As soon as it was delivered by Inverurie-based dealer Balgownie, the new DX340LC-3 was put to work on the Stroupster wind farm development in Caithness, just four miles south of John O’Groats. 

Company owner Fraser Maclennan, who is operating the new excavator on site, says:  “I recently tried out a Doosan excavator and was so impressed I decided to buy one for the company for the first time. The new DX340LC-3 model provides everything we need in our work – high performance, comfort, dependability and fuel efficiency.” 

Fraser Maclennan (Contractor) Ltd is based at Dormoch in Sutherland.

The Stroupster wind farm was acquired by BayWa r.e. from RWE Npower Renewables in 2012 and has planning permission for 13 turbines, bringing the scheme’s planned capacity up to 29.9 MW.  Construction began on site in November 2013, and the project is planned to be fully operational in mid-2015.

The DX340LC-3 excavator is powered by the Doosan DL08K ‘common rail’ 6-cylinder turbocharged diesel engine meeting Stage IIIB engine emission regulations by using exhaust gas recirculation and diesel particulate filter after-treatment technologies.  The engine delivers 202kW at 1800rpm, a 7% increase in power compared to the previous DX340LC model. 

 

 

There are three different operating modes – P+ mode: Power Plus and L: Lifting – but Fraser Maclennan says: “The DX340LC-3 excavator offers so much power as standard, that I haven’t had to use the Power Plus mode.  At the Stroupster wind farm site, we’re working on a mixture of rock and heathland.  The hard rock surfaces are broken up, before we move in with the Doosan excavator to load the spoil into dumpers to be taken away from site.” 

Along with the larger DX380LC-3 Stage IIIB compliant crawler excavator, the DX340LC-3 model has new D-ECOPOWER technology, which uses an electronic pressure-controlled pump within a closed centre hydraulic system. Productivity improvements of up to 26% are claimed, along with up to 12% fuel consumption reductions depending on the mode selected.