Local Buckets Leverage Liebherr's Success

03 October 2007

Adelaide fabricator Liebherr-Australia manufacture buckets, made from XLERPLATE® steel which are capable of holding between two and a half to 36 cubic metres of materials

Demand for Liebherr-Australia's excavation equipment, including buckets and dump trays, has doubled since July 2005.

The fabricator, based in the Adelaide suburb of Para Hills, manufactures hydraulic shovel and backhoe configured excavators for the Australian mining industry.

The backhoe configured machines, weighing more than 350 tonnes each, are fitted with buckets capable of holding between two and a half to 36 cubic metres of material.

"Our bucket designs come from Liebherr's excavator manufacturing plant in France, but the company has a policy of using local steel as much as possible," Production Manager Russel Lankowski said. "We do most of our cutting and pressing in house."

Liebherr-Australia has used XLERPLATE® steel for 17 years.

"We use Grade 350 XLERPLATE® steel in thicknesses up to 140mm for the bearing block sections of buckets, where they link to the machines," Mr Lankowski said.

"Liebherr-Australia's buckets are fabricated to meet stringent quality controls to ensure they can withstand harsh mining conditions."

"XLERPLATE® steel has to be precisely fabricated, then machined to take bushes which are shrink fitted using liquid nitrogen," Mr Lankowski said.

"The bearing block area is stress relieved before being fitted to the bucket because of the amount of welding we perform."

Liebherr-Australia, which manufactures 20 to 25 buckets a year, can fabricate up to 10 buckets, with different designs and capacities, at a time.

Mr Lankowski said the company planned to install two 40 tonne overhead cranes at its Adelaide workshop later this year.

"These new cranes will allow us to maintain our productivity because we're producing more large capacity buckets," he said. "We have a loyal customer base, if companies buy Liebherr equipment once, they usually continue to do so in future."