Capital Equipment News June 2017

HPE Africa launches new Hyundai R200LC-9S HPE Africa, the exclusive distributor for Hyundai Construction Equipment in southern Africa, has launched the new 20 t class crawler excavator in South Africa. The Hyundai R200LC-9S excavator – with an operating weight of 19,1 t and a heavy duty 0,9 m³ bucket – is ideally suited for demanding requirements of the plant hire, civil engineering, construction, agriculture and scrap handling industries.

“Feedback from the local market highlighted a demand for fuel efficient equipment and Hyundai Construction Equipment has responded to this need with the launch of the new R200LC-9S. Due to improved fuel efficiency, when compared to competitors’ offerings in this class, customers can save up to 80% of their capital expenditure in diesel costs over 12 000 hours of a machine’s service,” says Alex Ackron, MD of HPE Africa. “Users are also impressed with the long undercarriage design, which ensures greater stability in arduous operating conditions. Customers also appreciate the low maintenance requirements of this series and are impressed by the Hyundai factory offering of a two-year/3 000 hour warranty as standard on the series,” adds Ackron. As part of the launch process, HPE Africa

placed an R200LC-9S demonstration unit on site with one of the largest fleet owners of earthmoving equipment in South Africa. Over a 14-day period, the machine built gravel stockpiles and loaded material into tipper trucks. The operator commented that he was impressed with the machine’s speed and smooth operation. Fuel consumption was carefully monitored by HPE Africa’s technical staff and verified by the client. At the end of the 14-day period, the R200LC-9S achieved an average fuel consumption significantly below the expected 9 ℓ an hour. The R200LC-9S excavator also comes standard with Hyundai’s computer aided power optimisation (CAPO) system, which allows the operator to select preferences for boom or swing priority, power mode and optional work tools. b

Rock breakers for tough jobs

Excavator-mounted rock breakers from Furukawa are proving to be extra-durable in the field which is driving contractors to re-examine their long-held belief that rock hammers be regarded as “consumables” with only a relatively short life span. Thanks to Furukawa’s unique Monoblock construction with no

through-bolts, as well as less moving and wear points, the breakers can last for years in the hardest labour conditions. In addition, the lighter weight and harder hitting power of the Monoblock system means that smaller breakers are required to do the same work as bulkier counterparts from other manufacturers. “The power-to-weight ratio of the Furukawa FXJ-range has a hammer weight to joules output that is unmatched in the industry (Construction and Industrial Manufacturers Association rated tests). For the contractor, this means saving money on operating costs, diesel and in many instances, it frees-up larger excavators for production work,” says James Linton, national product manager at ELB Equipment, the exclusive distributor of Furukawa rock breakers in southern Africa

“Our breakers also transfer less shock to the excavator due to larger slip-buffer plates that eliminate impact recoil shock on the excavator’s boom. That means the Furukawa design is far more robust and reliable with considerably less maintenance required, as well as being smaller and less of a burden on the excavator,” adds Linton. “In today’s tough market it is important that contractors realise that a rock breaker need not only last the duration of a contract and then be discarded. This has misguided some to settle for cheap hammers that cost 20% less, but at the same time give them 40% less availability. Furukawa’s, by comparison, have been running on many of our customer’s sites for more than 10 years and will work all day every day.” b

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS JUNE 2017 31