A mining engineer and researcher, Rowlands was the only Queenslander to receive one of six Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) 2004 Clunies Ross Awards at a ceremony tonight.
His invention, the Universal Dig and Dump (UDD) system, is transforming the giant earth-moving draglines used by the nation's largest export industry, according to CRCMining.
Rowlands began developmental work on dragline buckets and how they are controlled as a mining engineering PhD student at the University of Queensland.
"Draglines are the workhorses of opencut coal mines and their buckets can move up to 200 tonnes of dirt at a time. But dragline bucket and rigging design has not changed or advanced to any great degree in 100 years," he said.
The UDD system replaces conventional dragline rigging with a lighter, innovative configuration that is computer controlled. The technology improves operational flexibility and full-scale trials have shown dragline productivity increases typically by 15-30%.
The new technology went from invention to production in just three years through the combined efforts of Rowlands, CRCMining (formerly CMTE), University of Queensland researchers and Australia's biggest coal miner BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance.
Rowlands said he felt honoured and humbled to be numbered amongst previous Clunies Ross winners.
"I am grateful for the hard work and unwavering support of my work colleagues over the years and also of my father, emeritus professor David Rowlands. Before he retired my father was head of the Mining and Metalliferous Engineering Department at the University of Queensland and he has always mentored and encouraged me."
The ATSE Clunies Ross Awards are presented annually to scientists who have shown outstanding personal commitment and have made a major contribution to the application of science and technology in Australia.
