Hitachi Turn on the Style & Technology at Dig Day Event

Hitachi Construction Machinery UK held their Connected Technology Dig Day last Friday and Saturday at a superb venue in High Wycombe, I popped along with my great pal Peter Haddock on the Friday, for a quick look around.

Highlight of the morning for me, was getting to spend some time on the new Hitachi Zaxis 95US-7 fixed boom offering which we first saw presented on static display at Bauma, and which was officially launched in the UK market a couple of weeks ago. The off-set boom Zaxis 95USB-7 version was also presented and available for visitors to try out.

I stuck with the 95US-7 model for my test drive, and I must say I was very impressed with the machine in every aspect, speed, power and comfort in the huge 13-tonne class size cab was all top drawer, and I left the machine with a big smile on my face!

I’m not going into any detail about the machine here, as my Earthmovers Magazine colleague Paul Argent has secured the story on this machine, so lookout for his feature piece in an upcoming edition of the magazine.

There was as expected a lot of focus on the Connected Technologies, with a number of the big players in that sector being present at the event, including Leica Geosystems, Trimble, Xwatch Safety Solutions and Safety Shield who all had experts on hand to talk us through what they offer and the game changing benefits that can be achieved from installing this technology.

Photo: I was treated to a brief one to one demonstration of how the Leica Machine Control system works, by Leica's technology guru Steve Claybrook.

The growing acceptance of tiltrotator’s in the UK market was also clear to see with the three big players, Steelwrist, Rototilt and Engcon all in attendance displaying their latest products and innovations.

An ever-present face at the industry shows is that of Pat Bulcock, who was showcasing his S Type X business with examples of Swedish style cab mounted light bars on static display, and mounted on some of the machines working in the dig areas.

Catch up with our friend Peter Haddock as he, true to form, heads off on a whirlwind tour around the show ground in this video.  

Checkout a montage video of some of the machines in action around the dig zones from me.

This show was really excellent, plenty to see, a nice atmosphere and great to catch up with good industry friends, like Louise Carney seen above in the cab of a Hitachi excavator, on the other side of the camera for a change. A massive thanks to everyone we met on the day for the warm welcome and for putting on a great event.