First Liebherr Industrial Rehandlers for Munro's

Munro's, the specialist recycling company within the William Munro Construction (Highland) Ltd Group, has taken delivery of their very first Liebherr Industrial Rehandlers which are specifically designed and built for waste handling and supplied to high specification, including numerous features for long reach, productivity and safe operation. Two A 316 Litronic wheeled machines have been delivered to Munro's waste transfer stations at Inverness Harbour and Evanton where they are the primary materials handlers at these two busy locations. A total of around 90,000 tonnes of commingled commercial, industrial, C&D and domestic waste are processed at the two transfer stations and the A 316's are employed in stockpiling, sorting, feeding the recycling plants and loading bulkers and tipper trucks.

The Munro (Highland) Group is a diverse organisation, with construction, civil engineering, demolition, plant hire and quarrying forming just part of their portfolio. Recycling is a growing area for the Group and is very much focussed on reclaiming high quality saleable recyclables for what the company describes as highly receptive markets. From the large volumes of incoming raw waste material, Munro's is successfully reclaiming a broad range of saleable quality products including secondary aggregates, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, plastics, woodwaste, composting materials, foil, paper and board. One of their highly specialised areas is the reclamation of gypsum from plaster board offcuts, with the recycled product being reused in soil improvement, filler in quarry products and plaster manufacture. The Group's Invergordon Sand and Gravel Quarries produces a range of virgin aggregates, stone and topsoil and the site also includes a recycling plant for the crushing, screening, washing and grading of recycled aggregates from the transfer stations as well as green waste composting facilities. At the Beechwood Road transfer station in Evanton, Munro's has also invested in an animal bi-product waste treatment plant, converting kitchen and fishfarm waste into high quality compost for the soil improvement markets in the region. A further Group interest is the Kindeace Farming Estates in Easter Ross, where it is intended that large volumes of agricultural and soil improvement products generated by the Group's recycling plants will be put to good use as catalysts in cereal production. Munro's continues to invest in the most modern recycling plants and materials handling equipment in order to extract quality recycled materials, whilst significantly reducing tip-to-landfill volumes which, in turn, makes savings on transport and landfill levies with the corresponding environmental benefits.

The Liebherr A 316 Litronic is factory designed and built for industrial rehandling and is one of a range of specialist machines which is finding considerable success in waste handling. Munro's decision to buy Liebherr for the first time, says the company, was based on Liebherr's strong position in the recycling markets, an excellent reputation for build quality and performance and the important fact that these machines are industry specific and not merely excavator adaptations.

The A 316 Litronic is a 21 tonnes class machine, powered by a turbo-charged, 94kW output, Stage IIIA / Tier 3 reduced emissions engine. The undercarriage has heavy-duty axles and eight wheels fitted with twin Gumasol 10.00-20/SP20 (MH 4) solid tyres. Four hydraulically operated outriggers provide maximum operational stability. A 5.50m industrial straight boom combines with the 3.50m tilt kinematics industrial stick to produce excellent reach and height with a maximum load capacity of 4.30 tonnes at 7.50 metres working radius. Both machines have been supplied with SG 25 sorting grapples, 0.65m� clamshells and hydraulic swivel for full 360� rotation. Liebherr's Tool Control system is included, whereby the machine's auxiliary hydraulic system can be adjusted at the push of a button to match the characteristics of the appropriate attachment. Hydraulic pressure data and oil quantities can be stored for up to 10 hydraulically operated tools, making it unnecessary to reprogram the hydraulic parameters for different attachments, with the selected tool displayed in text format on the screen.

The operator's cab is typically comfortable and functional, with Liebherr's high-technology Litronic engine, hydraulic and electronic management system and overload warning. The cab can be hydraulically raised via parallelogram to give an operator's eye-line of approximately 5 metres and is fitted with a front screen guard. The cab is air-conditioned and the fully adjustable seat is heated, with a head-rest and an automatic lap belt. Additional front and rear headlights have been installed, together with an amber roof beacon.

www.liebherr.com