by Nick Drew | Wed 19 Aug 2015
Hitachi’s BIG one at work in China
Someone recently suggested, rather unfairly in my opinion, that the Digger Man Blog has too much focus on mini excavators and not enough big kit, so here’s a post for those who fancy the idea of sitting on a giant heap loading dumptruck’s for 12 hours a day appealing.
Last year the world’s first Hitachi EX8000E-6 electric-drive hydraulic excavator, which is the largest excavator in the Hitachi range, was delivered to a mine operation in China.
It took the team of Hitachi engineers 2 months to assemble the giant machine in challenging temperatures often as low as -20 degrees. The machine’s major components had taken 14 days to arrive in China having been shipped from Hitachinaka port in Japan. This cinematic style video from Hitachi shows the build process and interesting facts and figures about the giant excavator.
[youtube width="725" height="344"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv-a_irX1WE[/youtube]
The massive excavator is powered by 2 Cummins engines each capable of a power output of 940hp. The machine tips the scales with an operating weight of 825,000kgs and in face shovel configuration has a bucket capacity of 40.0 cubic metres. If you like your excavators big, this is definitely a machine for you!