New Volvo L150H for Angle Park Sand & Gravel
Family-run firm’s largest Volvo loading shovel to date helps production flow faster at Mountcastle pit
PRODUCTION is flowing faster at Angle Park Sand & Gravel Ltd, thanks to the recent arrival of a 25-tonne Volvo L150H loading shovel complete with a 4.3 cubic metre rehandling bucket and Volvo’s patented Co-Pilot Load Assist feature.
The independent family-run business was incorporated in 1961 by founder Frank Cuthbert and operates two sand and gravel pits close to Ladybank, Cupar, in the Howe of Fife. Today, the business is run by father Ian and son Peter, representing the second and third generation of Cuthberts in residence at Angle Park’s Melville Gates and Mountcastle pits.
‘We’ve been working the Melville Gates site since 1971 and have owned and operated Volvo equipment pretty much from the start,’ explained Peter Cuthbert. ‘We moved into the adjacent Mountcastle site five years ago and as the development of the site has progressed, we saw the need for a large loading shovel to take care of our production requirements.’
The new L150H – the company’s largest loading shovel to date – was displayed at this year’s ScotPlant event. The machine is in charge of all the main activities at the Mountcastle pit, including digging at the face, feeding the plant and loading-out road-going wagons.
‘We specified the machine with boom suspension for long load-and-carry work but, with the larger capacity bucket, we can also turn vehicles around much quicker too,’ said Peter Cuthbert.
‘Another important point for us was opting for the Volvo Load Assist feature and this is really paying dividends towards the machine’s efficiency on site. There is less than 1% discrepancy between what the machine is loading to and what is weighed on the weighbridge. This saves significant time when loading vehicles, forgoing the need for them to top up or discard excess loads and making our production flow faster.’
The L150H benefits from Volvo-designed and manufactured driveline components and a 13-litre, 300hp Volvo stage-IV engine. A key feature is that a maximum torque of 1,317Nm is achieved at just 1,450 rev/min with the resultant fuel savings further enhanced by the Volvo Eco-pedal, encouraging the operator to run the machine at its optimum rev/min in the engine’s torque range.
‘We certainly appreciate the reliability and performance of the Volvo loading shovels, and, so far, our largest machine to date is doing a great job in our Mouncastle pit,’ said Peter Cuthbert.
