Two more Volvo loaders for Angle Park

Company takes delivery of L120H and L150H for its Melville Gates and Mountcastle operations in Fife

To meet increased demand, Angle Park Sand & Gravel Ltd have purchased a second Volvo L150H and replaced an existing L120E with a new H variant.

Based in the town of Cupar, Fife, Angle Park Sand & Gravel Ltd have been producing high-quality sand and aggregates since 1961. Today, this third-generation family-run business supplies domestic and commercial markets throughout the central belt of Scotland.

Led by father and son team Ian and Peter Cuthbert, the company operates from two sites located in Melville Gates and Mountcastle.

Commenting on the delivery of the two new machines, Peter Cuthbert said: ‘We’ve been working the Melville site since we started up and have owned and operated Volvo equipment pretty much from the start.

‘We moved into the adjacent Mountcastle site six 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, purchasing our first L150H last year.

‘There has been a significant increase in demand over the last 12 months, which has prompted the need for a second machine in this application.’

Replacing a 14-year-old L120E at the Melville Gates site is a brand new L120H, complete with a 3.4 cubic metre rehandling bucket.

‘We’ve had great service out of the old machine, which clocked up 28,500 hours loading out road wagons and keeping the hoppers busy. Admittedly, we did have to replace the engine at 24,500 hours, and we cannot really complain about that, but it made us stop and think about making the decision to move it on in favour of a new machine, and SMT GB struck a competitive deal for the L120H,’ said Mr Cuthbert.

‘Similarly, we’ve been really pleased with the L150H we purchased last year for the Mountcastle operation. It has been fully deployed digging at the face, feeding the plant and loading out road-going wagons. But the reality is, we needed a second unit to meet production demands.

‘As before, we specified the machine with boom suspension for long load and carry work, but also a larger capacity bucket coupled to the Volvo Load Assist feature, which has really paid dividends towards the machine’s efficiency on site.

‘There is less than 1% discrepancy between what the machine is loading to what is weighed on the weighbridge. This saves significant time when loading vehicles, without the need for them to top up or discard excess loads, which makes our production flow faster.’

Both the L120H and L150H shovels benefit from Volvo driveline components that are designed and manufactured to offer considerable fuel savings each shift. The L120H and L150H are equipped with Volvo Stage V eight- and 13-litre engines, which develop 276hp and 300hp respectively.

Commenting on the after-sales care provided by SMT GB, Mr Cuthbert added: ‘Besides the good performance and production capabilities of our Volvo loading shovels, we also appreciate the after-sales support we receive from SMT GB’s Customer Support Centre at Stirling when we need it.’