Fuel per ton of gypsum, measured live
How a US gypsum quarry fitted high-capacity DFM Marine flow meters to 20-year-old haul trucks and excavators to measure fuel per ton of product in real time.
A quarry building a digital model of itself
The quarry belongs to an international corporation that develops non-metallic quarries worldwide and produces construction materials, technical ceramics, valves and architectural glass. The project is part of a wider goal: a digital econometric model of the quarry.
No fuel data on the CAN bus
The key efficiency metric is the fuel needed to extract one ton of gypsum — and that requires accurate, real-time consumption from every machine. The haul trucks and excavators do have CAN buses, but at around 20 years old they carry no fuel data. So flow meters had to go directly into the fuel systems, starting with a pilot on selected machines before scaling to the whole quarry.
High-capacity flow meters in differential pairs
DFM Marine flow meters with CAN J1939 — built for direct diesel measurement on heavy machinery — were installed in pairs in differential mode: two per haul truck (supply and return) and four per excavator (the PC1800 has two engines; the PC2000 engine has two supply and two return lines). Each line carries 300–500 L/h; measurement error is within ±0.5%.
Connected via S6 technology on one digital bus with a common power supply, up to 16 meters feed a single CAN input of the telematics unit and are configured from one point. Data includes instant and total consumption, supply and return flows, and fuel and engine hours by mode — idle, optimal, overload and tampering.
The system works reliably and streams fuel and engine-hour data in real time; it’s exported into software that calculates production economics. Management now tracks fuel per ton of gypsum, maintenance is planned on actual engine hours, and the data will feed the quarry’s digital econometric model.
Task → Solution → Result
Fuel per ton, without fuel data
20-year-old machines with no fuel parameters on the CAN bus.
DFM Marine on an S6 bus
Differential pairs of high-capacity flow meters, up to 16 per CAN input.
Live fuel per ton
Real-time efficiency data and service by actual engine hours.
Installation was very fast, with minimal machinery downtime. We plan to install fuel flow meters on other vehicles of our quarry.
Head of technical & service department · Gypsum quarry, USA
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