HIGH PROFILE
LiuGong VP of R&D Dave Beatenbough is based
in Liuzhou and started with the company in
2006
similar, whereas for excavators the products and
prices are more consistent. That all said, there the
Chinese government is making great strides in
environmental regulations in terms of emissions so
the situation is changing and slowly the Chinese
wheel loader market is catching up with the rest of
the world as more advanced engines in particular
are incorporated. Even today, China is a wheel
loader led market with a greater ratio of wheel
loaders to excavators compared to other markets,
but this is also changing as hydraulic excavators
are more productive especially in quarrying.” In
wheel loaders the 8128H is the largest model to
date, at 52 t with a standard 7 m 3 bucket though
larger models will be offered to meet market
demand. In excavators LiuGong now have 50, 70
and 90 t models with Stage V engines and a 120 t
excavator under development. Finally, Dressta
already offers the mining class dozer model TD-40
at 67.7 t. As an example, the TD-40C was first
specified and deployed to SSGPO’s Kacharsky iron
ore mine in Kazakhstan
back in 2000. It is also
widely used in the Russian
coal industry.
Looking at trucks,
Beatenbough said LiuGong
has focussed its models so
far on China but already its
45 t (50 ton) class rigid
(DR50C) is available
globally which has been
followed by a 70 t model
with Stage V engine and
most recently the DR100.
During the JV production
period in Beijing, before
LiuGong bought out its partner company, three 120
t trucks were built and this design is now being
overhauled with the new DR120C expected to
launched by 2021. Also, at the new Changzhou
mining equipment base for larger mining rigid
trucks, 150 t and 240 t models are in advanced
development. This 240 t model is likely the largest
model the company will invest in for now, as it
wants to mature the customer base for the existing
models first.
Also very important is its 90 t wide body tipper
truck model, the DW90A. Beatenbough
emphasised that the wide body tipper truck market
in China is huge as they are significantly lower in
cost and can be applied in open pits in large
numbers, so larger wide body models are in
development to meet this demand. Though due to
the greater maintenance efficiency and availability
of rigids, and better performance at higher loads,
rigids will still retain their place in China.
Autonomous driving technology is also being
The all new LiuGong 990F
is a new-generation
intelligent hydraulic
excavator that adopts a
fully electronically
controlled advanced
hydraulic system
applied on these wide body machines in China just
as it is on rigids – LiuGong has its own autonomy
program in-house but as with other Chinese OEMs
is also working with external technology groups in
terms of application at customer sites. Telematics
and predictive maintenance analytics are already
offered as options as is a collision avoidance
system (CAS). These were all developed in house
by LiuGong which came up with its own black box
solution, partnering with some external companies
only for data storage and management.
As the mining market develops, the level of HQ
support from Liuzhou is increasing due to the
importance of service and the company has a few
major permanent service contracts in place with
some quarrying customers. However, to date the
main model has been sales through dealers with
HQ support.
Future proofing
On battery technology, Beatenbough says this is
already being applied on smaller machines – last
year the company showed off three battery electric
vehicles (BEVs), including two excavators, the
906E-EV and 922F-EV as well as a wheel loader, the
856H-EV. The first generation of LiuGong’s BEVs’
batteries are equipped with fast charging
technology and innovative energy-saving
technologies, which only need one hour to charge
the battery 80% to full and can maintain longer
working hours. Of course going to larger mining
class machines is more challenging with the
battery weight but is being worked on. One option
The Chinese mining truck market includes both rigids and wide body trucks so LiuGong has options for both
SEPTEMBER 2020 | International Mining