Commercial Recycling invest in new fleet of Volvos

Latest package of machines includes excavators, wheel loaders and EW240E material handler

COMMERCIAL Recycling (Southern) Ltd have updated their mobile plant fleet with new Volvo machines including, for the first time, an EW240E material handler, as part of the company’s ongoing fleet and machinery replenishment programme. 

Replacing a smaller three-year-old EW210E unit, the new EW240E has been brought in to provide greater handling capacity, as well as the ability to turn high-sided bulker around in faster cycle times at Commercial Recycling’s Canford waste-management site, in Bournemouth.

Powered by a six-cylinder Volvo engine developing 171hp, the EW240E material handler has been supplied with a 6.5m straight boom and 4m sorting arm with a Dehaco selector grab. The machine provides a maximum forward reach of 10m, a maximum height of 12m at the attachment pin and a 3.7-tonne lifting capacity at maximum reach across carriage with its outriggers down.

For increased productivity, the EW240E unit offers the operator the benefit of maximum visibility around the work area, thanks to the hydraulically raised and lowered cab that has a maximum elevation of 5.7m. 

Supporting the EW240E is a reduced swing radius ECR145E crawler excavator, which has been mounted on 500mm rubber blocks, as opposed to conventional triple grouser steel track pads.

This option was specified by Commercial Recycling primarily to prevent the machine from sliding on the slippery ground conditions encountered in the sorting areas of the recycling centre. According to Volvo, the ECR145E is the only excavator in its size class to be able to handle a 500-litre selector grab in conjunction with the 3m long dipper arm option.

As part of Commercial Recycling’s mobile plant replenishment programme, the company has also taken delivery of a Volvo EC200E crawler excavator. Replacing a slightly larger EC220E model, the EC200E has been put to work on various activities around other plant and recycled aggregates areas.

In addition, the recycling firm has replaced its existing L120H and L150H loading shovels with brand new versions of the same models. The two updated wheel loaders are being utilized to feed a new screening plant, as well as loading out recycled aggregates on to road-going trucks. Both machines have been equipped with large 4 cubic metre-capacity and 5.2 cubic metre-capacity rehandling buckets and additional rehandling counterweights, respectively.

Explaining the importance of the company’s ongoing fleet-replenishment programme, Bill Watson, operations director for Commercial Recycling, commented: ‘We’ve been operating Volvo products for many years now, so we know the pedigree of the machines in terms of their overall productivity, reliability and good residual values. Replacing like with like, albeit with the latest updates and machine models, made perfect sense.’