The LeeBoy 523 is the result of intensive first-hand dialogue with customers and other stakeholders, to not only enhance productivity and operational efficiency, but also deliver a product that surpasses customer expectations. The findings from the customer dialogues enabled us to focus strongly on meeting three key expectations shared by the customer a reliable and rugged product, effective Post Sales Care (PSC) and lower running and maintenance costs. These have been kept in mind at all stages of design and manufacture of the 523, says Amarnath Ramchandran, Vice-president, Product Engineering,LeeBoy India Construction Equipment. Excerpts from the interview.

Leeboy India is a new entrant in the highly competitive excavator space. What will you have to do to create a niche in the excavator market?
The LeeBoy 523 is at the top of its weight class, compared to other machines, leading to better productivity features like digging depth, larger bucket capacity and superior stability. It has been equipped with an industry proven engine, load-sensing hydraulic system, an electro-hydraulic fan drive and advanced electronic display, all making the 523 an efficient and powerful machine for all excavation needs.

LeeBoy offers a unique PSC offering to the customer. This is the ORM (Operations, Repairs & Maintenance) proposition which offers a skilled and trained LeeBoy operator technician, together with the commitment of seamlessly providing equipment operation, preventive and breakdown maintenance and ensuring a pre-agreed uptime, at a fixed cost to the customer. Alternatively, the customer?s operators and service team undergo an intensive hands-on training in operating and maintaining the equipment.

The LeeBoy 523 uses proven aggregates from Cummins, Thyssen Krupp - Berco, Kayaba, Kawasaki and Thyssen Krupp RotheErde, to name a few. These machines are operated by a trained OT with pre-scheduled preventive maintenance. This not only increases the life of the machine but also reduces maintenance and running costs while, at the same time increasing uptime and serviceability, as these globally used aggregates are available all over the world. This is one of the reasons Leeboy can export machines easily to all parts of the globe!

Brief us on the value additions offered by LeeboyIndia on the product and service fronts.
Our products have features that directly boost productivity.The LeeBoy 523 has an automatic centralised lubrication from Lincoln SKF. This ensures that the joints are lubricated without depending on operator skill. This system reduces the reliability on the operator and enables reducing downtime caused by inadequate lubrication, resulting in lower costs for repairs and cost of lubricants.

lLeeBoy 523 is equipped with power boost, auto idle and infinitely variable power modes for the rock breaker, economy and productivity modes. This allows the operator and/or the owner to choose between high productivity and fuel efficiency.
lIt has a diesel lift pump with hose and foot valve which can fill a 400 litre tank in two minute.
lThe large counterweight enables use of a bucket which is 25 per cent larger which makes the machine productivity stand out.
lThe long carriage version (51 shoes and nine bottom rollers per side) with a wider undercarriage visibly increases stability and dwarfs the competition.

What initiatives on skill upgradation have you undertaken?
Skilled manpower is essential to ensuring that mechanisation and benefits of technology can be fully utilised. Apart from the ORM offering, LeeBoy has set up the LeeBoy EDGE (Our school for Expertise Development Growth & Excellence). Here, there are well designed training programmes for operators and product service teams who undergo intensive training. The training focuses on operating the equipment competently and preventive maintenance and troubleshooting to ensure a longer lifespan of the equipment, higher uptime and lower maintenance costs. The LeeBoy PSC team conducts these training programmes on customer sites too.

What is the range of excavators offered from LeeBoy?
LeeBoy offers the 24 tonne, long-carriage, crawler excavator LeeBoy 523 powered by the highly reliable and globally serviceable Cummins engines. These come in two variants, the 6BTA5.9, (BS II) - 124 kw (169 hp) @2,100 rpm and the QSB 6.7 (CRDI), (Tier III - US EPA) - 125 kw (170 hp) @2,200 rpm.

Tell us about the machine control technologies offered in the excavator range.
In developed countries where emission norms have reached Tier-4 final,and where electronic fuel injection CRDI systems are routinely used, all controls are CANBUS controlled. There is an engine control unit, a vehicle control unit and a pump control unit. The 523lce works with this system with controllers from Cummins, Inter control and Bosch. Since fuel quality with respect to sulphur content is poor in our country we have held this model in abeyance till the situation improves. Apart from sulphur, chlorine is found in diesel as bleaching powder is used to remove the blue dye found in kerosene sold through PDS. This attacks and corrodes the injectors.

As a result of this, LeeBoy has developed the 523lcm which has a Cummins mechanical 6BT 5.9 at its heart. All the analog signals are converted to Canbus and used for further programming of controls using very robust field proven controllers. This data is also used for Telematic feed via satellite with a GPRS back-up. The controls include auto idle, infinitely variable horsepower control, lubrication control, safe load position indication, and hydraulic oil filter condition monitoring and air intake restriction indicator.

Key Features

All components in the undercarriage are from Berco Italy, along with the drive sprocket, idler sprocket and tensioning assembly, and not with watered down, localised parts. The track shoes are triple grouser type and 600 mm wide. The shoe profile is for extreme heavy-duty applications and the grouser height is substantially higher than normal. This means that machines doing standard earthwork are also fitted with quarry class undercarriages. Optional shoes are available in 700 mm wide and 800 mm wide for soft soil conditions, to lower ground-bearing pressure.

The counterweight provided is 4500 kg. The machine is designed to use a 1 cu m with a 3-m arm. With a 2.4-m arm a 1.24 cu m bucket can also be provided. Other 21 T machines come with a 0.9 cu m bucket. The counterweight of 4.5 T ensures that machine does not lift and damage track and slewing ring components.

The slewing ring is of premium quality from Thyssen Krupp RotheErde and much bigger than those used in other machines this class.

The hydraulic aggregates are all Japanese and very high quality from Kawasaki and Kayaba. Circuit pressure is 330 + 20 bar boost for difficult conditions.

The cabin is fitted with an AC from Aurora Germany, has excellent ergonomics, auto idle after 5 sec, Sony Xplod Stereo and high visibility with work-lights on upper structure, cabin top and work lights on boom also. We have infinitely variable productivity control. This helps the operator define the level of productivity/fuel efficiency he requires.

The LeeBoy 523 is fitted with high visibility beacon with dual or quadro flash and loud travel alarm for safety on site.

It comes with an Optima Red Top, compact high current batteries with 800 cold cranking amperes which is spill-proof and sealed for safety.

The strong structures are heavy- duty steel structures with high tensile steel for long life. Pins and bushes are high tensile alloy steel with heat treatment for wear resistance.

Rock breaker auxiliary valve for rock breaker application is available on every machine. In addition, we add a hydraulic pilot foot pedal, piping up to end of arm. The customer has to only add an adapter plate and the breaker. The hydraulic foot pedal has very high life in comparison to electric switch.

                                                                                           

OEM	Model	Operating Weight in tonnes	Bucket Capacity Cum	Engine Rated Hp	Max Digging height	Max Digging Depth	Breakout force
Leeboy	523LC-M	24	? General purpose bucket - 1.0& 1.24m3 ? Rock bucket - 0.8 m3 ? Loading bucket - 1.6 m3	169 hp @ 2,100 rpm	9,700 mm	6,270 mm	? Bucket digging force: 145 kN ? Arm crowding force: 111 kN
Leeboy	523LC-E	24		170 hp @ 2,200 rpm