The family-run groundworks and contracting business has replaced a Volvo EC160D and an EC180D with a fourteen-tonne EC140E and the larger twenty-tonne EC200E. “We certainly appreciate Volvo excavators for their reliability, performance and build quality,” said director Bruce Sinclair. “This, coupled to the good aftermarket support we have received from SMT GB, the fact that the machines hold high residual values and the competitive package put together for us were our main reasons for sticking with Volvo once again.”
He added that deciding to go with the fourteen-tonne and twenty-tonne machines this time around will give the business greater flexibility for the typical groundworks contracts it undertakes on Orkney. “In particular, the addition of a Steelwrist rotator on the EC140E will add another dimension and enhance the work the machine can do onsite; especially when working in confined spaces,” he said. “On the other hand, the EC200E will provide that extra capacity for site clearance and muck shifting duties.”
Stage V-compliant 4-cylinder Volvo engines power both machines. The EC140E and EC200E also benefit from an ‘Integrated work mode control’, which is designed to ensure that the maximum possible hydraulic horsepower available is delivered at a constant engine speed under varying load conditions. Volvo said that this provides both machines with the ability to carry out rapid dig cycles at high levels of efficiency, which helps to lower fuel consumption. In addition, the geometry of the boom and arm geometry has been designed to provide what the company described as highly competitive digging forces and lifting capacities, which it said make for faster work cycles.
The new machines join a mixed plant fleet that includes: general purpose and compact excavators, backhoe loaders, site dumpers and other assorted mobile equipment. They will be deployed predominantly on groundworks projects for commercial and some domestic property development on the archipelago.
SMT GB markets Volvo Construction Equipment products together with K-Tec articulated hauler scraper boxes in Great Britain.
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