Dirk Bömer’s Bauma Memories: #ThrowbackThursday

With Bauma 2022 looming rapidly on the horizon, our German friend and contributor to this blog Dirk Bömer has kindly sent in a selection of photos from the famous Munich machinery fest in 1986.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Dirk says that he has attended every Bauma exhibition since this 1986 edition at which time he was a 15-year-old youngster. Dirk recalls how he had to take the day off school to travel to the show with his father!

In those days the show was held at the "Theresienwiese" (Octoberfest) venue in the city centre of Munich, it was very much a family affair in those days, with relatively small crowds compared to record breaking attendances we see these days.

No Bauma Trade Fair would be complete without a large presence from Liebherr, who showcase their wide range of products on “home turf”, in this shot we see the 230-tonne R 994 face shovel which was launched to market in that year.

The header photo of this post features the R 994’s smaller brother the 120-tonne class R 984 which was also launched in the same year. The machine came as standard with 7m³ bucket and according to Liebherr, 1,100 units were sold globally. Liebherr continue to dominate the Bauma show to this day, with their incredible stand which is like a Liebherr village! 

Also on display was the Liebherr L 541 wheeled loading shovel. Weighing in at 14.1-tonnes the machine had a maximum bucket capacity of 2.8m³. Power came from an in-house built Liebherr D 906 TB diesel engine offering a power output rating of 118kw. Dirk is seen in the cab checking out the machine, with his school briefcase on the floor outside!

German machines dominated the show ground in those days, with all the famous old brands displaying their latest models.

With their famous red and white livery, O&K (Orenstein & Koppel) were displaying the prototype 163-tonne RH 90 C, a brand-new size model which would slot in between the well-known RH 75 and the RH 120 C which had been unveiled at Bauma 3 years previously. In face shovel configuration it featured a 9.5m³ bucket. Two diesel engines provided the power with a total output rating of 823.3kw. The machine features O&K’s patented ‘TriPower’ linkage, now in the hands of Caterpillar following the buyout of Bucyrus.

Also new was the CAL System (computer aided loading) which was a semi-autonomous system.
Standard functions like swinging to the truck, dump and return to dig were done over a "teach in" technique by an onboard computer.

This was impressively demonstrated at the show by the operator standing at the open side window while the machine was moving at an amazing speed.

More German heavy kit was displayed by Demag, with the focal point on the stand being the H285 which was making its first public appearance at Bauma 86. Its weight was close to 300 metric tons and it was the successor of the famous H 241 of which 80 units had been sold since 1978.

The H 185 in the background (around 190 metric tons) had been introduced at Bauma 83, in the version shown, some improvements have been made: a slight change to the shape of the cabin and the bucket featured a new design to ensure more effective filling.

Dirk is seen here standing next to a Hitachi UH261 in face shovel configuration, weighing in around the 65-tonne mark, these twin-engined machines were notorious for their digging power and smoothness of operation.

And finally in this batch, Komatsu presented the new WA 800-1 wheeled loading shovel in the 10,5 m³ class, it was a direct competitor to the well-known Caterpillar 992 C.

Dirk says he is planning to attend Bauma again in October, but it all depends on the Covid situation, Dirk said, “I really cannot imagine walking all those kilometres around the vast showground wearing a mask!”. He does have a point, but at the moment, I still plan to attend no matter what!

We thank Dirk for sharing these classic shots with us once again.

With a German flavour checkout this video from Liebherr, featuring highlights from the last Bauma event in 2019, when I was one of the privileged guest at the social media influencers gathering.