Thomas Armstrong (Aggregates) in Cumbria, North West England, has taken delivery of two new Doosan Infracore DL420 wheeled loaders. The new machines, supplied by Doosan Cumbria and southern Scotland dealer Lloyd Ltd, are the third generation of Doosan wheeled loaders to be purchased by the company over the last 10 years.
Operating at the Thomas Armstrong (TA) quarries at Overby and Newcowper in Cumbria, the new Doosan DL420 wheeled loaders succeed the company’s Doosan DL400 wheeled loaders which, in turn,
Thomas Armstrong (Aggregates) in Cumbria, North West England, has taken delivery of two new Doosan Infracore DL420 wheeled loaders.
The new machines, supplied by Doosan Cumbria and southern Scotland dealerOperating at the
Frank Harkness, director of TA (Aggregates), said: “The DL400s had each run up an impressive 14,500 hours and our drivers really liked them. When we came to replace them, we tested products from virtually every other major manufacturer, but the operators still expressed a strong preference for the new Doosan DL420 machines.”
The Overby facility is based on a natural glacial sand deposit which is mined directly from the face by the new Doosan DL420 wheel loader. The sand is loaded by the DL420 model into a screening machine which separates out different grades of gravel and sand.
The screened sand is then stockpiled by the loader for later use or loaded directly into trucks, mostly owned by TA, for delivery to customers in the region.
Martin Cueto, the Overby quarry manager, said: “The DL420 wheel loader also loads an articulated dump truck which takes the sand and gravel to our packaging plant where it is bagged in robot-controlled systems into 25kg and bulk bags for delivery to customers including major builders’ merchant chains. To meet demand, the DL420 wheel loader starts operating at 6.30am and works all the way through to 5.30 pm every weekday, with a half an hour break for lunch.”
The new DL420 wheeled loader at the Newcowper quarry also works long hours. One of the main jobs for the loader is supplying a wash plant which grades materials into different sizes. The Newcowper facility is coming to the end of its working life, so the DL420 is also used for remedial work around the quarry. The wash plant will be replaced in the future by a new system at the Overby quarry.
With a bucket capacity of 4m³, the 22.3tonne DL420 loader is powered by an 11 litre turbocharged, electronically-controlled engine with high pressure unit injector system and a state-of-the-art combustion system. The engine develops 209 kW at 2000 rpm and offers a maximum torque of 148kg.m at 1,400 rpm, for optimal traction and breakout force in loading-transport-handling applications.
The DL420 offers a static tipping load with bucket of 18.9tonnes (at maximum reach with straight frame) and a height at bucket pivot point of 4.35m. Equipped with a pin-on bucket with teeth and tipped forward at 45°, the dump height is 2.96metres and the dump reach is 1.4m.
