The first-ever Liebherr hydraulic excavator equipped with factory fitted Leica Geosystems machine control technology has been delivered to customer Brad-Pave in Great Britain. The factory fit machine is the product of a partnership between Liebherr and Leica Geosystems, part of Hexagon, announced early last year, which allows Liebherr customers to purchase generation 6 and 8 crawler and wheeled excavators with a factory-fitted Leica 2D and 3D machine control system as an option.
According to Leica Geosystems, the construction industry is on the verge of major disruptive changes, and contractors increasingly adopt new technologies to ease day-to-day operations in four major areas: productivity, safety, labor shortages and collaboration between the office and field crews. Its parent company Hexagon provides Heavy Construction Solutions through brands such as Leica Geosystems and AGTEK, including hardware, software, cloud-enablement and services for equipment, field and office operations. The portfolio is designed to improve key workflows involving people, machines and material.
The customer receiving the new machine, Brad-Pave, was founded in 2004 and employs four people. Its core activities are in the civil engineering sector, particularly road construction, deep drainage and earthmoving. The machine delivered to the company is a generation 8 R 934 crawler excavator equipped with the Leica 3D passive system, which will soon be updated with a semi-automatic system featuring an automatic inclination/rotation function. According to Paul Bradshaw, Brad-Pave director, machine control system is the key to accurate and effective work.
Paul Bradshaw, Brad-Pave director, says machine control system on the new Liebherr excavator is the key to accurate and effective work.Leica Geosystems
“I’ve been using GPS for three years and tiltrotators for five years, so I know the numbers work. With a small business, everything has to work right first time,” Bradshaw stated. “I’m a big believer in getting the best kit for the job – that’s why I chose the combination of Leica Geosystems machine control solution and Liebherr’s new generation of crawler excavator.”
On its first construction site job, the R 934 was mainly used to dig a large drainage trench across a field. The machine has run up 350 hours since delivery, and its power and responsiveness have proven up to the operator’s satisfaction. Brad-Pave expects to increase productivity on its projects with the help of the new built-in system.
Information provided by Liebherr and Leica Geosystems and edited by Becky Schultz.
