New Komatsu wheel loaders chosen for round-the-clock coal handling
17/02/2003

Short Brothers of Port Talbot in South Wales has recently taken delivery of a trio of Komatsu High Lift WA500-3 wheel loaders for an arduous coal handling application in Lincolnshire.

The three machines, supplied by UK dealer Marubeni-Komatsu of Redditch, have been put to work on a round-the-clock basis, seven days per week, at Immingham Bulk Terminal where Short Brothers is a core contractor to Corus.

During the day the WA500’s are kept busy loading coal wagons destined for Corus’ iron ore furnaces in nearby Scunthorpe. Between them, the machines are handling approximately 10,000 tonne of coal every day, equating to ten trains.

At night the units switch over to coal pushing duties on another part of the large site where they are responsible for maintaining the stockpiles of coal ahead of enormous bucket wheel excavators.

Powered by 235 kW (320 hp) Komatsu common rail diesel engines complying with the latest TIER 11 European exhaust emission regulations, the Short Bros. WA500’s weigh in at 28,300 kg and have been specified with high lift frames which provide a maximum overload height of 4.63 m. For this application the machines have also been equipped with 7.2 cu m coal-handling buckets, engine pre-filters, auto-greasing systems, reversing cameras, beacons and full rear mud guards.

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