The Long Reach Excavator is mainly used to demolish buildings, or at mining sites to break ores located deep down a hole, and to do sand excavations.
It is preferably used for operations on slopes or a terrain with uniquely special geographical features.
What Are The Special Features Of A Long Reach Backhoe Excavator?
The equipment come in different sizes of ranges. Long booms and arms are the most visible physical features on these machines. Most machines of this type have large tanks and stability is a paramount quality to consider.
They are designed and built with long booms and arms to do specific and special tasks.
They machines have massive dig envelope with large radius of curvature, reaching very high heights and large depths during operations. Moreover, they are still applicable for heavy duty.
This quality requires the machine parts to have outstanding strength and stability.
Stability is promoted in these machines by reinforcement of heavy duty undercarriages to provide rugged platforms so that long reach is enhanced effectively.
The strength of the boom and arm material is of great importance for long reach operations.
Much stress on the booms will reduce quality and durability and the flow control valves in the boom is essential to prevent abrupt movements
These type of machines have small swing radius and low folding booms that enables efficient work around obstacles.
And large fuel tanks and dipper provide an optimized efficiency and easy transportation.
The equipment is usually installed with special electrical circuit system that controls the size of the operation radius moved by the boom to maintain stability.
Uses Of A Long Reach Excavator :
These special machines are mainly used in environments with adverse conditions in terrain both on land and water.
They are applicable on the river banks, mining sites and quarrying, and generally sloping terrain.
On the dry land, they are mainly used to demolish tall buildings.
During demolition of very tall structures, the radius moves by the boom and the attachments used for demolition must be maintained to the recommended specifications that match the weight of the machine.
They are also used to clean the river bed and dredge water ports and harbours, river channel or a watercourse and deep tunnels.
They can be used when there is need to temporarily change the river course or size of the cross profile after determining the extent to which the hard river bed rocks extend from the river banks.
On mining sites, the equipment can be used to break mineral ores and to extract the mined ores to the surface without much complications.
The specially designed long booms are also applicable during light excavation activities and to do finishing on slopes.
How Far Does A Long Reach Excavator Reach?
How far a demolition equipment can reach is determined by several factors such as the attachment used and the ground pressure and stability.
Long reach excavators can reach as far as their sizes dictate.
Typically, an excavator could reach 15m high or 13m deep and 18m on the ground level.
Also, there is the specified loading height and cutting or digging height and depths.
All the feature and operation dimensions are subject to variations depending on the attachment and size of bucket used.
340F LRE and 352F LRE are typical hydraulic excavators which are produced by Caterpillar Inc.
Which Is The Best Long Reach Backhoe Excavator?
Caterpillar, Kobelco, JCB and Volvo are top companies that produce the special purpose heavy equipment in the world.
All the companies produce ranges of demolition equipment for tall buildings and structures that come in different sizes and weight specifications.
Caterpillar boasts its demolition equipment, especially the 340F LRE and 352F LRE which are hydraulic excavators.
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These demolition equipment have the following unique features:
- They are very much fuel efficient. Their engines have unique emissions solution that work behind the notice to prevent any interruptions to the operator.
- The three power modes helps you to save fuel consumption, and the speed control of the engine automatically reduces the number of revolutions per minute when the machine does not need much speed, this helps to save fuel.
- They are easy to operate, convenient with wide seats, and an LCD monitor that is easy to navigate. The monitor has 42 programmable languages for diversity in operation.
- The machines are very reliable with optimized productivity. In the heavy lift mode, the pressure of the system is increased so as to reduce the engine speed and make it more controllable. This ensures proper productivity.
- They are easy to service. They also have low operation costs because they are made of robust and durable materials.
Companies With Their Popular Long Reach Excavators :
Kobelco has the SK210LC LR, SK260LC LR and SK300LC LR brands. The maximum distance reached by these brands are 15.24m, 18.288m and 18.898m respectively.
JCB characteristically produce the following brands of machines with long booms for special tasks: 86C-1 LR, JS145 LR, JS180 LR, JS220 LR, JS260 LR, JS330 LR, JS370 LR. These ranges of operating weight are from 9.5 to 42tonnes.
Brands by JCB have massive dig envelope with heavy duty undercarriages to provide much stability.
Volvo CE has its largest machine in this sector of specialty in operations, the EC750E HR. It was basically a crawler excavator but later improvised with engineering techniques to a high reach excavator.
Volvo also has other typical brands for this heavy equipment such as :
The Volvo EC350EL and Volvo EC380EL that come in two ranges, the EC350E, EC380EL and EC380ELR. They have different reaches depending on the type of boom selected for use.
Hitachi also manufactures the ZAXIS-5G series super long front. They come in ranges including: ZX200LC-5G TYPE H15, ZX330LC-5G TYPE H18 and ZX330LC-5G TYPE H22.
Which Excavator Has The Longest Reach?
Volvo has a masterpiece equipment for long reach applications – The EC750E HR.
This excavator has a special boom and arm arrangements that enables it produce the highest reach.
Its maximum height reached is 38m, and on a horizontal ground, it extends to a proximately 22 meters.
HR stands for “High Reach”.
JCB produced their JS370 LR brand range that has the longest reach with the simplest normal boom and arm arrangements.
It has a simple single boom as compared to the EC750E HR which has complex boom arrangements, however, on a horizontal ground, it reaches a maximum distance of 21m.
How To Multipurpose With A Long Reach Digger?
How to use a special machines with functionally designed booms for the usual purposes designated for normal excavators is an essential way of diversifying your business and optimizing your productivity and outcome.
Due to stability factor and strength, such equipment is not capable of performing certain tasks with its special boom arrangements.
The Volvo product, Volvo EC480E HR is quite spectacular. This equipment can be disassembled and reassembled in about 45 minutes to realize another operation.
You can use it for high reach purposes as well as convert it into earthmoving equipment.
The masterpiece product by Volvo CE, the EC750E HR can also be used at different working conditions to realize the operations of the common excavator that has the simple normal boom arrangements.
Similarly, Komatsu has a multipurpose boom arrangement for demolition equipment that can dig up to 20m.
If you have a short boom, you can install the multipurpose boom from Komatsu to ensure you use less to produce more.
Multipurpose equipment lowers the cost of production.
However, always stick to the specifications on the manual to ensure you don’t strain the engine and transmission system so as to maintain long life of the equipment.
What Is The Price Of A Long Reach Excavator?
These special machines can be owned by purchase, leasing or renting.
The most popularly purchased heavy equipment fall in the range of weight from 44 000lbs to 66 000lbs.
When doing purchases, both new and used heavy construction equipment are sold in the market.
An excavator of the popular range of weight would cost from $100 000 to $500 000.
However, most equipment designed for high reach uses and other related special purposes fall in the highest range of weight ranging from 30 tons to 40 tons and new machines would cost from $200 000 to $400 000.
What Is The Price Of A Long Reach Excavator In India?
Depending on the condition of the equipment, a new construction equipment would cost in the range from Rs 90,00,000per piece to Rs 70,00,000 (7 million Indian Rupees) per piece.
In United States Dollar, this is approximately $12 111 to $94, 198
For the special equipment, the average market price in India is Rs70 Lakh per unit. That is approximately $62, 490.
What Are Safety Measures When Using A Long Reach Digger?
This type of construction equipment is a highly versatile heavy equipment in the construction industry.
It is very important to ensure safety during operations with this machine while considering the following measures.
- The first principle safety measure is to read the manufacturer’s manual to know everything about the machine.
- Observe to understand all safety symbols pinned on the body parts to get more informed.
- A fundamental safety measure when using the equipment is to ensure stability. Always land the machine on a flat surface and ensure the surface has strong rocks to hold the machine during operations.
- Train with the machine on flat surfaces to know how it may behave during actual operations, especially when you are a first timer.
- Put on protective gears to block stray falling objects. Long reach excavator does tasks from quite a distant far away from structures demolished but some objects may reach you.
Long Reach Excavator in Action
How To Improve The Performance Of A Long Reach Digger
Performance of the machine is an important aspect of operation.
In operation of this special purpose construction equipment, consider the following specific factors;
- Choose the correct machine with relevance to the attachments that you are likely to use.
- Use the proper guide, read and understand it when working under more special places like underwater.
- Conduct a routine maintenance practice as indicated in the manual.
- Use only oil lubricants that are recommended by the manufacturer.
- Learn how to multipurpose with the long-reach excavator to save time and cost of production.
