The Farmers Mart Jun-Jul 2019 - Issue 63 | Page 70

70 MACHINERY
JUN/JUL 2019 • farmers-mart.co.uk
AGRICULTURE CONTRIBUTES TO JCB’S
LOADER PRODUCTION MILESTONE
JCB is celebrating 50 years of
wheeled loading shovel manufac-
ture – and 20 years since opening
a multi-million pound UK factory
dedicated to this product line –
with production hitting record
highs to meet growing demand
for agricultural, earth-moving,
quarrying, construction and waste
management applications.
Over the past five decades, the
company’s award-winning load-
ers have increasingly been adopt-
ed by farmers and contractors
needing high capacity machines
for filling silage clamps, clearing
cattle yards, loading manure and
lime spreaders, and out-loading
bulk grain and fertiliser stores.
And in that time, the JCB range has
expanded to include compact and
bulk-loading machines, as well as
telescopic boom models, while
introducing many market-leading
technologies and establishing JCB
as a global leader in the loader
business.
JCB entered the wheeled loader
market by acquiring Chaseside
Engineering, based in Lancashire,
north-east England, with pro-
duction of its seven rigid chassis
machines getting fully underway
in 1969 at JCB’s Rocester factory in
Staffordshire.
In that first year, just 298 ex-
amples of the former Chaseside
machines were built but today,
JCB builds tens of thousands of
25 different loader models on
assembly lines in Brazil, China
and India – as well as in the UK, of
course, where 2019 also marks the
20th anniversary of JCB opening
a multi-million pound factory
dedicated to these products in
Cheadle, Staffordshire.
JCB Chief Innovation and Growth
Officer Tim Burnhope said: “Over
the past 50 years, JCB’s wheeled
loader range has evolved into a
major part of our product portfo-
lio. Fifty years is a long time but our
sights are firmly on the future and
we are committed to bringing new
levels of innovation to this range.
“The launch of the spacious
Command Plus cab on our
wheeled loaders in 2014 was a
pivotal moment in this machine’s
history and this innovation really
did put operator comfort at the
heart of the design.”
Having gained new engineer-
ing skills and expertise with the
Chaseside acquisition, the first
JCB-designed wheeled loaders ar-
rived in 1971 with the launch of the
413 and 418. These featured an
In 1973, the 423 and 428 took JCB
into heavier wheeled loader ter-
ritory, to be followed later by the
410, 420 and 430 that featured an
innovative four-ram loader linkage
to provide parallel lift, which
proved essential for materials
handling duties in particular.
Today, JCB still offers a choice of
parallel lift or Z-bar high tear-out
loader arm designs, as well as
arms of different lengths on some
models for maximum load capaci-
ty or greater lift height.
With demand for its loaders
coming from numerous sectors,
JCB recognised the need for indi-
vidual machine specifications for
differing applications in agricul-
ture, construction, quarrying and
waste handling.
The first agricultural loader –
the 1.0cu m 410 Farm Master – was
launched in 1983 to be followed
by the 412 and 425 Farm Master
in 1990. Subsequent ‘S’ versions
came with increased power, more
poweshift transmission speeds
and other features that gave them
the added performance, traction
and ability to climb silage clamps
that contractors and large farming
operations wanted.
Meanwhile, JCB moved into the
compact market in 1987; the 406
was the first JCB loader to have its
cab mounted on the rear section
of the articulated chassis, and this
format was adopted for the 1989
introduction of the 408 and 408
Farm Master compacts, the new
411, 412S and 416 introduced in
1994, and the 414S, 426 and 436ZX
launched in 1995.
That was also the year that
JCB made the inspired decision
to capitalise on its 26 years of
loading shovel experience and 22
modern instruments, controls,
refinements and features to the
compact wheeled loader sector,
including the new option of an
innovative folding canopy to gain
access to buildings with a low
doorway or roof.
Proof if any were needed, that
innovation and a drive to reduce
operating costs while raising pro-
ductivity is as alive today as when
JCB entered the wheeled loader
market 50 years ago.
Facts & Figures
years of telescopic handler exper-
tise to produce the 409 TeleMas-
ter, the company’s first telescopic
wheeled loader.
Combining the talents and all-
round visibility of an articulated
wheeled loader chassis with the
versatility of a telescopic boom
proved a hit with dairy and other
livestock farmers, and resulted in
the higher-performance TM200
and TM270 in 1997, followed by the
TM300 and then the TM310 and
TM310S models in 2007.
Subsequent upgrades enhanced
a well-deserved reputation for
toughness, durability, traction and
ease of use – attributes that have
been underscored with the intro-
duction of the TM320 and TM320S
in 2012, and the launch last year
of the 4.1 tonne, 5.45m TM420 as
JCB’s most productive telescopic
wheeled loader.
The performance of JCB
wheeled loaders has also fol-
lowed an upward trajectory,
notably with the launch of the
434S in 2005, easily the highest
output JCB wheeled loader built
for agriculture at the time and
a truly purpose-built machine
contrasting with competitor prod-
ucts adapted from industrial and
earth-moving loaders.
Its successor, the 435S added
further traction, transmission
and fuel-saving technologies,
and along with the bulk loading
457, was the first JCB agricultur-
al loader to get the all-new JCB
Command Plus cab subsequently
introduced on the other full-size
models, comprising the 437 bulk
loading machine, the 413S and
419S with their higher-specifica-
tion powertrains and hydraulics,
and the 411, 417 and 427 catering
for lighter field applications and
routine on-farm handling along
with the big 457.
With more space, better visibili-
ty, lower noise levels, new instru-
ments and controls, and a greater
choice of higher specification
seats, the focus of the Command
Plus cab is firmly on providing the
best possible operator environ-
ment for increased productivity
with less fatigue.
Operators using machines at
the other end of the scale have
not been forgotten – the all-new
hydrostatic drive 403 has brought
1969. JCB introduced its own
loaders in 1971 – with a cab
mounted on the front section of
the articulated chassis.
Numerous awards have been
won by JCB’s loading shovel
activities – the innovative hydro-
static drive JCB 110 tracked loader
won a Design Council award in
1972 and the JCB 418 wheeled
loader won the same accolade in
1973. A Queen’s Award for Export
Achievement and a Silver Medal
for the 412 Farm Master from the
Royal Agricultural Society of Eng-
land (RASE) followed. The Queen’s
Award for Enterprise has been
won twice.
JCB’s own 4.4-litre engine made
its wheeled loader debut in the
412S in 2008, two years after a pair
of specially-prepared examples
bored out to 5.0-litres powered
the JCB Dieselmax streamliner
to a new Land Speed Record
of 350.097mph (563.418km/hr),
which still stands today.
In 1993, JCB’s wheeled loader
operations became a fully-fledged
division with its own engineering,
manufacturing and marketing
resources; in 1999, the division
moved to the multi-million-pound
JCB Earthmovers factory in Chea-
dle, Staffordshire. JCB wheeled
loaders are also built in Brazil,
China and India.
The JCB EcoMAX engine made its
wheeled loader debut in 2014 in the
411, 413S, 417 and 418S (now 419S)
and work progresses towards
upgrading the powertrain in these
and other JCB loaders to Euro Stage
V emissions compliance.