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Digger Man

Digger Man Blog

by Nick Drew  |  Sun 27 Apr 2014

Digger Man Blog does ScotPlant 2014

The Digger Man Blog was in Edinburgh last Friday for the opening day of ScotPlant 2014. Whilst I will be covering the show in Earthmovers Magazine, I thought I would post a quick blog today on some of my highlights from the Ingliston Showground.

On this occasion I was at the show as a guest of Steelwrist UK, and I was delighted to see that top operator and Steelwrist customer Ben Miller was on stand once again, following his popular demonstration appearance at Plantworx last year, where he was putting a Steelwrist equipped Yanmar through its paces. At ScotPlant, Ben was at the controls of a JCB JS145W, equipped with a Steelwrist X18 tiltrotator. The machine was also fitted with the latest proportional joystick steering control option. Pat Bulcock and his team reported some great interest in the products on display, with an X07 tiltrotator being sold within the first hour of the opening day! ScotPlant also saw the launch of joint venture from the UK divisions of Moba and Steelwrist featuring a revolutionary new excavator system that, for the first time, displays both the tilting angle of the bucket as well as its rotation angle to substantially enhance accuracy and precision. Earthwork contractors have for some time been asking for the possibility to display the rotation angle of the tiltrotator to ensure an even more accurate end-result. However, up until now there has been no practical way of achieving this but now thanks to jointly developed ‘XControl Bridge’, the measurements of both the rotation angle and tilting angle is continuously transferred between Steelwrist’s ‘X Control’ tiltrotator sensor technology in the bucket and Moba’s ‘Xsite’ Machine Control System, eliminating the need for additional sensors and cables. The new Moba system looks like the ideal way to go for excavating excellence! The undisputed star of the show has to be Eddie Warrener’s Kubota KX080-4, which has been specially converted to meet Eddie’s requirements by John Craig and his team at JCC Engcon. It’s been a long awaited reveal and visitors got their first glimpse of the top spec machine at ScotPlant. This was even Eddie’s first viewing of the completed machine and the smile on his face when I met him on the stand said it all. The 8 tonne class machine features – EC Oil quick hitch, EC209 tiltrotator complete with integrated grab, full low ground pressure conversion, which also include extensive widening and lengthening of the track frame and extension to the blade. An impressive forestry protection cage was also fitted, with additional lighting fitted into the roof. Look out for a full report on this machine by Paul Argent in Earthmovers Magazine over the coming months. Over at the Exac-One Ltd stand, Andrew Harker and Doug Guest were displaying a large selection of products, with Doug seen demonstrating an impressive tree shear attachment on a Kubota KX057-4. This was just one item from this long established and experienced attachment sales company. The importance of the forestry industry in Scotland was evident all around the showground, none more so than on the Volvo Construction Equipment GB stand, where I spotted this L120G wheeled loading shovel c/w log handling grapple. Finally in this snapshot look at the show, we see the new kid on the block from Hyundai, with the first UK unveiling of the R430LC-9A, which was displayed on the Young Plant Sales stand. Hyundai’s latest addition to the Robex excavator range, the R430LC-9A, has an operating weight of 42,600kg. This machine slots in between the existing R380LC-9A and the R480LC-9A, offering customers an even greater choice with this new weight class. An ideal machine for bulk earthmoving, large civil engineering and quarrying work, this new machine is fitted with the latest Tier 4 interim engine technology, which meets the latest emissions standards. One of these machines has recently been sold to a customer in Finland, but more on that in another blog soon. During my travels around the showground I also came across some superb restorations of old classic plant, photos of which I will post in another blog this week.  

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