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MINIS SQUEEZE IN TO FINISH THE JOB - APPLICATIONS AND PRODUCTIVITY
00:00 26 Jan 1995
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The mini can be used as a jack-of-all-trades but it is definitely
not a production tool. To our collective knowledge there's no field
in which a mini excavator is seen as vital to a recognised
production process.
Yet there are areas of construction where it is difficult to see how else a job could have been carried out except by the dreaded hand-digging.
Take a householder in West London who decided he wanted a garage facility for three cars when he only had a garden big enough for two! It was decided to fit a two storey car parking facility into an area metres by eight metres in fact The only access was by a narrow garden gate.
The use of 'Autopod' underground parking units necessitated a mini excavator. Enough volume had to be dug out to put the unit in place.
The actual excavation was carried out using an IHI 40G machine, which was first equipped with a boom mounted breaker to break up the old car parking apron. The spoil was skipped out using an IHI CCH50T mini hydraulic crane.
The same crane then lifted in the component parts of the three Autopods. It is difficult to imagine how else this work could have been completed given that in the area of London concerned there is an ordnance preventing heavy machinery from standing on the pavement.
Again in London, a private householder wanted a massive underground swimming pool built in the garden of his house. But as it was a residential area he was aware of his neighbours' needs and sensibilities. That ruled out a full-size earthmoving operation with its attendant noise and dirt and environmental pollution.
The solution was simple. A team of mini excavators was brought in to tackle the excavation. The machines chosen were all JCB Hydrapower 801s. If it wasn't possible for them to feed direct into one of the portable conveyors on site, then a compact dumper was used as an intermediate shuttle. It may not have been quite so fast as using a full-sized excavator but it was a whole lot quicker than other methods considered and the noise levels were held down considerably.
Recently-privatised Stoke-on-Trent City Parks used to use two men to dig a grave by hand until recently. The whole task could take anywhere between one and two days depending on the grave dimensions and prevailing soil conditions.
After a long consideration involving other makes of mini City Parks decided to buy two JCB 801.6 machines. Now the little 1.6t JCBs can dig a grave perfectly in just two hours. Using a square hole bucket means the JCBs can dig a grave of up to 2.5m deep in just two cuts with the sides and edges remaining perfectly square.
Frank Harper, southern area contracts manager for City Parks says: 'The JCBs make a good fast job of gravedigging. This helps free-up our operatives for more productive work and the little machines are a great help in other tasks such as landscaping and grounds maintenance - all of which are vital in a modern parks department.'
Delta Civil Engineering, of Cambridge, had experience with mini excavators before, so it had no hesitation when pricing a tricky job for South West Water Services.
The job called for an access shaft of 6.1m diameter to be sunk 40m into the local 'braccia' stone near Teignmouth, Devon. The shaft was to give access to part of the Brimley Storm Drain Outfall designed to prevent flooding in the popular holiday resort.
Kevin Ripley, Delta's contracts manager said: 'We studied the drawings and realised that by using a mini excavator we could cut the shaft down to just 4.1m diameter. That meant less material to excavate and a reduction in the size and therefore cost of the concrete lining rings needed. We based our tender bid around the use of a Kubota KX41 which we knew from experience offered the right combination of weight and power to do the job. It was small enough to get in and work but powerful enough to tackle the treacherous braccia. '
The initial 10m of the shaft were dug using a Caterpillar 215 fitted with a digging grab and then the little Kubota was lowered into the excavation. After initial problems getting to grips with the braccia Delta's gang excavated a 600mm vertical face which enabled the Kubota to get a 'toehold' in the hard sandstone. After that it was plain sailing with the shaft dropping around 1.8m in each 12 hour shift. The dug material was lifted to the surface in a 1.0m3 skip.
Delta was able to complete on schedule in just under three weeks by working two 12 hour shifts five days per week - and this was mainly down to the Kubota mini. It was instrumental in saving time, materials and money.
In a nutshell, that is why the mini has become a 'must have' in most hire fleets. The mini used on the Teignmouth contract was hired-in from M&D Hire of Dawlish.
Yet there are areas of construction where it is difficult to see how else a job could have been carried out except by the dreaded hand-digging.
Take a householder in West London who decided he wanted a garage facility for three cars when he only had a garden big enough for two! It was decided to fit a two storey car parking facility into an area metres by eight metres in fact The only access was by a narrow garden gate.
The use of 'Autopod' underground parking units necessitated a mini excavator. Enough volume had to be dug out to put the unit in place.
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The actual excavation was carried out using an IHI 40G machine, which was first equipped with a boom mounted breaker to break up the old car parking apron. The spoil was skipped out using an IHI CCH50T mini hydraulic crane.
The same crane then lifted in the component parts of the three Autopods. It is difficult to imagine how else this work could have been completed given that in the area of London concerned there is an ordnance preventing heavy machinery from standing on the pavement.
Again in London, a private householder wanted a massive underground swimming pool built in the garden of his house. But as it was a residential area he was aware of his neighbours' needs and sensibilities. That ruled out a full-size earthmoving operation with its attendant noise and dirt and environmental pollution.
The solution was simple. A team of mini excavators was brought in to tackle the excavation. The machines chosen were all JCB Hydrapower 801s. If it wasn't possible for them to feed direct into one of the portable conveyors on site, then a compact dumper was used as an intermediate shuttle. It may not have been quite so fast as using a full-sized excavator but it was a whole lot quicker than other methods considered and the noise levels were held down considerably.
Recently-privatised Stoke-on-Trent City Parks used to use two men to dig a grave by hand until recently. The whole task could take anywhere between one and two days depending on the grave dimensions and prevailing soil conditions.
After a long consideration involving other makes of mini City Parks decided to buy two JCB 801.6 machines. Now the little 1.6t JCBs can dig a grave perfectly in just two hours. Using a square hole bucket means the JCBs can dig a grave of up to 2.5m deep in just two cuts with the sides and edges remaining perfectly square.
Frank Harper, southern area contracts manager for City Parks says: 'The JCBs make a good fast job of gravedigging. This helps free-up our operatives for more productive work and the little machines are a great help in other tasks such as landscaping and grounds maintenance - all of which are vital in a modern parks department.'
Delta Civil Engineering, of Cambridge, had experience with mini excavators before, so it had no hesitation when pricing a tricky job for South West Water Services.
The job called for an access shaft of 6.1m diameter to be sunk 40m into the local 'braccia' stone near Teignmouth, Devon. The shaft was to give access to part of the Brimley Storm Drain Outfall designed to prevent flooding in the popular holiday resort.
Kevin Ripley, Delta's contracts manager said: 'We studied the drawings and realised that by using a mini excavator we could cut the shaft down to just 4.1m diameter. That meant less material to excavate and a reduction in the size and therefore cost of the concrete lining rings needed. We based our tender bid around the use of a Kubota KX41 which we knew from experience offered the right combination of weight and power to do the job. It was small enough to get in and work but powerful enough to tackle the treacherous braccia. '
The initial 10m of the shaft were dug using a Caterpillar 215 fitted with a digging grab and then the little Kubota was lowered into the excavation. After initial problems getting to grips with the braccia Delta's gang excavated a 600mm vertical face which enabled the Kubota to get a 'toehold' in the hard sandstone. After that it was plain sailing with the shaft dropping around 1.8m in each 12 hour shift. The dug material was lifted to the surface in a 1.0m3 skip.
Delta was able to complete on schedule in just under three weeks by working two 12 hour shifts five days per week - and this was mainly down to the Kubota mini. It was instrumental in saving time, materials and money.
In a nutshell, that is why the mini has become a 'must have' in most hire fleets. The mini used on the Teignmouth contract was hired-in from M&D Hire of Dawlish.
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