Dutch Hitachi - Snijder BV

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Special adaptations

Snijder has turned Hitachi’s EX1900 into something very special, with an operating weight in the region of 250 tonnes.

STRETCHING THE BOUNDARIES As Steven Vale reports, Snijder has just completed its largest-ever special adaptation, a 250-tonne monster that lifts 20 tonnes at a reach of 28 metres. ased at Hoorn, in northern Holland, during recent years Snijder has enjoyed growing world acclaim for pushing the boundaries of muck-shifting technology, by transforming standard hydraulic excavators into extreme machines.

For example, their Rockbuster started life as a Cat 385, but with an 18.3-metre boom and stick it now lifts eight-tonne blocks at full reach. By the time it left the Snijder workshop, the excavator tipped the scales at 135 tonnes. Another startling creation was the almost unbelievable Condor that has a reach of 46 metres, designed for the prestigious Maasvlakte 2 expansion project in the Port of Rotterdam. For this same project the company also supplied an equally heavily modified Hitachi EX1200 for profiling work.

Following a request from a well-known international dredging company, the firm had to pull out all the stops and call upon all of its engineering and production experience. Their client wanted a machine capable of placing 20-tonne blocks with pinpoint accuracy for a new 1.5-mile-long breakwater extension in the Port of Constance, in Romania. As this issue appears, the excavator will have already

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started work on what effectively is an extreme example of operated plant hire.

The really tough part of the brief was that the request was not for a pontoon-mounted machine – for which the required working envelope would be well within engineering boundaries – but for a unit that could perform this task from dry land. A reach of 28 metres was required, and with the blocks weighing 20 tonnes this really does push the boundaries of what is possible.

Over the years, Snijder has built up a wealth of experience modifying Caterpillar excavators. A Cat 390D was considered far too small and an old Cat 5130B did not meet their client’s request for modern technology and the reassurance gained by a using a brand new base unit.

There was another factor to consider, as the client wanted the machine on site in less than six months! So the traditional long Continental summer holiday for Snijder’s staff was cancelled and the urgent hunt was started for an appropriate prime mover. The Dutch firm has good experience with large, cost-effective Hitachi excavators and has three modified EX1200s on the books. By a happy

coincidence – and to the delight of the dealer – they discovered that a new 190-tonne EX1900 was sitting in a yard in Amsterdam.

FACTORY VISIT We caught up with the new monster just as the finishing touches were taking place at the factory, ahead of it being dismantled for the two-week sea voyage to Romania.

If the engineering challenge and the time constraint were not enough, this simple statement hides a third element to test Snijder’s abilities. The EX1900 is a mining excavator and, once assembled, it is never really intended to be pulled apart and reassembled many times. From the outset the client made it clear that their requirement was only for a two-year period. Snijder’s intention is to bring their creation back to Holland, refurbish it, and then send it out on a similar project somewhere else in the world.

This means it needs to be easily and cheaply transportable, with a target of five days to either disassemble or assemble the extreme machine.

Needing at least 11 trucks to shift it, all the

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An extra counterweight was sandwiched between the engine compartment and the standard ballast block, creating excellent access to the engine.

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components – including the newly-developed boom and stick – can be shipped in standard 40ft containers.

The boom and stick split quickly into sections. These comprise a 12-tonne first boom stage and a second 10t section. The dipper stick splits into 5.6- and 5.5-tonne sections. The tracks are a modular design to ease shipment and the rest of the excavator has been re-engineered to facilitate disassembly and subsequent reassembly.

The result is striking. The Condor and Rockbuster are two truly magnificent creations, but the modified EX1900 is in different league; it is simply breathtaking.

It still uses the excavator’s standard 1086hp engine, hydraulic system and cab and does carry the EX1900 logos. However, this is where the similarity ends.

In some ways the design is a super-sized version of the EX1200 that was modified for the Rotterdam Port project, but this creation measures nearly 42 metres from the back of the counterweight to the end of the dipper stick.

At the rear, an additional 25-tonne counterweight has been positioned between the engine compartment and the standard rear end. This creates a large balcony at the rear of the machine that, in turn, provides fantastic access to the engine.

Up front there is virtually nothing from a standard EX1900. The boom is 18.6 metres long, coupled to a 15m dipper stick. Fully stretched, the front end will allow the excavator to lift and accurately place 20-tonne Xbloc concrete armour castings up to 28 metres from the centre of the slew ring. The dipper stick currently carries a 4cu.m bucket from a Cat 385. However, on site this will be swapped for a specially-made rotator from TGS Grabs.

Of course, the two standard main boom lift cylinders were simply not designed for all this extra weight, so a third was ordered. This meant that a new boom mounting point was also required, but Snijder already has a technical solution to this issue, as used on their Rockbuster. A 7.6-tonne boom foot interface was designed and manufactured and pinned into the standard boom cylinder attachments points.

In addition to providing attachment points for a trio of main lift cylinders, this interface also alters the angle of the boom cylinders. They do not drop quite as

“The modified EX1900 is in a different league; it is simply breathtaking.”

Dipper sticks do not get much bigger and stronger than this 15.4m version, designed by Snijder to place 20-tonne blocks.

low now, but do provide for the higher lift height and capacity that Snijder was seeking.

All this extra weight up front and at the rear meant the undercarriage had to be significantly modified, broadly in line with the standard practice when creating super high-reach demolition rigs.

There is no change to the slew ring – a big plus point in having an EX1900 as a base unit – but the X-frame has been rotated by 90 degrees and is fitted with a pair of newly-developed beams, each of which weighs 10 tonnes. Each track frame was cut in half and extended by nearly 2.5m. Now over 8m long, this required an extra 16 track pads each side.

As well as providing much-needed weight low down, the longer tracks and much-modified X-frame also produce a sturdy 8m x 8m square footprint.

This extra width meant that an extension to the hydraulic access ladder had to be created.

There are no significant changes to the big mining-spec cab. However, it does now feature a barrage of computer screens to the operator’s lefthand side – some of which are fed by the GPS receivers mounted at the rear of the excavator – all supplied by the client. The only other notable change in the cab is two additional pedals. These will open and close the rotator, which will be turned using the joysticks.

THE FUTURE Snijder is confident of finding more work for its new flagship creation once the project in Romania is finished. But as a safeguard, one of the big features of the machine is that it can be relatively quickly returned to its original state and even coupled to its standard boom and dipper stick.

However impressive this 250-tonne monster is, it is just the latest chapter in Snijder’s history. Not only with extreme conversions, but with Hitachi EX1900 base units. The Dutch firm makes no secret of the fact that from an engineering perspective the possibilities are almost endless.

Details remain under wraps for now, but the company hints that it is already involved in talks with another potential customer for an extreme excavator modification. It really is a case of watch this space!

Above (Two Pictures): The undercarriage did not escape modification and now provides an 8m x 8m footprint with a lot of additional weight low down.

A third main lift cylinder from an EX1900 was required, as was a newly-developed boom foot interface.

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