Liebherr ups the tonnes

Scottish Coal has taken delivery of the first two Liebherr R9350 Litronic hydraulic excavators in a four unit order. With each machine weighing in excess of 300 tonnes, the 12000 tonne order is the biggest ever placed with Liebherr Great Britain.

Scottish Coal has ordered two backhoe and two face shovel versions of the R9350 Litronic and the two machines delivered this month are already at work in the Broken Cross open cast coal site near Lanarkshire.

The R9350 Litronic backhoe model is fitted with a 9,3 m gooseneck boom. A 4,2 m stick and has a 17 m3 bucket capacity. The face shovel version has a 6,75 m boom, a 4,2 m shovel stick and the bottom dump bucket has a 17 m3 capacity.

Initial results show that the new excavators are consistently filling Cat 777 and Terex TR100 dump trucks in three passes and in less than 60 seconds.

Power for the 300 tonne machines comes from a V12, turbo charged, after-cooled QSK45 Cummins engine developing 1120 kW at 1800 rpm.

Liebherr Great Britain has taken significant steps to provide comprehensive on-site after sales support for Scottish Coal, including the provision of GBP £ 2,5 million (€ 2,6 million) of spares, support vehicles and an on-site after sales administrator, project supervisor and field service engineers.