Laying the groundwork

from Roads and Infrastructure March 2022

by Prime Creative Media

Women In Industry Awards Finalists Announced

LAYING THE

Liebherr’s THS 140 D-K crawler concrete pump offers maximum delivery rates of up to 135 m³/h.

GROUND WORK

ANDREW WILDER, GENERAL MANAGER OF LIEBHERR-AUSTRALIA, SPEAKS TO ROADS & INFRASTRUCTURE ABOUT WHAT DISTINGUISHES LIEBHERR’S CONCRETE PUMP RANGE BEYOND EXCELLENCE IN MANUFACTURING AND DESIGN.

Like any construction relying on a solid foundation, Liebherr Australia General Manager Andrew Wilder is a fi rm believer that there’s more to being a good equipment supplier than selling quality machines. Equally important, he says, is laying the groundwork for customer support.

Building on that philosophy, when Liebherr Australia decided to complement its range of deep foundation equipment with the introduction of concrete pumps, Wilder says it was critical for the company to have a wide network of technical support and spare parts to back up the pumps throughout their lifecycle.

“Unlike some other equipment manufacturers, Liebherr has traditionally not entered a new market without the technical, parts and a support network set up,” says Wilder.

“It is for this reason, Liebherr is globally seen to have the best support for our products. It is also why the entire product offering sold by Liebherr Concrete Technology is not yet available in Australia.”

As a global company, Liebherr has been in the concrete industry since the 1950s, producing mixers and tower plants. From there, Liebherr’s concrete technology has progressed into trailer mounted mixers, recycling plants and concrete pumps.

In Australia, Liebherr has been selling concrete technology equipment since the late 90s, with the THS crawler concrete pumps the latest to be marketed in Australia and New Zealand.

THS CRAWLER CONCRETE PUMPS Liebherr’s THS crawler concrete pumps are currently sold in two capacities – the 110 D-K crawler concrete pumps, which offer a maximum delivery rate of 102 m³/h, and the THS 140 D-K with maximum delivery rates of up to 135 m³/h.

A typical application for crawler concrete pumps is providing drilling rigs with concrete for foundation applications. This involves drilling deep holes into the ground and fi lling them with concrete as the drill is removed.

Used across deep foundation works in civil, mining and construction projects, Liebherr’s THS concrete pumps are fi tted onto a crawler running gear and can be controlled with manual controls or remote control. Furthermore, an optional Bluetooth controller can be fi tted to the drill rig to control the main pump functions. This, Wilder explains, is one of the key innovations in the machine, allowing more

effi cient use of manpower.

“If you have one operator driving the drill rig, the same operator can control the pumping process remotely. This synergy between drill rig and pump reduces the time spent on site and decreases labour costs. Furthermore, our customers can reduce concrete waste, which in turn reduces expenses for them and their clients.”

Sustainability is another aspect of Liebherr’s THS crawler concrete pumps, which has been embedded in the design, Wilder explains.

“The Liebherr crawler concrete pump is years ahead when it comes to sustainability and design,” he says.

“From the provision of low-emission Tier 5 engines, to providing high output concrete, every aspect of the design helps maximise effi ciency. More importantly, from a serviceability point of view, the THS series has been designed with features such as a large engine bay and changeable wear plates in the hopper to ensure minimal downtime for maintenance.”

In the rare event of an unexpected breakdown, the THS series can continue to work in emergency mode, which will ensure the jobsite doesn’t stop. This, Wilder points out, has helped out Liebherr clients on a few occasions.

“When dealing with concrete, timing is often very critical. If you have a large load of concrete arriving at the site, you can’t afford to have the pump malfunction. With the THS crawler concrete pumps, you can manually override the electric-powered functions, so that the pump can still do its job and get you out of trouble, while you wait for a technician to arrive and fi x the issue,” he explains.

LIEBHERR’S SUPPORT NETWORK Wilder says before even introducing the THS crawler concrete pumps to the market, Liebherr-Australia had already established the required support network. This, among other things, involved arrangements for a steady supply of spare parts and machines to keep up with demand.

“Our team of service technicians are based in Sydney, but they are constantly travelling across Australia and New Zealand to support our clients. We also have offi ces in almost every major Australian city. Additionally, our technical teams are readily available to diagnose issues over the phone or through video calls,” explains Wilder.

Recently, the team had to think outside the box as they dealt with COVID-related border restrictions and lockdowns. They resorted to using interactive glasses to provide remote services to customers.

“The interactive glasses are used by our on-site technicians to interact with the head offi ce. We can also send the glasses to customers so that our technicians can remotely see what the customer is seeing and rectify any problems. The added value is that we can then keep the camera’s recording on fi le, which is good for warranty purposes and tracking the machine’s history.”

As part of its guarantee to provide peace of mind to customers, Wilder say LiebherrAustralia also maintains a steady supply of machines and spare parts for its entire fl eet.

“Our game plan with the concrete pumps is to have a minimum of two units available at any given point in time. As such, we have made arrangements with Liebherr’s factories in Europe to provide us with a staggered delivery of crawler pumps, which we feel will be suffi cient to meet the market demand in 2022.”

Similarly for spare parts, Wilder say Liebherr-Australia customers have nothing to worry about.

“We have enough Liebherr parts at our warehouse in Sydney to build two of these units from scratch, and we are always reviewing our stocks to maintain and improve this position. We also work with our customers to ensure they too see the value in stocking their own parts locally, helping them with direct shipments out of Europe to save them money.”

As with the upfront investment, Wilder acknowledges that Liebherr’s concrete pumps are on the premium end of the market but says the overall cost of ownership is balanced through low maintenance costs and availability of technical support.

“To my knowledge, we are the only equipment manufacturer within this segment of the market to provide remote technical support free of charge, and the level of spare parts availability as we do,” says Wilder.

While the THS series of crawler concrete pumps continue to deliver for major construction projects in Australia, the Liebherr-Australia team is already gearing up to launch more innovative products to the market in the near future, Wilder hints.

“Liebherr has a global reputation for quality and innovation. The mindset that some manufacturers have is that they produce a great product and then stop trying to make it better. ‘If it’s not broken, don’t fi x it,’ they say. But Liebherr is constantly looking at our product range to implement continuous improvements, even to products that are market leaders,” says Wilder.

“All I can say for now is that there’s going to be some additional concrete technology brought to the country within the next 12-18 months, and it’s going to be a lot more advanced. But as always, we are laying the groundworks fi rst, offering the required technical training to our team so that we can provide full product support. In the meantime, the THS series continues to provide peace of mind to our customers as a low-maintenance concrete pump technology.”