Four new Volvo loaders for Hills Quarry Products

Swindon-based quarrying business adds four new 25-tonne L150H wheel loaders to its plant fleet

HILLS Quarry Products Ltd of Swindon, Wiltshire, suppliers of high-quality sand, gravel, stone, decorative aggregates, construction aggregates and ready-mixed concrete from a network of six quarries and five concrete plants in southern England, have added four new Volvo L150H loading shovels to their plant fleet as they embark on new sand and gravel extraction projects in the Thames Valley.

‘We’ve been operating Volvo equipment for a good many years and, in particular, the L150 model since it was introduced back in 1991,’ said divisional director Andrew Liddle. ‘The L150H is the optimum-sized loading shovel for most of our sand and gravel operations and has proved to be a good-performing all-rounder as an extraction tool, as well as loading out high-sided bulkers.’

He added: ‘Our Volvo machines give good service life too, and we certainly expect them to achieve 15,000 hours as a minimum for the main powertrain components.’

Two of the new 25-tonne arrivals have been deployed at the company’s Upwood and Mortimer quarries, with the remaining pair about to be deployed on a new extraction project in the Cotswold Water Park, where 1 million tonnes of material needs to be processed within a two-year period.

The machines are powered by Volvo 13-litre engines developing 300hp coupled to Volvo-designed powertrain components. Volvo say this combination, along with other fuel-saving devices such as the Volvo Eco-pedal, which encourages the operator to run the machine at its optimum rev/min in the engine’s torque curve, and Optishift with torque converter lock-up, make these highly efficient and productive loading shovels in their size range.

All four loading shovels have been supplied with an enhanced Blue Volvo service agreement, ensuring that they will be regularly maintained at the correct service intervals by Volvo-trained service engineers using genuine Volvo parts.

Hills Quarry Products are a division of The Hills Group, a family-owned business with a 118-year history. The other divisions in the Group are Hills Waste Solutions, providers of a range of waste-management and recycling services, and Hills Homes, builders of high-quality new homes on selected sites.