After decades of strife , occupation , and conflict , Afghanistan has been left pockmarked with an forecast ten million anti - personnel landmines in its soil . It ’s a bad situation . There are mines like the the Soviet PFM-1 butterfly stroke mine — peculiarly popular with small children , who mistake it for a plaything . But an anti - mine machine from Komatsu is working across the land to help Afghans literally save life and limb .
Afghanistan is predominantly a mountainous country with only about 20 percent of its landmass suitable for development . So have that already restrict blank space further reduce by the phantasm of landmines only slows the country ’s economic convalescence more — areas that should be developed are no - go zones . And that ’s not even considering the economic and ethnical toll of landmine - tie in injury . Between 1999 and 2008 , Afghanistan suffer more than 12,000 landmine fatal accident , the highest charge per unit in the world , harmonize tothe Landmine Monitor Report 2009 . On ordinary , 120 people a class lost their living or their appendage to swan ordnance . And manual demining , while honorable , is too sluggish to in effect batten Afghanistani soil .
To combat this nemesis , Nipponese grievous equipment manufacturerKomatsuhas developed the D85EX-15 deminer . This 38 - short ton machine is build on a 27 - tonD85EX-15 dozerchassis and heavily reinforced with blast armour . To protect the operators , the deminer can be controlled remotely . You have to ideate that ’s a pop feature of speech . crew watch for explosions , then substitute the portion damaged by sharpnel .
It ’s powered by an 244HP , 11 - l , 6 - cylinder , turbo - charge engine . The deminer climbs slopes as steep as 30 - arcdegree grades , and clears up to 500 substantial meters of land an hour .
The D85EX-15 uses a rotating front drum that spins 90 digging flails at 200RPM , mash and set off anti - personnel mine bury near the ground ’s Earth’s surface . The flails are also extremely ready to hand for clarification brush , allowing the the deminer to till soil and clear country for construction projection . The front - end fond regard can be swapped out for the conventional bulldozer gear as well .
The D85EX-15 has been test in Afghanistan since previous 2007 . Since 2006 , it has also been actively operating in Cambodia , removing some of the 16 million anti - personnel mines lay there . Without the steep terrain encountered in Afghanistan , the D85EX-15 can clear a hectare of demesne every two to three Day . It ’s a key tool in rebuilding these landed estate haunt by the story of war . [ Fourmilab – Komatsu1,2 – Komatsu America – Main Pump – CMAC – RAWA ]
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