The 32t fully mobile underground machine is capable of processing at a rate of up to 1000 tonnes per hour and compatible with any development equipment.
Ontrak Engineering managing director Steve Lewry said his company has been developing the feeder breaker for about 18 months after realising the need for a locally made machine to service Australia's booming coal industry.
He said the process "took the best bits out of top-selling machines" but also added features he felt were missing in other models.
Among them is the modular nature of Ontrak's feeder breaker that allows for easier maintenance of the machine, as individual parts of the machine can be removed rather than the entire plant.
Also unique is the machine's PLC control system that can be pre-programmed while the machine is on the surface or underground and easily updated.
"With other machines currently on the market you have to remove the entire plant if something breaks but with the new Ontrak module you can just take out the hopper, the drive end, the breaker - whichever part is broken - and have it maintained or fixed," Lewry told ILN.
The Australian owned and built machines will be manufactured at Ontrak's Maraylya factory, where the company will continue to overhaul other feeder breaker models.
"From the time the next machine is sold we expect to have it fully built and ready for delivery to the mine within 18 to 20 weeks," Lewry said.
Expected to enter the market within the next two weeks, Lewry said the feeder breaker was going through final checks and approvals and had attracted a lot of interest from the industry.
He said final onsite testing would be initiated once the machine had been put through its paces inside the workshop, but no mine had yet been chosen to host the tests.
Lewry said Ontrak worked with ATF mining engineering, Bosch Rexroth hydraulics and Bonfiglioli gearboxes on the machine and is confident the new feeder breaker product is the best it can bring to the market.
"Over a series of testing and refinements we've finetuned the machine and we're now at a point where we are ready to see it out in the industry," Lewry said.
