Steven Della Bona, director of WA Limestone. Image: Prime Creative Media
The power of Kobelco’s XD series excavators has proven to be indispensable for a quarry operator working on the hard rocks of Western Australia.
Steven Della Bona has always wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps. Quarrying was in his blood, after all.
In 1973, brothers Michael and Renzo Della Bona and their brother-in-law Peter Zamboni formed WA Limestone. At the time, they made up three of the business’ five employees.
Steven, Michael’s son and now director of the company, said the first 10 years were very hard, but they received a lucky breakthrough with key marine breakwater contracts.
“We began as basically quarry operators, firstly supplying the raw construction materials for road construction, then progressed into contracting, hard rock quarrying, concrete, and now basically all the construction materials that are required in roadbuilding, housing and construction,” he told Quarry.
Today, WA Limestone employs around 350 people across the state, with 10 metropolitan quarries in Perth, five concrete plants and four hard-rock quarries.
So, when WA Kobelco dealer LiftRite reached out with an offer to try the new SK500XDLC, Della Bona was initially sceptical.
The excavator boasts advanced lifting capabilities. Image: Prime Creative Media
WA Limestone had spent more than half a century building up a fleet of quarrying equipment to handle equipment hire, contract crushing, and quarrying works – would it really need the Kobelco?
That’s the question that LiftRite area manager for southern WA, Dean Bailey, needed to answer.
“LiftRite Hire and Sales has been operating in WA for 41 years. In 2016, we became the state dealer for Kobelco excavators,” Bailey told Quarry.
“Kobelco ticked a lot of boxes in regards to superior build quality, reliability and great value for money. Feedback from other Kobelco long-term customers was always positive with many commenting on the quality Japanese engineering and build quality, fuel efficiency and smooth hydraulic operation and performance.
“It was a no-brainer to go with the blue machines.”
Bailey recognised the type of work that WA Limestone carried out and had an in-depth discussion with WA Limestone about the benefits of the newly released XD Series of Kobelco excavators.
WA Limestone’s operators really enjoy using the excavators. Image: Prime Creative Media
During these talks, WA Limestone found there was an opportunity for a 50t excavator for processing oversize material in the tough blue rock environments that the company often works in.
Designed for the most extreme work environments, the SK500XD is purpose-built with a robust machine body and substantial additional reinforcements to all key areas of stress and wear across the boom, arm, underbody and undercarriage.
“Kobelco machines offer an unparalleled build quality and are known throughout the industry for their reliability, performance and fuel efficiency,” Bailey said.
The excavator boasts advanced lifting capabilities with the standard extreme duty 7m boom and 3.45m arm, reaching a 7.81m dig depth with a rated safe working load over 6000 kg (measured at full reach over the side).
For even greater capacity, the XD Series is also available in a mass excavation configuration, known as the SK520XDLC. Equipped with additional counterweight and a shorter 6.5m boom and 2.6m arm, the SK520XDLC delivers even higher breakout forces and additional bucket capacity, with a rated safe working load exceeding 8000 kg.
“Add to this the XD wear package and reinforcement, we were always confident that the SK500XD would perform and prove to be a reliable machine in such an environment,” Bailey said.
“Along with the 293 kN bucket breakout force, 222kN arm breakout force and a whopping 415kN draw bar pull, the model is a powerhouse for its weight.”
Della Bona said he’d been keeping his eye on the Kobelco range for a while and had always wanted to try one to compare them to the brands the company was already using.
“I have more than 170 pieces of mobile plant, and roughly 40 excavators,” he said. “When COVID came along, it brought an opportunity to look at other brands and Kobelco was one of them. We always need better and more productive machines.”
“I did some market research and a few people told me the machines were worth having a crack on, and so we made the move to buy it.”
The SK500XD is purpose-built with a robust machine body and substantial additional reinforcements. Image: Prime Creative Media
Della Bona said he has had no regrets.
“The machine is performing very well in its application as a rock breaker, it’s been very reliable and hasn’t let us down at all,” he said.
“And the blue colour makes it stand out a bit as well.”
Apart from the power, what’s impressed him has been the ease of operation despite the extra plate and steel on the machine.
“This is a 50t machine and is very robust, with a lot more plate on it compared to its competitors: yet it’s still a very comfortable machine to operate,” he said.
“Our drivers are the people that work the machines, and they really want to operate the machine, they really enjoy working it, it’s very smooth.
“The fuel efficiency has also been really good compared to other machines that we run at the moment. We are pretty impressed with this machine.
“I definitely look forward to getting a few more Kobelcos in the fleet.” •
For more information, visit kobelco.com.au
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