LOADERS BOOSTED BY QUICK COUPLER SYSTEM

Liebherr’s XPower wheel loader range can now take advantage of LIKUFIX.

Liebherr has expanded the application of its quick coupler system LIKUFIX to most of its XPower large wheel loader range.

The automatic, hydraulic coupling system was designed to increase efficiency and productivity, making operators’ jobs easier by keeping attachments connected.

Not even a hydraulic line or a misaligned bucket could give an operator cause now to leave their seat, as LIKUFIX separates and reengages attachments fully automatically.

With the press of a button and the turn of a joystick, wheel loaders can become forklifts or sweepers or grapplers in seconds.

From 2021, this capacity has been made available to an even wider range of vehicles. XPower large wheel loaders up to the L 580 will now benefit from the technology.

Liebherr Australia and New Zealand’s earthmoving division national sales manager Noel Tosolini said the expansion met every expectation – for now.

“The customer requirements were and are that wheel loaders can change tools fully hydraulically and automatically,” Tosolini told Quarry. “We can now meet this requirement completely. This means that Liebherr has exhausted the potential for this product – but the company is watching the market and, as with any other product, will continue to develop and generate maximum customer benefit.”

LIKUFIX can even be fitted to other manufacturers’ hydraulic excavators, meaning there’s no corner of Australia’s extractive industry that the system can’t touch.

The technology builds on the preceding capabilities of Liebherr’s mechanical coupling system and the hydraulic coupling system – both borne of the ethos that swapping attachments can save time and money.

Tosolini explained the applications where LIKUFIX might be used to save time.

“In civil engineering or at sewer or road construction job sites, larger wheel loaders might work with high dump buckets, screener crusher buckets, pipe grabbers or concrete mixer buckets,” he said. “In recycling yards, changing between high dump buckets and hydraulic forks on a regular basis might be necessary. In all these applications, LIKUFIX can save time and reduce risk.”

Not only can the LIKUFIX save money in uptime but through the purchases of fewer vehicles for any given job.

“Several customers in Europe have given us the feedback that thanks to LIKUFIX, a Liebherr wheel loader or excavator can complete the work of two machines in one,” Tosolini said.

For minimal maintenance on the coupling system and sustainable practices, Liebherr has produced a tight and reliable design.

Tosolini dived into the ins and outs of what makes the system so effective.

“The LIKUFIX system is designed for tough construction operations,” he said. “The coupling block is spring-mounted. Therefore, the forces acting on the hydraulic quick hitch do not transfer to the coupling system.

“Even on long operations, the connections between the hydraulic circuits are completely sealed. No dirt can penetrate the system and no oil can leave the hydraulic system.

“To make maintenance easier, all individual moving parts on the LIKUFIX coupling system are easily accessible.

“Customers are able to easily complete cleaning and simple maintenance activities themselves, such as changing a seal.”

Since 1954, Liebherr has been developing its excavation technology to reach this point, when simplicity and productivity can combine.

LIKUFIX has peaked – for now – and met the needs of the industry. But Tosolini said his company will be ready for the next step in technological advancement when the time comes.

“Depending on customer requirements, addon features can certainly be investigated and, if necessary, developed,” he said. “Liebherr has the advantage here that a great deal of knowhow has already been acquired in the field of quick coupling systems over the last 20 years and synergies can certainly be used here. The primary goal is always to maximise customer benefit.”•

Further information about the LIKUFIX can be found on the Liebherr website: liebherr.com/en/aus/ products/attachments/quick-couplers/likufix/likufix. html

On loan: Delta’s Hitachi ZX690LCH-5 excavator fills the back of the Caterpillar 773 dump truck.

RENTAL PLANT GIVES

BUSY SITE EXTRA MUSCLE, RELIEF

A Hanson Australia extractive operation has never been busier. Fortunately, there has been extra support to assist the quarry’s core earthmoving fleet as it transfers aggregate from the face to the crushing circuit and out the gate.

Hanson Australia’s Kulnura Quarry is located off the New South Wales Central Coast, about 25km from Gosford and about 90km northwest of Sydney. Kulnura Quarry is extracting a columnar basalt deposit and under the current extraction plan, there is about 10 to 15 years of resources left in the quarry.

There are 48 personnel at the site which runs on day and night shifts. The workforce includes operators and maintainers, including boiler makers, heavy vehicle mechanics, diesel fitters and technicians.

Hanson’s annual output at Kulnura is between 1.5 and 1.7 million tonnes per annum. As quarry manager Greg Dressler told Quarry, many of Kulnura’s end products comprise concrete aggregates, 10mm to 20mm and 20mm graded roadbase products, and washed and unwashed manufactured sands.

“We mainly produce aggregates,” he said, “but we also supply the construction market with drainage rock, small gabion rock and specified and unspecified roadbases for the quarry materials market. We satisfy most of the quarry materials markets.

“We supply both to the Central Coast and Sydney for concrete aggregates, and civil construction markets as well. Our concrete plants are feeding into major infrastructure projects in the Sydney market. We supply locally to a number of housing developments, so again, civil construction materials, drainage materials, specified and unspecified roadbase products.”

HIRED ‘MUSCLE’ To be extracting and then moving up to two million tonnes of aggregates per year on-site, you require an extensive and reliable earthmoving fleet.

“In our load and haul fleet, we have a fleet of Cat 775G dump trucks, a Cat 990 face loader, a Komatsu WA700 loader, a Cat D9 dozer, a Cat 769 dump truck for stockpiling work, three Volvo sales loaders – two L250s and a L260 – plus ancillary equipment with Bobcats, mini-excavators, telehandlers and elevated work platforms,” Dressler said.

However, even with such an impressive inventory, the demands on Hanson Kulnura Quarry from the Central Coast and Sydney markets means the operation must periodically lease more equipment. It is also necessary to bring in more “muscle” if a regular member of the fleet is also indisposed.

Enter Delta Group whose hire division offers quarries and mines heavy late model plant and equipment nationwide, both for short- and long-term purposes. Hanson Australia has worked with Delta for more than a decade on the supply of rental equipment to its quarrying operations nationwide.

At Kulnura, Delta has most recently supplied Hanson with a Komatsu WA500-7 wheel loader, a large Caterpillar 773 haul truck and two Hitachi excavators – a ZX290LC-5 and a ZX690LCH-5.

“The 773 is an additional dump truck to cover our stockpile requirements,” Dressler explained. “It supplements our Cat 769 from a stockpiling/finished product perspective. The WA500 enables us to stand down a couple of our loaders for major mid-life rebuilds.

“The ZX690 excavator is used for a combination of overburden removal and it also supplements as a face-holding tool for our load and haul fleet. The ZX290, which is the smaller excavator, is used for general housekeeping works and tasks, a little bit of stockpile management, and we also use it for feeding some mobile crushing and screening equipment that we hire in from time to time.”

ACCEPTANCE OF SITE Dressler, who has more than 35 years’ experience in the quarrying industry and worked across a range of extractive companies, was already familiar with Delta Group’s reputation and expertise prior to joining Hanson Kulnura earlier this year.

“Most of the Delta Rent equipment is low hour, late model machines,” he said. “Delta’s gear is well maintained. Our earthmoving fleet is quite diverse because it is Cat, Volvo,

Hitachi and Komatsu. The operators are very happy. When the guys jump out of one brand of excavator into another brand of excavator, the excavator operations remain the same, it’s just becoming familiar with the new machines.

“We do a familiarisation with our people. We also do an acceptance of site for hired equipment to ensure that it meets our minimum site requirements around MDG15, from a safety perspective. Generally, the machines are well and truly up to spec but it is one of our processes that we have to follow to meet site requirements.”

The flexibility, Dressler said, to lease the plant from Delta Rent enables Hanson Kulnura to stand its machines down for “mid-life rebuilds or major repairs”.

“Having our own core fleet is what we maintain but we use Delta Rent to supplement equipment for peaks in the market and mobile crushing and screening operations or any other projects on-site with overburden removal and the like,” he added.

Dressler added that by hiring equipment on a supplemental basis, quarries also stand to make capital savings. “There are some operations that may not have the capital available, so rental is a good option. The market goes up and down, so it makes little sense to purchase machines of your own that you don’t end up utilising – that ends up being a lot of money wasted with none of the benefits. Having a core fleet means you can supplement it with rental equipment based on demand.”

FLEET DATA Core fleets, particularly in larger quarries, will inevitably utilise fleet management solutions to monitor machine and operator performance.

Dressler explained that Hanson Kulnura uses the SAP software platform which “helps us in and around our scheduled maintenance and financial tracking of our mobile fleet. Internally, we also have some very good visibility of the efficiencies of our mobile fleet, whereby we monitor idle times and the fuel factors of our haul trucks. It’s good data to have to optimise the efficiency of your operations.

“With the hired-in equipment from Delta, we don’t use SAP. Delta maintains the gear well in terms of scheduled servicing but if there is data we need, we can recover it from Delta.”

Damien Gramola, the national sales manager for Delta Rent, told Quarry that operator and machine performance is readily available for quarrying clients to add to their own fleet data.

“We can provide any customer with operator and machine telematics,” he said. “This is derived from the OEM telematics programs which Delta Rent use on a regular basis to monitor machines and their performance.

“It is also used to provide hours for servicing and maintenance to ensure the machines are maintained at their peak performance.”

Gramola said the company’s approach to leasing its equipment to quarrying clients applied across the spectrum, whether it was large, medium or small producers. He said the appeal of Delta to larger producers with large earthmoving fleets like Hanson was that they could hire equipment to support their operations with few restrictions and at relatively short notice.

“For the big producers, it’s about flexilbility and responsiveness to demand,” Gramola explained. “If they have a breakdown we can mobilise equipment quickly to reduce the impact of the breakdown, plus when the unit is no longer needed it is simply off hired and returned. We can hire equipment out for one day, one week, one month or years, it’s really up to the customer.”

In this time of COVID-19 uncertainty, it is a brave man who can organise delivery of heavy-duty plant and equipment at short notice but nonetheless Gramola said that the turnaround times on Delta’s hire gear is reliable. “It depends on when the request is made, but usually within 24 hours we can have a replacement machine on-site and ready to work.”

Gramola added that the scalability and costs of renting are also more attractive for quarrying producers than “trying and buying gear” from OEMs/dealers or buying low hour machines from auctioneers.

“When demand for product increases or they need to start stripping, they can bring in equipment to satisfy the need, then when demand falls away or the stripping finishes, they can simply off hire and return the unit,” Gramola said.

“It allows customers to forecast costs and output based on equipment required and the amount of time needed to complete a project. It also prevents them having to deal with any servicing or breakdowns because we take care of all maintenance and servicing.”

Greg Dressler has liaised with Paul Ryan, Delta’s heavy earthmoving rental equipment specialist in NSW, and described his overall experience with Delta – both before and since joining Hanson – as positive.

“They’re a very professional company to deal with, very responsive and very costcompetitive,” he said. “They can cover our needs quite quickly. They have a large fleet across the eastern seaboard and it’s a reasonable range that is available at very short notice.”•

For more information about Delta Group’s rental service, visit deltagroup.com.au/rent

The hired ZX290LC-5 excavator is employed at Hanson Kulnura Quarry for general housekeeping works and tasks, including stockpile management.

BIODEGRADABLE TOOL GREASE IDEAL FOR SUSTAINABLE CONTRACTOR

RHT Contracting founding director Mike Heddon has had a relationship with Rammer that stretches back into the mid-1990s. Upon these foundations, his company now trusts the experts at Rammer to develop a range of reliable products including its BIO Tool Grease – a biodegradable grease for hydraulic rockbreakers.

RHT formed in mid-2018 as Heddon returned from time away from the extractive industry to realise there was still plenty of work to be done across Western Australia.

RHT runs with a focus on safety and sustainability, owing to Heddon and his colleagues’ extensive history of mine and mill management.

The company has even grown to be responsible for the largest central discharge dam in the southern hemisphere.

Naturally, this ethos calls for investment in the best products available which can enable safe operations for RHT and its clients.

One such investment is Rammer’s BIO Tool Grease for hydraulic rockbreakers which has been developed in collaboration with customers across the extractive industries.

Heddon said he didn’t hesitate to switch out the old Rammer tool grease for the new biodegradable option.

“When it came out, they rang me straight away and said Rammer would be trialling it and asked if I wanted to try it. I said absolutely we do,” Heddon told Quarry.

Heddon’s extensive relationship with Rammer has kept him among Rammer’s first ports of call to experience new products.

His contact knew RHT would be keen on the grease, so long as it could tick one simple box.

“We run world’s best practice equipment,” Heddon said. “We keep up to date with the best available to us and if something comes out, we ask ‘will this make the job better?’

“We have a philosophy of constant improvement while always looking outside the square, no matter what we do for our clients. They then reward us in repeat work and longer contracts.”

RHT has reported no noticeable difference in the BIO tool grease compared to its non-biodegradable predecessor – just the same reliability the contractor has become accustomed to in Rammer products.

Competing bidegradable greases have seen high temperatures limit their effectiveness, which is important in hydraulic rockbreakers which can reach up to 1100°C.

Rammer’s BIO grease, however, manages to combat both high and low temperatures using a specially formulated lithium complex thickener.

Heddon said he trusted Rammer after visiting its facilities in northern Europe and witnessing the work that goes into the products.

“A big eye-opener for me was when I went to Rammer in Finland and saw how passionate they were about everything they do, and how serious they were about their environmental practices,” Heddon said.

“So, there was no hesitation about the product’s quality. If it’s got the tick of approval from a place like Finland, you know it’s good.”

The biodegradable nature of the tool grease allows for stress-free use in areas with strict regulations such as cities, underwater and where groundwater may present a risk of spreading any spills.

Heddon said the extra peace of mind that comes with being environmentally friendly is a bonus.

“Rockbreakers obviously run down and wear out eventually, which can lead to breakages or oil spillages in worst case scenarios,” Heddon said.

“But it’s just great to know that if there is ever an oil spill of any kind, there’s less worry as to how it might contaminate the environment.”

This responsible state of mind extends to every task undertaken by RHT. Whether it’s tailings dams, rehabilitation, crushing and screening or any of the company’s other services, safety and sustainability are both no-brainers.

Heddon said in this day and age there’s no reason these pillars of operation shouldn’t be front of mind.

“Sustainability is just like safety in our eyes,” Heddon said. “If we find ourselves working in an unsafe environment, we basically leave. It’s the same with sustainability.

“If you don’t move with the times, clients will move away from you, so it’s just another box to tick because it’s the right thing to do. Just like you look after your health and safety, you look after the environment.”

Rammer BIO Tool Grease became available in Australia from the last quarter of 2021 via the Australian authorised Rammer dealer network.

Rammer has several dealers across Australia. These include GroundTec (New South Wales), Walkers Hammers (Victoria and Tasmania), QLD Rockbreakers (Queensland), Renex Equipment (South Australia and the Northern Territory), and Total Rockbreaking Solutions (WA).•

Rammer’s biodegradable grease has been specially formulated with a lithium complex thickener.