Western Earthmoving boosts productivity with engcon

A major civil contractor, Western Earthmoving provides site preparation and earthworks for infrastructure and utility services for some of Australia’s biggest property developers in major suburban development. One of its recent projects is a 38-lot residential land subdivision estate in Sydney. Included in the project were adjacent road works which needed to be constructed under live traffic conditions. In addition, the project called for the relocation of existing telecommunications assets to meet project deadlines.

Recognising task challenges on this and other construction sites, an engcon EC214 Series 2 tiltrotator was purchased, including a dual-hitched EC-oil connector system that allows the operator to quickly and safely disconnect the entire tiltrotator when a tool change is needed. Situations where this facility is a real time-saver is when tools such as a hammer needs to be attached; a critical lift is performed, or a narrow and deep trench needs to be excavated. Seeing value in the multiple benefits of the tiltrotator, Western Earthmoving also invested in a pallet fork for materials handling on site. This attachment can be used for tasks such shifting road barriers, with safe handling assured by the engcon load check valves on the tilting rams.

A detachable gripper tool was also acquired as part of the system. This tool remains on-board the tiltrotator and can be used in tandem with other attachments such as buckets, to enable any load to be quickly grabbed. If needed to be removed to reduce gross mass, the grab can be dropped off in less than a minute.

Western Earthmoving’s director/general manager Michael Ragg said, “the engcon system is all about speed and efficiency, with complementary tools such as a road broom for job clean-up which can be run simultaneously with a bucket. Other very useful implements are the tarmac cutter, a 370 mm diameter tool that slices neatly through pavement to a depth of 100 mm, making reinstatement and resealing a much more professional job.

“We also added a ripper assembly with a replaceable tip. This attachment enables the operator to penetrate earth to around 900 mm.” Despite its apparently simple design, our lightweight engcon grading bucket is made of very strong high tensile steel, with shaped sides to lower ground resistance when a curved cut is being made Other tools can be readily adapted to the hitches, either top or bottom, by using engcon S60 brackets that reduce the overall mass and the stack height significantly, thus enhancing breakout forces and stability. The system focuses on efficient design and kinematics. The engcon tiltrotator and attachments are operated by Doosan’s latest DX140W 15, a fourteen-tonne operating weight wheeled type excavator, which has a powerful sixcylinder, 99 kW diesel engine that produces excellent pump flows. This high-performance machine offers the advantage of rapid jobsite mobility over all terrain, a feature that crawler machines cannot match.

The DX140W It features a heavy dozer/backfill blade, stabilizers and top speed across the ground of up to 37 kilometres per hour. Having the tiltrotator means the operator does not need to reposition the machine frequently as the bucket or other tools can be presented through any angle, with 360 degrees of continuous rotation as well as 45 degrees of tilt.

“In terms of return on investment, there is no doubt the savings in time and labour, plus safety and quality make the investment in the engcon tiltrotator and associated components a great business decision”, Michael concluded.