JAPAN'S major mining and construction equipment manufacturer has chosen to exclusively support and recommend an Australian-developed advanced mining equipment simulator product range after an exhaustive market review.

An exclusive alliance agreement signed in Tokyo on the 17th October 2006 sees Komatsu Ltd provide Immersive Technologies with restricted technical data for the development of Komatsu equipment Conversion Kits® to ensure all Advanced Equipment (AE) Simulator users have access to the most accurate and effective Komatsu simulator training tools on the market.

This landmark development for Immersive Technologies now means five of the world’s leading mining equipment manufacturers exclusively support and recommend its AE Simulator technology.

Prior to the Komatsu agreement similar Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) alliances were forged with Caterpillar Inc, P&H Mining Equipment Inc, Bucyrus International Inc and Liebherr Mining Equipment Co.

These manufacturers supply most of the world’s mining haul trucks, excavators, electric rope shovels, dozers and ancillary equipment.

Immersive Technologies now has over 85 simulators being used by mine operators, contractors, equipment suppliers and training bodies in 17 countries worldwide. Its Advanced Equipment Simulator technology is already universally recognized as the industry benchmark. The exclusive OEM alliances now provide an additional unparalleled training advantage to machine operators.

Komatsu spent more than a year identifying and evaluating available earthmoving simulator technology before deciding the Immersive Technologies offering would best fulfill its customer requirements for advanced simulator training.

Immersive AE Simulator technology would also enable Komatsu equipment users to maximize utilization of their assets – through development of best-practice operating procedures and enhanced safety awareness – achieving optimum benefits from the equipment.

“The Immersive Technologies training system will, we believe, assist us to promote a safer training option,” Mr. Hironaka, Product Support Division President of Komatsu said.

“By using an advanced simulator for training, customers do not have to remove machines from the production cycle for training purposes or suffer reduced equipment productivity during training time.

“The simulator is also the safest training option for new operators.”

Immersive Technologies chief executive officer Peter Salfinger said the technical agreement with Komatsu was a further significant milestone for the company, which was established in 1993.

“It provides further validation of our positioning as the preferred global platform for simulator training in the mining industry,” he said.

“We have seen a large number of the world’s new and existing mines, recognize the benefits of our technology and support system. They are looking increasingly to simulator training to achieve optimum levels of performance and safety out of mobile equipment fleets.

“The major equipment manufacturers have acknowledged the AE Simulator technology provides the most sophisticated training solution to the industry and is the best platform to accurately replicate their complex machine specific technical data.”

Immersive Technologies has been working with Komatsu on development of simulator Conversion Kits® for their different machines since 1998. The new agreement means all Komatsu mining equipment controls, relevant onboard systems and operating protocols can be simulated accurately.

“Without such a high level of technical data exchange this would not be possible,” Peter Salfinger said.