Replacing steering arm bearings on large haul trucks has long been one of the more punishing jobs in mine maintenance.
Perth engineering firm Geographe has developed a purpose-built hydraulic system, the Ball Stud Bearing Installation and Removal Tool, known as the BSBIRT, to change that.
Designed for Caterpillar 785, 789 and 793 haul trucks, the tool replaces a high-risk manual process with a controlled three-step procedure covering removal, setting and installation.
Traditional bearing changeouts have relied on brute force, heavy hammering, improvised jacking, presses and even liquid nitrogen.
In some cases, crews have been forced to remove tie rods and steering cylinders to reach the component.
Geographe describes these methods as outdated, with potentially costly consequences for both people and equipment.
The BSBIRT, developed in collaboration with mine site maintenance crews, uses controlled hydraulic power to safely remove, set and install the bearing assembly.
The engineering approach delivers benefits in three areas.
On safety, the tool eliminates all hammering of components and avoids manual strains and potential hand crush injuries.
On efficiency, it reduces what was once a multi-shift problem to a predictable one-shift solution, cutting job time and lowering labour costs.
On asset protection, a built-in guidance system ensures precise alignment, preventing damage to the bearing, ball stud and steering eye during the critical installation phase.
That work has now been recognised at industry level, with Geographe named winner of Excellence in Mine Safety, OH&S at the 2026 Australian Mining Prospect Awards.
Announced at Fraser’s Kings Park in Perth, the award acknowledges practical safety improvements that make a real difference on mine sites.
Seven finalists were recognised in the category, spanning emergency management, digital safety platforms and engineered tooling.
For Geographe, the win is a proud moment that reflects decades of engineering work focused on safer maintenance, stronger uptime and better outcomes for mining crews.
The award recognises measurable safety improvements delivered through engineered maintenance solutions on active mine sites.
Specialised tooling of this kind reduces hazard exposure by shortening changeout times, which in turn decreases the time workers spend in the footprint of heavy machinery.
Field trials with a Tier 1 miner showed the scale of the gains.
Used together with Geographe’s Ball Stud Removal Tool, the BSBIRT allowed crews to maintain all four steering arms in a single 12-hour shift, cutting the job time in half and removing the need for maintenance to stretch across a double shift.
Each bearing changeout was completed in just 15 minutes, compared with a standard process that can take up to six hours.
The result is a step-change in efficiency that minimises downtime, reduces labour costs and delivers a faster, safer and more predictable maintenance outcome.
For operators running large haul fleets, where every hour a truck spends out of service carries a significant cost, shifting a bearing replacement from hours to minutes has obvious appeal.
The 2026 win is Geographe’s second Prospect Award.
The company previously took out the Innovative Mining Solution category in 2021 for another piece of specialised tooling, the Ball Stud Removal Tool, which is now in use globally.
Its appearance alongside the BSBIRT in the Tier 1 trials shows how the two tools complement each other as part of a broader approach to safer bearing maintenance.
By focusing on problem-solving for miners and working directly with the crews who carry out the work, Geographe has built a reputation for tooling that targets the most hazardous and time-consuming tasks on site.
The BSBIRT is the latest example, offering mining operations a way to protect their people, their equipment and their production schedules through one engineered solution.
