E&JW Glendinning is using the new 35-tonne loading shovel to feed the primary crusher at its Linhay Hill Quarry in Ashburton.
“To be honest, the L220H we took delivery of at the end of last year has been doing a good job feeding the primary, but it is working hard all of the time which in the long term isn’t really viable,” said operations manager Richard Webb.
“The L350F on the other hand is too big for this part of our operations so we took a detailed look at Volvo’s relatively new L250H model. With the larger 5.7m³ bucket, increased operating weight and horsepower we, together with the team at Volvo, made a conservative calculation that the machine will provide us with an additional 75000 tonnes per annum or around an extra 42 tonnes per hour using only one additional litre of fuel over the L220,” he added.
The L250H has a Z-bar loader linkage design, like the bigger L350F, for short cycle times and high breakout forces.
Glendinning’s L250H has been fitted with a 5.7m³ heavy-duty straight-lipped bucket with teeth and bolt on segments. This combination of ground engaging equipment gives the machine a breakout force of 323kN. The machine also benefits from an enhanced full turn tipping load of 23.5 tonnes thanks to the addition of Goodyear L5 tyres fitted to the rear and L3 tyres complete with Pewag chains to the front.
Other features include Comfort Drive Control (CDC), Volvo’s optional ride control or boom suspension system, a Lincoln auto lube system and an RDS 8000 weigh loader. Safety features including all round visibility aids such as sensor vision, blue strobes, white noise alarm and additional LED working lights are also included in the machine’s specification.
This latest Volvo loader joins a fleet at Linhay Hill Quarry that is dominated by Volvo badges, including an old L180D that has clocked up more than 34,000 hours with the same original engine. There is also an L350F that was delivered in July 2013 for face loading duties and the L220H delivered in December 2014 which is now deployed in the stock yard area.
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