JCB HYDRALOAD
changing,” says JCB’s chief innovation
and growth o cer Tim Burnhope.
“Fi een thousand of the 200,000
houses built annually in the UK are
now built in factories and erected onsite
iVTInternational.com September 2019
62
specialist li ing contractors and the
rental market.”
Building something new
Taking the robust and durable
Loadall architecture as their starting
40km/h
On-road top speed
of the new JCB
Hydraload
(25mph)
ABOVE: The Hydraload
delivers automatic
stabilizer deployment and
leveling
BELOW: The impressive lift
height gives the Hydraload
greater versatility on
building sites
point, some radical JCB project
innovations have centred on slew.
“We needed to understand hydraulic
controllability and actual speed of
slew, a machine’s core function for
suspended loads and panels,”
explains JCB Loadall engineering
director, Richard Brooks. “Rotational
speed is far less than an excavator,
but you need more precise control
and have to get the gearing right.”
Slight deviations in positioning
are greatly ampli ed at 21m reach
and, where competitive rotos can be
clumsy in stopping, JCB purports to
o er next-level precision.
“We assembled a team who really
understood the principles of
rotation and how to deal with the
challenges,” says Brooks. “We’ve got
patents on hydraulic slew
controllability around eliminating
backlash from the gears going from
clockwise to anticlockwise, for
instantaneous control, and patents
on varying gain on the slew control
for constant load speed, regardless
of operating radius.” e hydraulics
themselves rely on proven
components: a Bosch Rexroth
piston-pump coupled to a Husco
control valve in a post-compensated
and ow-sharing system.
Advanced control
Coming to market late, JCB had to
really benchmark the competition,
with industry-leading one-touch
automation of both leveling and
stabilizer deployment exemplifying
their approach.
21m
Maximum lift height of
the JCB Hydraload
as developers, who face
di culties securing traditional cra
skills, leverage modular construction’s
eco-friendly credentials.”
Modular assembly on compact
urban job sites entails handling
prefabricated panels, steelwork and
other suspended loads, calling on
machines to li , move and position
materials ever-more swi ly and
safely. “A 13 metric ton X-Series
excavator is ideal for initial
groundworks, but getting
prefabricated panels in place to be
bolted together demands reach,
li ing capacity, manoeuvrability and
versatility,” Burnhope continues.
“ e Hydraload is a truly multipurpose
machine, perfect for
picking, li ing and placing at height
in a safe and very productive
manner, meeting the needs of
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