The manufacturer says that demand has been helped by the expertise of local authorised Hitachi dealer Nasta, and its partnership with Hitachi Construction Machinery (Europe) NV (HCME).
Nasta product manager Ole Kristian Skauan said that improved productivity and reduced fuel consumption are among the main benefits for owners. He added: “Wheeled loaders generally have a cycle time of 30 seconds – and our customers can save up to two seconds per cycle if they choose a Hitachi bucket.”
Skauan said that choosing the optimum bucket for the machine and the application also impacts on fuel consumption. “A wheeled loader can use up to 90% of its fuel to load the bucket,” he said. “Therefore, it’s important for the bucket to be made for the material it should load.”
Nasta has held events prior to the COVID-19 pandemic to inform operators of the advantages.
Nasta and HCME offer a wide variety of buckets to customers, with standard versions in stock for the smaller ZW150, ZW180, ZW220 and ZW250-6 models, and tailor-made buckets for the larger machines with short lead times of 20-25 days. “Quarries are our core business in Norway, and half of the Hitachi buckets sold between 2017 and mid-2020 were for the ZW310, ZW330 and ZW370-6 models,” said John van der Zanden, HCME attachment specialist.
Herstua Grus AS purchased two Hitachi wheeled loaders – a ZW310 in August 2018 and a ZW370-6 with a Hitachi bucket in October 2019. Both machines are based in a quarry and waste handling site, north of Gardermoen Airport near Oslo, working with a variety of materials such as gravel, blasted rock, soil, sand, concrete and iron.
Herstua Grus owner Tore Wethal commented: “We have a really nice group of orange machines here at Herstua. We have been really pleased with after-sales and the team at Nasta, so we’ll continue to buy orange.”
The company chose a Hitachi bucket for its latest Hitachi wheeled loader based on advice from Nasta and the experience of another quarrying customer, who has the same Hitachi bucket for two of its ZW370-6s. “Those machines are operated about 400 hours a month each, which is twice the average,” said Skauan.
