Bauma 2013 sees the debut to the Cat 336E H hybrid excavator, which was launched in the USA last year. Energy is stored and reused via the hydraulic hybrid swing system, which captures the excavator’s upper structure swing brake energy in accumulators and then releases the energy during swing acceleration. Cat says that the 336E H needs up to 25% less fuel than the standard 336D and up to 33% less fuel than the 330/336D.

Cat is also introducing four mini excavators – the 302.2D, 302.4D and the compact radius 301.7D and 308E2 – as well as the 444F equal size tyre (EST) backhoe and the D6K2 track-type tractor. Other newer models include the 988K and 966K XE wheeled loaders and the Cat D7E electric drive tractor.

The recently introduced 318E hydraulic excavator and M313D wheeled excavator, the 120M2 AWD motor grader as well as the 91-tonne capacity 777G off-highway truck will be on show. Sure to catch the eye is the all-new 6020B hydraulic mining shovel, designed to work with the 777G truck. With a 220-tonne operating weight and a 20-tonne payload, the 6020B is the largest Cat machine on display.

As an ex-operator himself, Richard recognises that all excavators vary slightly and although drivers are generally well trained and have CPCS cards, they may not be familiar with the detail of the specific machine that arrives on site, particularly the more specialist stuff like long reach excavators. Operator handbooks are always provided with machines (and any additions they may have) but somehow, behind the operator’s seat, they don’t always get read.

So Land & Water has produced a series of videos to aid machine familiarisation, setting our routine maintenance requirements, things to check and how the auto greaser works.  

“We realise that the better informed the operator is, the lower the chances of something being used incorrectly and the stronger the likelihood of the machine being better looked after”. 

On display at Unic Cranes Europe stand will be nine mini crane models, ranging from 0.995 tonnes to 10 tonnes in capacity, the world’s most compact crane, the 600mm wide UNIC URW-094 and the latest model in the Unic range, the 10 tonne UNIC URW-1006 which was launched at last years Intermat show in Paris.

(Image coming soon...)

A buyer from North Carolina has "won" a Marion 7820 walking dragline, with the highest bid ever placed on IronPlant, of 3million USD.

Weighing over 2,000 tons and consisting of a bucket attachment large enough to accommodate parking for three full-size pickup trucks,

Above: JCB 's new 427 wheeled loader

JCB claims to be the only leading equipment manufacturer to meet the regulations without relying on diesel particulate filters (DPF), after-treatment or additives such as Ad-Blue. Instead it uses in-cylinder technologies that somehow produce “a more efficient combustion process”, the tech guys say.