DemolitionNews gets an exclusive look at Komatsu’s new Hybrid excavator
The construction trade press and the equipment manufacturers they write about like to play a little game: The manufacturers try to ensure that we only write about the things they want us to write about, while we do our level best to write about the stuff they’d prefer to keep under wraps.
So when the massed ranks of the UK construction and demolition press – all three of us – arrived at Komatsu UK’s Birtley manufacturing plant yesterday for the official launch of the first four models from the company’s Dash-10 excavator series, we were somewhat surprised to see something unexpected lurking in the corner of the test area.
There, hidden in plain sight, was the first of Komatsu’s Japanese-built Hybrid excavators to make it to UK shores. Was this a PR oversight of Biblical proportions, or were Komatsu UK playing a little game with the assembled hacks? It’s hard to tell; but the outcome is that we did get to take a sneaky look over the machine in question and capture some exclusive video footage of it “in action”.
True, it is unlikely that we’ll be seeing one of these machines on a UK demolition site any time soon; the system used to draw electrical power from the braking action of the slew cycle is not well suited to demolition duties and the high power demands of demolition applications would be a little too much for the combined diesel-electric power system of the Hybrid unit.
But it’s early days. With oil a finite resource and fuel prices continuing to spiral upwards, there is no question that the industry will need to find an alternative. And, judging by this sneak preview, Komatsu is ahead of the curve in providing a viable option.
