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BCL gets connected [–with video]

Digger Blogger | 10:35, Thu March 31 2022

Bridgwater-based BCL Groundworks has invested in Hitachi Connected Technology.

BCL Groundworks (BCL) has bought a new Hitachi ZX225USLC-7 excavator equipped with machine control and special attachments available through Hitachi Connected Technology (HCT).

Hitachi Construction Machinery UK offers HCT to buyers of new Zaxis-7 excavators. There is an array of tech from which customers can choose: Leica, TopCon and Trimble machine control systems; tilt rotators from Steelwrist, Engcon and Rototilt; and height, slew and rated capacity indicator monitors from Xwatch and GKD.

A retrofit solution is also available for installation to contractors’ existing machines at their own premises.

In the case of BCL, operations director Gary Caddick selected Leica’s iCON iXE3 3D machine control system, the Engcon EC226 tilt rotator, and an XW5 system from Xwatch. All of these solutions were installed on the ZX225USLC-7 at HCMUK’s Port of Tyne product support centre.

Gary Caddick explains: “We were working with another Hitachi owner and watching him operate with a machine control system. You could tell it was an ideal solution for the ‘cut-and-fill’ job that he was doing, and so we decided to hire a similar system to try it out. Then when it came to replacing our ZX225USLC-6 with the new Zaxis-7 model, we decided to add 3D machine control so that we could undertake all work to fine tolerances and with safety in mind.”

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He continues:  “The tilt rotator allows the operator to follow the contours of a site, and Engcon was recommended by HCMUK for reliability and support. And while we’ve always had an RCI on our 20-tonne machines, we’ve now added height and slew restrictors to increase the machine’s versatility for many different on-site scenarios. HCT is brilliant, because it enables us to operate a larger machine – than we would otherwise be able to do – for deep drainage and heavy lifting work, even in confined spaces.”

The machine’s first job has been a housing development in Westonzoyland, a nearby Somerset village.

“We are so pleased that we have had the same HCT systems retrofitted on to one of our older excavators,” Gary Caddick says.

 

MPU
MPU

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