A Liebherr LH 60 M Port Litronic material handling machine has recently been deployed to extract and quarry natural sand and gravel in Switzerland.
The plant is operated by Aarekies Brienz in the harbour of its gravel and concrete plant at Lake Brienz.
The LH 60 M Port material handling machine will be assuming a key role in the quarrying and production of the unique Brienzer Sand, a Swiss natural product. The powerful machine will handle natural sand and gravel directly at the harbour basin at Lake Brienz, and will also be responsible for the subsequent feeding of the gravel plant.
A special Liebherr GMZ 80 clamshell with water slots will be used to extract the harbour’s naturally occuring sand and gravel and feed it into the plant. The 1650mm wide, 2.00m³ clamshell buckets are equipped with teeth on the cutting edge, allowing natural sand and gravel on the bed of the lake to be easily detached and loosened.
Hans Ulrich Kern and Reto Studer of Liebherr-Baumaschinen in Reiden handed over the new machine and presented a symbolic key to Aarekies Brienz managing director Dominik Ghelma and the gravel plant’s general manager Kaspar Thöni.
Ghelma is enthusiastic about the new Liebherr material handling machine: “We used to operate a rail-mounted 1970s-vintage cable excavator in the harbour. When we were looking for a replacement, we decided to purchase a Liebherr material handling machine. Quite simply, the overall package is optimally configured for us. We have found an extremely versatile machine with the right attachments for everyday operations in our harbour.”
Thöni said that handling performance was especially important in the choice of machine, which is expected to remove up to 80,000 tonnes of natural sand and gravel from the harbour basin on an annual basis. The harbour has a depth of up to 9m therefore it was a requirement that the operator be guaranteed a perfect view of his work area at each of the many different stages of the handling process.
The material handler is powered by a 4-cylinder Liebherr diesel engine with Stage V emissions compliance which, in combination with the standard Liebherr ERC system, delivers an overall system output of up to 322kW. The LH 60 M also features specially designed port equipment, and the weight-optimised construction is designed to ensure that the machine can boast maximum lift capacities.
The specially designed port equipment includes a 12.5m cranked boom and a 10.8m long stick which achieve the required grab depth and reach of up to 21m. The hydraulic cab elevation can be variably adjusted to the corresponding work situation in the harbour to guarantee that the machine operator always has an optimum view of his working area.
