Two quarries in Israel have bought Hitachi excavators for use in loading operations
Equipment supplied by Hitachi to two quarry companies in Israel is said to be helping improve productivity.
Lime & Stone Production Company is “making a significant impact on production levels” with its first excavator, a Hitachi EX1200-6, at its flagship Modim Quarry near Tel Aviv, while the performance of a large Hitachi Zaxis excavator is “adding value” to
Lime & Stone Production Company’s large excavator is working at the quarry where the annual capacity is estimated at six million tonnes. The company is the largest producer of aggregates in Israel and part of
Established in 1935 it operates across 11 sites, which produce high-quality aggregates, concrete blocks, lime and asphalt.
The EX1200-6, the first of its kind in Israel, was supplied by CMD, the country’s authorised Hitachi dealer, which has enjoyed a good relationship with the quarry for more than 20 years.
CMD’s Service Manager, Nisso Eini, says: “I have been involved since the first steps in the process. CMD has been engaged in everything from the initial consultation to assembling the EX1200-6. Most importantly, I have also helped to train the operators, as Lime & Stone had never previously worked with excavators.
“We presented some routine maintenance and servicing courses after the machine had been delivered. Since then, my regular visits to the site have been spent answering routine questions from the customer and managing the after-sales programme.”
The EX1200-6 takes between eight and ten passes to load the fleet of 100tonne dump trucks with its 6.7m³ bucket. This equates to eight truckloads per hour, depending on the density of the materials and the efficiency of the operator.
Lime & Stone’s quarry manager, Shmulik Nachumi, says: “The Hitachi EX1200-6 is responsible for the extraction of the raw materials required for the production of limestone products. It is very safe and stable for excavating these materials from the quarry face or floor.
“An important factor in the choice of machine was CMD’s reputation of being reliable and supplying a good level of after-sales service and support. Overall, this has been a successful project in terms of changing the method in which we load the materials. The site has been adjusted to suit the excavator and it’s already proved to be excellent in terms of its accessibility and loading time.”
Meanwhile, the large Hitachi Zaxis excavator, the ZX870LCR-3, at Hanson Israel’s Migdal Zedek Quarry is said to have continued to offer increased levels of productivity and reliability.
Hanson Israel, a subsidiary of the HeidelbergCement Group, was established in 1963 and is the second largest building materials producer in Israel. Its facilities include 26 concrete plants with an annual capacity of three million m³; three quarries with an annual yield exceeding eight million tonnes of aggregates, and two asphalt plants, capable of supplying one million tonnes of materials annually.
Having previously used wheeled loaders to load its fleet of dump trucks at Migdal Zedek, Hanson had already been impressed with a Hitachi ZX850H excavator at another one of its sites (the Nachal Raba Quarry). It decided to invest in the new ZX870LCR-3 from authorised Hitachi dealer CMD.
Hanson’s Central Quarries manager, Nissim Gibri, says: “We decided that the Hitachi ZX870LCR-3 was an ideal solution following the positive experience of operating the ZX850H model, which we have owned since 2005 and has over 30,000 working hours. After running wheeled loaders, we had to change our working model to suit the large excavator. As a result, we are now enjoying reduced running costs and increased volumes of production.”
The large Zaxis excavator loads 14-15 trucks per hour with three to four passes per truck. This helps to produce over three million tonnes of limestone-based materials per year for the concrete and road construction industries. Hanson’s 54-strong team works over two ten-hour shifts per day to reach this milestone.
The quarry manager, Hagai Segev, says: “The ZX870LCR-3 is the only excavator currently operating in the quarry and it loads between 500-550tonnes of materials per hour. This is a new way of working for us and the Zaxis excavator is providing some added value. Not only can we load more materials on to the trucks, but we can also build a more uniform heap, so that we lose fewer materials during the haul to the primary crusher."
