Heavy-duty dredging buckets from HSM
Company manufactures four massive bespoke buckets for use on pontoon-based backhoe dredgers
HSM (Hi-Spec Manufacturing), part of the MST Parts Group, manufacture a wide range of buckets for all sizes of excavators and have an particular reputation for the design and manufacture of heavy-duty bespoke buckets.
Operating from a former shipyard on the river Wear, the company has supplied bespoke digging and material handling solutions since 1998 and has a wide range of customers around the globe, including many of the largest OEMs.
HSM have recently been involved in supplying two of the world’s premier dredging companies with a selection of bespoke manufactured buckets designed for use on pontoon-based backhoe dredgers with operating weights from 900 tonnes to in excess of 1,000 tonnes.
The four buckets, with capacities ranging from 22 cubic metres to 35 cubic metres and with weights of up to 45 tonnes, rank amongst the largest ever built by a British company.
Manufactured at HSM’s facility at Pallion, Sunderland, the buckets take, on average, 12 weeks to construct, with a full six weeks taken on the fabrication and construction of each individual piece.
Designed specifically for each excavator by HSM’s in-house design specialists, each bucket is constructed by hand from high-quality Weldox and Hardox steels, together with a cast Esco lip.
The impressive dimensions of the buckets include leading-edge sidewalls with thicknesses of up to 120mm and floors more than 75mm in depth, with the largest bucket measuring more than 5m in height and width.
The manufacturing process can see up to four highly skilled welders working on the buckets at any one time on a round-the-clock basis, as the steel needs to be kept at a suitable temperature for welding.
Designed and built to withstand some of the harshest conditions found in the marine dredging environment, the design team from HSM spent many days in consultation with the dredging companies to design the best solutions to meet their requirements.
All four buckets were specified with a variety of large wear packages to suit the materials being excavated and enhance the longevity of each unit.
