Foundry Steels makes first purchase from Liebherr

Grangemouth-based Foundry Steels has purchased its first machine from Liebherr-Great Britain after being in operation for over 30 years. The company has purchased a LH 24 M material handler to work at its compact Clyde Street yard.

Established over 30 years ago, Foundry Steels is still in the ownership of the Morton family and continues to grow year on year. Based in Grangemouth, a largely industrialised area on the east coast of Scotland, the company has focused its activities on the handling of waste metals for the last three decades. Offering a personal service to all customers, large or small, the company provides a first-class service to its private, commercial and council clients.

To manage incoming and outgoing material, Foundry Steels has long been an exponent of French-made material handlers from Case Poclain. Foundry Steels operates a very compact yard on Clyde Street in Grangemouth with its material handler sitting on one spot for the majority of its working life. With the company’s existing machine ready to be replaced, Dick Morton began detailed discussions with Liebherr-Great Britain about a replacement material handler. Liebherr was not a company that Foundry Steels had purchased from previously. “The Liebherr brand was always seen as the expensive end of the market,” commented Mr Morton. Initial discussions with Brian McGrane from Liebherr’s Bathgate depot resulted in the two companies meeting to agree a comprehensive machine specification.

With the details ironed out, Liebherr-Great Britain supplied the Clyde Street yard with a new LH 24 M mobile material handler. With an operating weight of 24 tonnes, the Liebherr machine has a GA10 configuration that offers a potential maximum reach of 10 m at ground level and a discharge height of 9 m to the underside of the GM65 / 0.6m3 grab.

The Liebherr machine has been designed solely as a material handler. Each end of the robust chassis houses a pair of hydraulic stabilisers with maintenance-free cylinders to ensure the machine retains its stability even at full reach. The Liebherr-manufactured heavy-duty slew ring is centrally mounted in the chassis to provide optimum weight distribution and hot-galvanised steps and grab rails provide slip-free access to the hydraulically-elevating Liebherr cabin. Offering a maximum working height of almost 6 m allows the operator to see into the back of bulk tippers being loaded at the premises. The interior of the Liebherr cabin is described by the Foundry Steels’ team as being far removed from that of its previous 13-year-old machine. “It is so comfortable and the controls are well laid out and easy to use,” said Alec Dillon, Dick Morton’s son-in-law. Particular praise is given to the smoothness and precision of the Liebherr controls, which allows the operator to be extremely delicate when sorting materials.

The LH 24 M is powered by a Liebherr D924 four-cylinder diesel engine. Delivering 150 HP, the 4.5 litre engine meets stage 3B emissions regulations and therefore does away with SCR and EGR technology. One of four operating modes can be selected and these adjust the engine and hydraulic performance. Sensitive, Eco, Power and Power-Plus offer differing performance ratios, although the company reports that to date only Eco mode has been used as the machine has done everything that has been asked of it in that mode. Fuel figures are reported to be extremely positive compared to the company’s previous machine.

Although the LH 24 M has been purchased mounted on a wheeled chassis, it will not be required to travel around the confined yard. The reason that Foundry Steels chose the wheeled option rather than a pedestal- or track-mounted machine is because of the greater potential resale value when the company decides to trade the machine in. Liebherr’s Bathgate depot will undertake all machine maintenance and servicing with a dedicated R&M contract to ensure that the LH 24 M performs at an optimum level throughout its working life.

Early indications are that the new Liebherr has surpassed all expectations with Dick Morton commenting that the initial purchase price was comparable with other manufacturers yet the build quality and engineering of the Liebherr product far outweigh those of the competition.