ICB drills a hole in one with Hitachi

Auckland-based retaining wall specialists, ICB Retaining and Construction, has recently taken delivery of a 22.5 tonne, short rear-end swing radius Hitachi ZX225USRLC-3, fitted with the DH18 LoDrill telescopic hole borer.

The Hitachi/LoDrill combination gives company owner Chris Burke the versatility and precision he requires to expand his service offerings and compete for a wider scope of specialist drilling and retaining work, throughout the North Island.

Comprised of telescoping internal bars within a 4.5 metre cylinder, the DH18 reaches a depth of 18.5 metres, so by the time the auger is put on the end it touches 20 metres drilling depth. The low profile and telescoping kelly bars of the DH18 also allow ICB to drill deep where headroom limitations prohibit high-masted equipment, making the excavator mounted drill perfect for working under low overhead obstacles such as power lines and bridges.

“The combination is pretty exciting”, says Chris, “We can drill holes out to two metres in diameter, and can work where the old pendulum drills can’t due to their height.”

By specifying the short rear-end swing excavator, Chris has the added benefit of being able to work in confined spaces and close to traffic – which is exactly where the ZX225USRLC-3 was heading for its maiden job, with ICB contracted to install a retaining wall comprising 85 reinforced concrete piles along a 150 metre stretch of road on both sides of State Highway 1, near Warkworth.

Investing in a new state-of-the-art telescopic drill, Chris decided acquiring a new base unit excavator specifically for the LoDrill was also appropriate. As he puts it, “With the intricacies of the two we wanted to start with a clean slate. We brought the short-radius digger because of the proximity to the highways and the confined spaces that we typically find ourselves in.

“We chose the LoDrill for the reach it’s got. With the Hitachi /LoDrill combination you’ve got four to five metres of reach, which gives the flexibility to be drilling anywhere in a 360 degree radius of the machines and reach over trenches and other obstructions without having to move. It gives you that added versatility,” says Chris.

The ZX225USRLC-3 is the first introduction for ICB to Hitachi’s Zaxis-3 series excavators, although they have previous experience with the leading Japanese manufacturers’ earlier models, having run mainly low-hour second hand machines. Chris says the company has been pretty pleased with Hitachi to date, and says so far he likes what he sees of his new machine.

According to CablePrice’s sales manager Andrew Crane, the new model supersedes the Zaxis-1 with greater speed, precision, operating efficiency and creature comforts.

Inside the cabin, the environment is surprisingly spacious for a compact excavator and provides a logical dash and instrument cluster arrangement that keeps everything within easy reach of the operator. Special joystick controls with LoDrill set up functions integrated onto them replace the standard Hitachi joysticks and give the operator control over all excavator/attachment functions, including winches, torque, speed, boom tilt and override controls.

The machine’s vital performance data is available at the touch of a finger courtesy of the widescreen colour LCD monitor, all the while being transmitted wirelessly to a web-based server, via satellite. Customers can then access their information via a secure log-in to the Hitachi ‘e-Service owner’s site’ – a website that presents the data in an easy-to-follow manner. The information includes hours of use, fuel consumption, travel and idle times and a whole host of other valuable machinery and operator performance data, in particular, service schedules and intervals help improve the operational efficiency of owner’s machinery through real-time, accurate and insightful information.

Also distinguishable from a standard excavation set up is a second monitor within the cabin, the LoDrill attachment level/depth indicator, to provide the operator precise drilling information.

Externally, it is the 1.99 metre rear-end swing radius that’s the most noticeable feature of the excavator – aside from the four metre high telescopic drill attachment plumbed to the end of the boom, that is. Hitachi says the rear-end swing radius promises efficient operation in confined spaces, and states, “by using the exclusive USR weighted counterweight, stability is increased by seven percent beyond the standard 20-tonne model”.

With the Lo-drill DH18 weighing in at five tonnes the 22.5 tonne base unit has been beefed up with an additional two tonnes of extra counterweight and long undercarriage (LC) to further increase the machines stability.

Chris believes with the combination of Hitachi and LoDrill his company should be able to double its productivity over the pendulum borer it has been using.

“What we’re trying to do is put more certainty into our drilling, with depth and accuracy, and safety for our clients. With a pendulum drill, 10-11 metres is probably the limit, safely, otherwise you need a very experienced operator. With this thing its set up so all it does is drill. It achieves it safely, you’ve got verticality controls, and it’s quicker,” says Chris.

Chris adds that he chose Hitachi as the base model for a variety of reasons, emphasising reliability, resale and support, “We went to the market and they [CablePrice] were competitive. They offered us the best overall deal including the facilities and the resources to help the boys from America to put it all together.

“We run probably 10 Hitachi excavators now. They’re all reliable and we’ve had pretty good runs out of all the Hitachi’s we’ve had. And when you get out of a machine you want it to be readily saleable. Some brands are more recognised and have a better resale than others and I think Hitachi is probably one of the top at holding its value – they’re easy to sell,” says Chris.

“It all added up to the total package.”

• Article provided by CablePrice.