Mining Trucks

In 1948, 50 kilometers from Minsk the construction of machine-building factory for production of peat equipment, with the name Belarusian Autoworks (BELAZ) was established. On November 7, 1958 the enterprise manufactured the first dump truck, the MAZ- 525.  Because of the increasing demand from the mining companies and construction industry for more efficient dump trucks, BELAZ engineers created a new mining truck with payload capacity of 27 tons - BELAZ-540 and the first sample was produced in October, 1961, which is the ancestor of the whole family of heavy trucks.

 

Since 1967 the enterprise launched production of 40-ton dump truck BELAZ-548A designed taking into account the greatest possible unification of the basic units and parts of two vehicles. The 1968, is the year of birth of the first pre-production model of dump truck BElAZ-549, that was a base dump truck of a class of payload capacity of 75-80 tons. This vehicle was different from the predecessors not only in payload capacity but also for the electromechanical instead of hydromechanical transmission and for the independent suspension of all wheels and new two-seat cab.

 

In 1969 on the basis of dump truck BELAZ-549 the prototype of the auto-train BELAZ-549В-5275 with rear unloading and payload capacity of 120 tons was produced, and in 1973 BELAZ manufactured auto-train BELAZ-7420-9590 for coal transportation with bottom unloading and payload capacity of 120 tons. Consequently, the factory stepped on a way of increase in payload capacity of dump trucks. In particular, in 1977 pre-production models of dump truck BELAZ-7519 - base dump truck of a class of payload capacity of 110-120 tons – were produced. Due to successful design solutions and high consumer properties dump trucks of this payload capacity for a long period of time remained for BELAZ the most important products.

 

The next model was the BELAZ- 75211 - base dump truck of a class of payload capacity of 170- 220 tons in 1983. In 1996 the enterprise launched production of one more perspective model - dump truck BELAZ-75131 with payload capacity of 130 tons – that was designed taking into account more than 15 years of operating experience of its predecessor - 120-ton dump truck. Still one dump truck deserves special attention. In September, 2005 the pre-production model of the biggest dump truck in the history of domestic automotive industry - BELAZ- 75600 with payload capacity of 320 tons – was produced at BELAZ. The classic wheel formula 4х2 in combination with new guiding device of suspension and AC transmission provide high smoothness of new dump truck movement and good traction-dynamic characteristics.

 

In total for all history of the enterprise BELAZ has developed more than 600 versions of mining dump trucks of payload capacity from 27 to 320 tons, has produced more than 130 thousand units of mining dump trucks which have been sent to more than 60 countries of the world.