Making the Case in Yorkshire

UK-based 4686 Yorkshire Aggregates has reported productivity increases and reduced maintenance following delivery of three new 394 Case 821E wheeled loader to its quarries. The company has said that since arriving on site the machines have helped to improve uptime by around 20 hours a week.

Working across the company’s three main business areas at their two quarries, located in Wroot and Armthorpe, the machines join two existing 821E’s in handling a variety of material which includes everything from heavy recycled aggregates to turning compost winrows and bagging rock salt. The combined aggregates output of the two quarries is nearly 200,000 tonnes a year.

“We like the configuration of the cooling system in particular,” said Yorkshire Aggregates composting manager Paul Bird. “Previously we’ve had major problems with overheating, and the Case system has gone a long way to resolving them. There has certainly been a big increase in productivity now we’re not stopping to clean the radiators. It’s difficult to say exactly how much, but we’d probably have cleared the radiators out twice a week on each machine previously, taking two hours a time to do it, so that’s four hours per machine per week, or 20 hours across all five machines.”

These efficiency savings have been complimented by the reliability of the machines, according to Yorkshire Aggregates. “I always assume there will be some problems on any machine as they’re put to very hard work, but there have been no real issues,” said Bird.