First Doosan DX530LC-3 in England
Forest Pennant take delivery of 52-tonne Doosan crawler excavator for quarry in Royal Forest of Dean
FOREST Pennant Ltd have purchased the first 52-tonne Doosan DX530LC-3 crawler excavator in England for use at the company’s quarry in the Royal Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire.
Supplied by Kellands (Plant Sales) Ltd, the authorized dealers for the Doosan, Bobcat and Montabert ranges for south-west England, the new Stage IIIB compliant DX530LC-3 excavator has replaced an existing Doosan DX520LC model that had been working at the quarry for the last five years.
The new Doosan DX530LC-3 excavator is used in various stages of the process to win the Royal Forest Pennant natural stone, first removing overburden down to the layers of Pennant stone, to a depth of 18–19m from the top of the quarry. The excavator then works on the rock together with a Doosan DX340LC crawler excavator equipped with a Montabert XL2600 hydraulic breaker.
Much of the overburden and rock produced by the two Doosan excavators is loaded into an articulated dumptruck and carried to a dumping point higher up in the quarry. Here the material is separated using a screening bucket to provide a source of building stone and cropped walling stone, which form part of the product range available from Forest Pennant.
The DX530LC-3 and DX340LC excavators are also used to lever blocks of Pennant stone, each weighing 12–14 tonnes, away from the quarry face. These are then lifted by the DX530LC-3 excavator to a point where the company’s Doosan DL420 wheel loader can pick them up and transport them to the top of the quarry. Here, the blocks are loaded on to lorries and taken to the Forest Pennant factory about a mile away for sawing and other processing work.
The DX530LC-3 excavator offers the strength and productivity needed for heavy-duty work such in quarrying, mining, highways, demolition, utility and general construction projects. The machine’s wide undercarriage provides good stability and lifting capabilities, combined with an extra-heavy counterweight and a short front end to deliver more breakout force.
To ensure heavy-duty robustness, reinforcing plates have been added on the boom end, the shape of the boom end has been modified and the material for the boom main boss has been changed to cast steel to improve durability. Reinforcement plates on the inner boom and arm have been repositioned to improve structural strength.
As a result of the additional reinforcement, the operating weight of the DX530LC-3 excavator has increased by 1,300kg compared with the Stage IIIA model.
The heavy-duty undercarriage on the new excavator features reinforced track links, track springs, sprockets and bushings. Both narrow (2.99–3.49m) and wide (3.39–3.90m) variable undercarriages are available. A unique feature in this class is the extended width of 3.9m on the wide variable undercarriage, which provides greater stability, particularly when digging or truck loading from the side.
