Earlier this year BCL (Wales) Ltd purchased a Komatsu WA380-7 Wheel Loader specifically to go out on contract work at Neath Port Talbot Materials recovery and Energy Centre (MREC), near Swansea. The MREC is a high tech waste treatment plant, processing segregated recyclables and general municipal black bag waste.
The machine was being brought into the facility to replace an ageing JCB 456 Super High Lift Wheel Loader. Although most of the work to be carried out by the new Komatsu Wheel Loader would involve the loading of a Doppstadt shredder (approx height 14’ 2”), there was also a requirement to load the largest walking floor trailers which measure 15’ 8” in height.
The Wheel Loader Loading A Walking Floor Trailer
With the standard high lift WA380-7 machine having a hinge pin height of 15’ 2”, a solution was needed to achieve the additional height requirement. Ulrich Attachments were consulted and awarded the contract to carry out the work to ‘stretch’ the loader arms by adding an extension to them and lengthening the ram rod. This was completed in a timely manner by Ulrich, who have guaranteed their work for the lifetime of the machine. Extensions to other relevant pipe work and hoses were carried out by Marubeni-Komatsu’s service team based in Cardiff. The resulting Wheel Loader now has a hinge pin height of 17’ 2” and can now easily load the walking floor trailers.
Mike Madden Site Supervisor at MREC adds; “We have been very pleased with the performance of the wheel loader. It is a well-balanced machine and is very economical to run. The operators like it too, as it is comfortable with good all round vision. They have also commented that they are finding the loading easier and more efficient as the dump roll back releases the load better and it has easily coped with the large walking floor trailers”.
The Wheel Loader, which is equipped with Goodyear L5 tyres, moves around 300 tonnes of waste a day that is brought into the MREC recycling centre. Using the Doppstadt shredder, the waste is shredded into 300mm pieces, which are then collected by a smaller Komatsu 100M-6 Wheel Loader to be taken to the next stage of the process. After recyclables are extracted, then a proportion of the remainder is converted into Solid Recovered Fuel. This is then used by some companies as a replacement for fossil fuel, including the CEMEX cement production facility in Rugby.
The Super High Lift Wheel Loader
