Drive-through wash · 2–3 minutes
A wash the haulage cycle can absorb.
The drive-through is the only one of our four mining wash systems fast enough to use on every shift change rather than once a month. The machine crawls through a lane, high-volume banks flood it from both sides and from underneath, and it is out in two or three minutes — driver still in the cab, nothing having touched the machine.
What a drive-through mining wash actually is
A narrow open-topped lane, wide enough for the largest machine in your fleet and not much wider. Walls stand close on both sides carrying full-height nozzle banks; a nozzle bank sits in a grated channel in the floor. The machine drives in at a crawl, passes two wash stations in series, and drives out the far end.
Nothing in the lane touches it. There are no brushes, no moving arms and no overhead beam across the opening — at this size, with this much abrasive material coming off, water volume does the work and contact would only add things to break. It also means there is nothing to stop the machine, and nothing that has to be adjusted for a different one.
KKE has been building heavy-duty cleaning systems since 1993 — 34 years — and mining vehicle washing has been part of that from the start. The dirt is the hard part: estimating how much material a fleet actually carries out, and how hard it will be to shift once it has dried on, is what sizes everything else.
The lane
Built close to the machine, and open at both ends
The structure is galvanised steel angle framing with X-bracing, clad in ribbed sheet. It stands close to the machine deliberately: the closer the walls, the more of the spray and splash stays in the lane instead of over the haul road.
Underneath, the concrete slab is graded to longitudinal channels that take the water to the sump, with a grated channel down the centre for the under-chassis bank. The slab, channels and sump are built on site to KKE drawings, usually by the site's own civil contractor.
- Galvanised angle frames with X-bracing, clad in ribbed sheet — built for constant water, grit and mud
- Open-topped and open at both ends — a machine drives in one end and out the other, so the lane never becomes a queue
- No overhead beam across the lane, so tray height is not a constraint
- Slab graded to drainage channels, plus the grated centre channel for the under-chassis bank
- Plinth-mounted manifolds and valves clear of the wash floor, where they can be reached without shutting the bay
- A local control panel on the wall, within sight of the lane
The spray
Four vertical banks, two stations, and one bank in the floor
Each bank is a full-height vertical riser studded with large-bore nozzles firing horizontally inward, so the whole side of the machine is covered from tyre to tray in one pass. They are arranged in pairs — two per side — which makes two wash stations in series: the first knocks the bulk off, the second cleans up what the first loosened.
The bank in the floor channel fires upward into the undercarriage, axles and wheel arches. That is where the heaviest carry-out hides, and it is the part a machine cannot be walked around to reach.
- Four vertical nozzle banks — two per side, forming two wash stations in series
- An under-chassis bank in the grated floor channel, firing up into the undercarriage
- Stainless steel nozzle banks and nozzles, so the wetted parts are not what fails first
- High volume rather than high pressure — it is flow that moves wet clay off a large surface
- A cannon point at the exit for heavy carry-out the curtain leaves behind
The cycle, start to finish
Two to three minutes, of which the driver spends none of it out of the cab. Cycle time is per machine, not per fleet — how many machines an hour a lane will take depends on how they arrive.
Approach and detection
The machine lines up and enters at a crawl. Vehicle detection starts the pump set as it arrives, so water is up before the machine reaches the first station and nothing runs while the lane is empty.
First wash station
The first pair of banks floods both sides at once. This pass takes off the bulk — the wet mud sitting on the body, the tray sides and the tyres.
Second station and under-chassis
The second pair works on what the first loosened, while the floor bank washes the undercarriage, axles and wheel arches from below. The machine is still moving.
Exit and touch-up
The machine drives out the far end. Anything the curtain has not shifted — a packed corner, caked steps — gets a cannon at the exit, which is a minute of work rather than a trip to the detail bay.
What is in it
The four sub-systems, plus the civils
A drive-through wash is four systems working together. Which of them we supply and which the site already has varies by project — the water side in particular is often the part that decides the layout.
Wash bay
The lane itself: structure, cladding, the nozzle banks and their manifolds, and the interface to the slab, channels and sump.
Cannon system
One or more cannon points for the heavily soiled areas a passing curtain cannot reach. Hand-worked here; mechanised on the parked-machine systems.
Pump system
A skid-mounted pump set, piped and wired at our works. A hot-standby pump can be included where the bay cannot stop for a seal.
Water recycling
Sedimentation in series, then an oil and sludge separator or a cyclone filter, then back to the pumps. More on the water side.
Controls
Local panel with automatic and manual modes and vehicle detection. On package jobs we have supplied the control room and the DCS interface too.
Civil works
Slab, drainage channels and sump, built to KKE drawings — normally by the site or its civil contractor, since it is concrete work on your ground.
Two modes
Automatic for the fleet, manual for the exception
Both modes are on the same installation. Neither is an upgrade — they are for different jobs, and most sites use both in the same shift.
Automatic — the machine just drives through
Vehicle detection starts the pumps, the machine passes through both stations, and the system shuts down behind it. Nobody is assigned to the wash bay and the driver does not leave the cab — which is the only way washing at every shift change survives contact with a production schedule. An optional hot-standby pump covers bays that cannot stop for a seal, and there is nothing to set per machine: a loader and a haul truck use the same lane.
Manual — each part of the system, on its own
In manual mode the banks and the cannon can be run individually. That is how the awkward work gets done: mud packed into an excavator's track frame, a bucket back, a radiator face — the solid jet of a cannon placed exactly where it is needed. It is also how the lane gets flushed and checked at the start of a shift.
On site
It goes where the fleet already stops
A drive-through only pays if using it costs the machine nothing. That means putting it where the fleet already passes or already waits — the pit exit, the approach to a weighbridge, the road out to a workshop apron — on ground flat enough for a slab and close enough to the water side to keep the pipe runs short.
Get that wrong and the lane is a detour, which means it stops being used. It is worth settling the location before anything else on the drawing.
- Sited on an existing movement — pit exit, weighbridge approach, workshop road
- Level hardstand for the slab, with the drainage falling the way you want it to
- Short pipe runs to the sump, tanks and pump skid
- Room to queue clear of the haul road, so a wash never blocks production traffic
- Works around the clock — a lit lane washes at night as well as it does at noon
Being straight about it
What a drive-through does not do
It is a throughput machine. In two or three minutes it takes the loose and wet material off a machine that passes through — which is exactly what stops carry-out on the road, keeps tyres and grease points visible, and lets an inspector see the steel.
It will not strip clay that has packed and dried into an excavator's track frame, and it is not a pre-service detail wash. That work needs cannons and lances with an operator behind them — which is why we build three other systems, and why plenty of sites run a fast lane and a detail bay side by side.
at the long end of a 2–3 minute wash cycle
vertical nozzle banks — two wash stations in series
Drive-through mining wash — common questions
How long does one machine take?
Two to three minutes for the wash itself, at a crawl through the lane. That is per machine — throughput for a fleet depends on how the machines arrive, which is why siting the lane on an existing movement matters more than shaving the cycle.
Does the driver have to get out?
No. Vehicle detection starts the pumps and the machine drives through. Nobody needs to be stationed at the bay in automatic mode, and nobody works in the spray.
Does it clean the undercarriage?
Yes — that is what the bank in the floor channel is for. It fires upward into the undercarriage, axles and wheel arches as the machine passes over it. On a haul truck that is where most of the carry-out is sitting.
Will it clean an excavator's tracks?
It will wash them, and it will take off what is loose and wet. It will not strip clay that has packed hard into a track frame, sprockets and rollers — no passing spray will. For that you want a cannon or a high-pressure lance with an operator behind it, in manual mode here or in one of the parked-machine systems.
Is it automatic or manual?
Both, on the same installation. Automatic for the fleet passing through; manual so the banks and the cannon can be run individually when a machine needs particular attention. Most sites use both within the same shift.
What civil work do we have to do?
A level slab graded to drainage channels, the grated centre channel for the under-chassis bank, and the sump — all built to our drawings, normally by the site or its civil contractor. We supply the structure, the wash hardware, the pump skid, the controls and the water-treatment equipment.
Does the water get recycled?
Yes, and on most mine sites it has to be: there is no sewer to discharge to and a licence that will not let silt or hydrocarbons reach the ground. The bay drains to sedimentation tanks working in series, then to an oil and sludge separator or a cyclone filter, and clarified water goes back to the pumps. Fresh water only covers evaporation, carry-off and sludge removal.
Does the lane need a roof?
No, and we do not normally build one. The lane is open-topped: it keeps the structure simple, imposes no height limit on a raised tray, and lets the spray plume clear. Where a covered bay is wanted for other reasons it can be built, but the wash does not need it.
Send us the fleet and the material
The machine list, what it is carrying, and how many have to pass per shift. That is enough for us to tell you whether a drive-through is the right system for your site and what building one involves.