BELAZ says that in September 2013, on the eve of its 65-year anniversary, it presented the BELAZ-75710 to the mining community, a mining dump truck with a payload capacity of 450 tons. The company’s About page says it received certificates from Guinness World Records, which documented two records for the 450-ton truck at once.

The page does not say what those two records were, only that the records were documented together.

Two records at once

BELAZ calls the 75710 the biggest dump truck in the world, and in another passage on the same page the biggest mining dump truck in the world. Both lines give the same figure, a payload capacity of 450 tons. The company describes the truck as a development of its own plant specialists.

The presentation came on the eve of what the page calls the company’s 65-year anniversary.

BELAZ frames its equipment in general as a product of what came before it. “We build our success relying on the experience and knowledge of earlier generations, transferring best traditions to new models of our equipment,” the page says.

The company behind it

OJSC “BELAZ” is the management company of Holding “BELAZ-HOLDING”, which the page says takes in eight large enterprises. The company describes itself as the major global manufacturer of mining dump trucks and transport equipment for mining and construction, and claims a 30 per cent share of the world market for superheavy mining dump trucks.

The trucks are Belarusian, and the page says they “have gained the reputation of being reliable even under the most severe conditions of an open mine pit.”

The page is less consistent on how far they travel. One section counts more than 80 countries in the geography of supplies, while another says deliveries go to more than 70 countries. The number of equipment modifications developed for different climate conditions also shifts, from more than 500 in one place to more than 550 in another.

Manufacturing to order is a growing part of the business, according to BELAZ.

Besides mining dump trucks, the company says it develops and builds specialised vehicles and other heavy vehicles used in mining, construction and metallurgy. Its stated specialism is heavy and super heavy-duty mining dump trucks.

Because the products are exported, BELAZ says they are built to international requirements and standards. The page lists STB EN series 474, STB ISO 3450, STB ISO 3471, STB ISO 3164, STB EN 12643, GOST ISO series 5006 and STB ISO 10261. Mining equipment sold into the European market meets Directive 2006/42/EU and carries the CE mark, BELAZ says.

The page says products that need conformity checks are certified in the National System of Conformity Assessment of the Republic of Belarus and in the GOST R certification system.

Responsibility for a product sits with the producer at each step of production, a principle the page says applies both to the plant’s internal units and to the enterprises that supply components.

The company says it has also set up a programme for statistical quality management, running from design and incoming checks of purchased parts through to equipment in use at the customer.

BELAZ says it is working on introducing FMEA methods to prevent defects at the initial stage of product development and design.

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