A UK quarry and recycling company has taken its fleet of Liebherr equipment to seven with a major investment in new excavators and wheeled loaders.
The four-machine package for Welton Aggregates comprised R 945 and R 938 excavators, and a pair of XPower wheeled loaders, to work at its Welton le Marsh and Hibaldstow quarries in Lincolnshire, eastern England. Both sites quarry virgin aggregates and produce a range of recycled products and soils.
The wheeled loaders – L 566 and L 576 XPower models – and the 40-tonne R 938 are based at the huge Welton site, where the excavator spends its shifts either on chalk extraction or on duties in the recycling yard. Forty miles away at the Hibaldstow hard blue limestone quarry, the R 945 has become Welton’s new frontline excavator, which, with an operating weight of just over 45 tonnes, is now the company’s biggest digger.
The R 938 is one of 10 machines that make up Liebherr’s Generation 8 tracked range, beginning with the recently introduced R 915 Compact and going through to the R 945 flagship model. With an operating weight between 37-40 tonnes, the 938 is powered by a 299HP, 8-litre Liebherr diesel. Operator George Riggall reckons the manufacturer got it spot-on with the combination of power and fuel economy (the R 938 goes through just 19.67 litres an hour). “It has no issues with working in some of the heavier material we have on site. Whether it’s clay or rubble, it copes easily with anything we put it to. I’m really happy with the way this Liebherr has been performing for us.”
Elsewhere on the site, the L 566 XPower loader is employed for duties such as maintaining the stockpile, feeding the wash plant, and removing piles of screened soil adjacent to the crushing operation. Carrying a 4.1m³ general-purpose bucket, the loader has the same D944 engine as the R 938 excavator but produces slightly lower 249 HP. Mated to Liebherr’s hydrostatic transmission, it provides class-leading pushing power to ensure a full bucket on each pass.
Meanwhile, the larger L 576 XPower has taken up frontline duties for truck loading on the virgin aggregates section of the site. With a larger 5.2m3 bucket, it will load each of the company’s large fleet of eight-wheelers in just two passes.
Over at Hibaldstow, the Liebherr R 945 uses an identical eight-litre, 299HP powerplant as that in the R 938 but with slight increases in torque and break-out forces. Fitted with a standard 6.45-metre mono boom and a 2.9-metre stick, it excavates limestone layers. Once the surface soils have been removed, shallow layers of material, with a yellow limestone uppermost, are revealed. While those are relatively easy to remove, the underlying material is a little more stubborn. It requires a hydraulic hammer to break out layers of hard blue limestone into suitably sized pieces, which are fed into the crusher. Once each area is broken up, a heavy-duty rock bucket is attached to load the 25-tonne capacity dump truck that ferries the material to the stockpiling area.
The latest deal continues a five-year relationship with Liebherr, which began with the arrival of a Generation 6 PR 736 dozer. While it doesn’t run daily, its reliability and productivity on both in-house and external jobs make it a valuable part of the fleet.
The PR 736 was joined a year later by an R 922 excavator to handle material around the Welton le Marsh wash plant. A batching plant completes the Welton Liebherr line-up.
