Penn at Epiroc’s Drilling Solutions division, Lars Eriksson at the Rocktec division, and to Adrian Boeing at the Customer Center in Australia for developing and deploying the autonomous Pit Viper drill rigs for mining company BHP. A fleet of Pit Vipers is operating remotely at iron ore mines in the thinly populated Pilbara region, some 1,300 kilometers away from the modern office building in Perth where BHP’s operators are located. This automation solution brings strong customer benefits, including improved work environment, higher productivity and lower operating costs.
“We are proud of our strong teams that continuously focus on making customers more productive and safe while lowering their operating costs,” said Per Lindberg, Epiroc’s President and CEO. “Automation and proactive customer collaboration are two important ways to achieve this.”
The awards will be presented to the winners at the Annual General Meeting on May 9, 2019.