Mining & heavy equipment
Custom-built where it counts. Modular everywhere else.
A mining wash system is always designed around your fleet, your material and your throughput — there is no catalogue machine for a pit. What KKE standardised is everything underneath that: nozzle banks, cannon assemblies, pump skids, control panels and the water-treatment stages are proven modules, so a customised system gets designed, built and commissioned far faster than a one-off ever could.
Why every mining wash system is a custom design
What sticks to a machine in a mine is site-specific. Wet laterite clay behaves nothing like coal dust, iron ore fines nothing like limestone, and a haul road in the monsoon nothing like the same road in April. The amount of material a fleet carries out — and how hard it is to shift once it has dried on — is the first thing our design team estimates, because it sets everything else.
From there the system is sized on the fleet size and machine mix, the dimensions of the largest machine, the throughput you need per shift, the material being handled, the water available, and the space and gradient at the point where washing has to happen — pit exit, weighbridge approach or workshop apron. Two mines with the same truck count routinely end up with different systems.
KKE has been building heavy-duty cleaning systems since 1993, and has supplied package systems to EPC contractors including Technip, Areva, Bechtel, Punj Lloyd and L&T ECC — control rooms, pump houses and DCS interfaces included.
Modular by design
The modules a mining wash system is assembled from
Customisation happens in the layout, the sizing and the sequence — not by inventing new hardware for every enquiry. These are the building blocks; which of them appear, how many, and how they are arranged is what makes your system yours.
Vertical nozzle banks
Full-height risers studded with large-bore nozzles, mounted on both walls of the lane — typically in pairs, so a machine passes through two wash stations in series.
Under-chassis bank
A nozzle bank set in a grated channel in the floor, firing upward into the undercarriage, axles and wheel arches — where the heaviest carry-out hides.
Water cannons
Solid-jet cannons for mud a spray curtain will not shift: tracks, sprocket teeth, chassis rails, bucket backs. Hand-held, joystick-controlled or trolley-mounted.
Pump skids
High-volume pump sets, piped and wired at our works and skid-mounted for a short site installation. A hot-standby pump can be included where a bay cannot stop.
Sedimentation & filtration
Settling tanks in series followed by a skid-mounted oil and sludge separator, or a cyclone filter — so the same water keeps going back to the nozzles.
Controls
Local panel with automatic and manual modes, vehicle detection for drive-through operation, and remote joystick stations wherever the cannons are mechanised.
Four systems
Four ways to wash a mining fleet
The right one depends on how clean the machine has to come out, how many machines have to pass per shift, and how much labour you want in the loop. All four are built from the same modules, and plenty of sites run two of them — a fast lane on the haulage cycle, and a detail bay at the workshop.
| System | Cycle time | Labour in the loop | Typically chosen for |
|---|---|---|---|
| High-volume drive-through | 2–3 min | None — driver stays in the cab | Haulage fleets, every shift change |
| Manual cannon bay | 1–2 hours | Operators, in the spray | Detail cleaning before service |
| Remote joystick cannons | ~60 min | One operator, out of the spray | Detail wash without the wet work |
| Traversing cannon trolleys | 30–40 min | Supervision only | A repeatable full-machine wash |
What actually happens in each one
High-volume drive-through — 2–3 minutes
The machine crawls through a lane while high-volume banks throw water inward from both walls and upward from a channel in the floor. Nothing touches it and nobody gets out of the cab, so a wash costs the haulage cycle minutes rather than hours — which is what makes washing at every shift change realistic.
Manual cannon bay — 1–2 hours
The machine is parked and operators work it over with water cannons, moving around it and taking their time on the areas that matter. Intricate parts get a high-pressure cleaner at up to 200 bar. It is the most thorough wash we build, and the most labour-intensive — the choice before a service, an inspection or a sale.
Remote joystick cannons — about an hour
The same parked-machine detail wash, except the cannons are mechanised and aimed by one operator on a joystick. They can see the whole machine, put the jet exactly where the mud is, and stay out of the spray and away from the undercarriage while doing it. Roughly half the cycle time of the manual bay, with one person on it.
Traversing cannon trolleys — 30–40 minutes
Two trolleys, one per side, each carrying cannons that sweep side-to-side and up-and-down while the trolley runs the full length of the machine. The pattern is mechanised, so the wash is the same every time and needs supervision rather than labour — the middle ground between a drive-through and a detail bay.
Inside the drive-through
It is water volume, not pressure, that moves mining mud
A haul truck presents an enormous wetted area, and what is on it is wet clay and grit rather than road film. A high-volume curtain from both sides floods it off; the bank in the floor channel does the same from underneath, into the undercarriage and wheel arches where the heaviest carry-out sits.
High pressure still has a place — but on intricate areas, from a cleaner in the hands of an operator, rather than across the whole machine.
- Wash stations in series — full-height vertical nozzle banks on both walls, typically two per side
- An under-chassis bank in a grated channel in the concrete floor
- No brushes, no moving arms in the lane, and no overhead beam across it
- Vehicle detection starts the pumps as the machine enters; a hot-standby pump is optional
- Walls standing close to the machine, so spray and splash stay in the lane
- A cannon point at the exit for anything the curtain leaves behind
Volume, pressure, heat
Three kinds of dirt, three different tools
Mining dirt is not one substance. Wet mud sitting on a body side, clay packed hard into a track frame, and an oil film around a final drive each fail to a different tool — and the wrong one either wastes water or simply does not clean. Every KKE system carries the combination the material actually needs.
| Tool | Water | Pressure | The dirt it is for |
|---|---|---|---|
| High-volume nozzle banks | High flow | Low | Wet mud on bodies, tyres, undercarriage |
| Water cannons / monitors | High flow | Low-medium | Carry-out a spray curtain cannot shift |
| High-pressure lance | Low flow | 200–350 bar | Clay packed into tracks and sprockets |
| Hot high-pressure lance | Low flow | Heated | Oil and grease around the driveline |
The water side
Washing a mining fleet is really a water-handling job
Every one of these systems moves a large volume of water, and on a mine site there is usually nowhere for it to go: no sewer connection, a licence that does not let silt or hydrocarbons reach the ground or a watercourse, and a long haul for every tanker of fresh water. The loop has to close on site — which is why the water side decides whether a mine wash bay is usable at all.
What comes off the machine is not simply muddy: it carries grit, clay that stays in suspension for hours, hydrocarbons off the undercarriage, and whatever the ore contributes.
So the bay drains into a train of sedimentation tanks rather than one pit. Each stage drops a finer fraction than the last, and the water is progressively clearer as it moves along. What leaves the final tank goes through a skid-mounted oil and sludge separator — or a cyclone filter, where the load is mostly abrasive solids rather than oil — before the pumps send it back to the nozzles.
- Multiple sedimentation tanks in series, so the last stage only ever sees fines
- Skid-mounted oil and sludge separator, piped and wired before it ships
- Or a cyclone filter, where the water is carrying grit rather than hydrocarbons
- Settled sludge is dug or pumped out of the tanks on a schedule, instead of circulating back to the pumps and the nozzles
- Make-up water covers the losses — evaporation, carry-off on the machine, sludge removal — not the whole wash
Stage by stage
What the water actually goes through
How many of these stages a site needs depends on the material and on what the water is being reused for. A coal operation carrying mostly fines is not the same problem as an iron ore site with hydrocarbons off the driveline.
1 — Collection and settling
The slab is graded to channels that drain to a sump, and from there to sedimentation tanks working in series. Coarse solids drop out first so the later stages only ever see fines, and sludge is dug or pumped out of the tanks on a schedule.
2 — Separation
A skid-mounted oil and sludge separator takes out floating hydrocarbons and settled sludge. Where the load is abrasive grit rather than oil, a cyclone filter does the same job with no moving parts to wear.
3 — Filtration
A W100 multimedia filter polishes what the separator leaves, and an activated carbon stage is added where the recycled water has to be clear and odour-free rather than merely silt-free.
4 — Return and make-up
Clarified water goes to a clean-water tank and back to the pump skid. Fresh water only covers real losses — evaporation, carry-off on the machine, and what leaves with the sludge — so a remote site is not trucking in a full wash volume every shift.
The machines these systems are built for
Rigid haul trucks
Off-highway haulage, up to the largest machines running in the pit — washed as a drive-through or in a bay.
Articulated dump trucks
Two-body machines with an articulation joint and a chassis that traps material in places a fixed spray struggles to reach.
Tracked excavators
The hardest wash on any mine: track frames, rollers, sprockets and idlers packed solid. Cannon work, not curtain work.
Wheel loaders & dozers
Bucket backs, blade faces, lift arms and belly plates — where mud dries hard and adds weight nobody is paid to carry.
Graders & drill rigs
Long, low machines and mast rigs, where the wash has to reach along the frame rather than across a slab-sided body.
Support fleet
Water bowsers, fuel and service trucks, and the road tippers that take ore off site — often the ones a compliance officer looks at first.
Since 1993
Built for sites where the nearest spare is two days away
We have installed these systems in some of the remotest places our customers work, and that shapes how they are put together. Standard modules mean a mine can hold spares that actually fit, and that a pump, a nozzle bank or a separator can be worked on without the whole bay going down for it.
years building heavy-duty cleaning systems
wash methods, from one set of modules
Mining vehicle wash — common questions
How long does it take to wash one machine?
It depends entirely on which system you choose: 2–3 minutes through a high-volume drive-through, 30–40 minutes with traversing cannon trolleys, around an hour with joystick-controlled cannons, and 1–2 hours for a full manual detail wash. Those are wash cycle times for a single machine, not queue times for a fleet.
Is the system automatic or manual?
Both modes usually exist on the same installation. A drive-through lane runs automatically — vehicle detection starts the pumps and the driver never leaves the cab — while the cannons are operated manually, from a remote joystick, or on a mechanised trolley. Sites that need a fast lane and a thorough wash generally get both rather than compromising on one.
Can one bay do a quick wash and a detail wash?
Yes. A common arrangement is a drive-through lane with cannon points in it: the haulage fleet passes through in minutes, and a machine that needs more is parked in the same bay and worked over with the cannons. Where throughput is high, the fast lane and the detail bay are usually separated so one never blocks the other.
How do you clean packed mud out of excavator tracks?
With water cannons rather than spray banks — a solid jet has the reach and the energy to break clay out of track frames, rollers and sprockets. Intricate areas then get a high-pressure cleaner at up to 200 bar in the hands of an operator. This is exactly the work the joystick and trolley systems were built to take over.
How much water does it use, and can it be recycled?
All four systems use a large volume of water, which is why every installation is designed around recycling it: multiple sedimentation tanks in series, then a skid-mounted oil and sludge separator or a cyclone filter, then back to the pumps. Fresh water only makes up what is genuinely lost. Actual volumes are sized against your fleet and material — we would rather calculate that than quote an average.
If every system is customised, what does "modular" change?
The engineering is still done for your site. What is not done from scratch is the hardware: nozzle banks, cannon assemblies, pump skids, control panels and treatment stages are existing KKE modules, already detailed and already proven on operating mines. That shortens design, fabrication and commissioning, and it means the spares list is short and familiar instead of unique to your bay.
Our site has no drain and no sewer. Where does the wash water go?
Nowhere — that is the point of the design. The bay drains to its own sump and sedimentation tanks, the water is separated and filtered on site, and it goes back to the pumps. Fresh water only replaces what is genuinely lost to evaporation, carry-off on the machine and sludge removal. This is normal for the sites we work on: most of them are remote, none of them can put silt or hydrocarbons on the ground, and trucking in a full wash volume every shift is not a plan.
What is included in the system you supply?
The wash hardware — nozzle banks, cannons, pump skid, controls — and the water side, from the sump through separation and filtration to the clean-water tank. On package jobs we have also supplied the pump house, the control room and the DCS interface, which is how we have worked with EPC contractors such as Technip, Bechtel and L&T ECC. The civil work — slab, channels, sump — is built to our drawings, usually by the site or its civil contractor.
What do you need from us to quote a system?
The fleet list — machine models and how many of each — the material being handled, how many machines have to be washed per shift, the water available, and the space at the spot where washing has to happen. With that we can tell you which of the four systems fits and what building it involves.
Send us your fleet list
Tell us the machines, the material they carry and how many have to pass per shift. We will come back with the system type that fits your site — and what it takes to build it.