, part of the Alexela Group, has now bought the company’s second DX1000LC-7. As well as joining the existing machine, the new DX1000LC-7 excavator is now working alongside Develon DX800LC-7 80 t and DX490LC-7 50 tRead More){kind=link}
Following on from the purchase of the first Develon DX1000LC-7 100 t crawler excavator in Europe, Estonia-based Kiviõli Keemiatöötus (KKT), part of the Alexela Group, has now bought the company’s second DX1000LC-7. As well as joining the existing machine, the new DX1000LC-7 excavator is now working alongside Develon DX800LC-7 80 t and DX490LC-7 50 t models already working at KKT’s oil shale mine at North Kiviõli in Estonia.
Like the first excavator delivered at the end of January 2023, the new DX1000LC-7 has been supplied by INTRAC Group, the Develon Authorised Dealer for the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
The purchase decision to replace one of the other brands of 80 t machines on site with the DX1000LC-7 Develon says is based on the successful performance of all three Develon machines, with which KKT is burning far less fuel than the competitive machines, for the same production output. The first DX1000LC-7 has already completed well over 13,000 hours of operation in only two years and five months, working 15 hour days faultlessly throughout the 29 months it has worked at the North Kiviõli oil shale mine.
Develon: “The second DX1000LC-7 promises even more efficiency gains. Driven by the most powerful engine in the 100 t class, the DX1000LC-7 also has the highest hydraulic flow for this size of machine, providing best-in-class performance, with higher productivity, lower fuel consumption and smoother controls. Equipped with a 6.8 m³ bucket, the DX1000LC-7 is certain to offer even greater productivity.”
The DX1000LC-7 excavator is powered by a well-proven Stage V diesel engine, providing a high power output of 469 kW (629 hp), more than any other machine in this class. The high output of the engine is combined with a Virtual Bleed Off (VBO) hydraulic system (D-ECOPOWER+), providing a best-in-class hydraulic flow of (3 x 523) – 1,569 l/min and a high system pressure of 360 bar, together contributing to it says the best performance in the 100 t market.
Estonia discovered more than 100 years ago that the stone at the North Kiviõli mine contained oil inside and from that time onwards started to extract it. The process to obtain the oil remains unchanged. First the stone is taken out, after around 8 m³ of overburden is removed, providing around 1 m³ of the precious oil shale. To remove the overburden, different techniques are used. The first involves blasting and loading trucks with the 80 or 100 t excavators. Another uses a 50 t excavator equipped with a breaker and one of the larger excavators for loading trucks. The third method employs an 80 t excavator, equipped with a vibrating hydraulic ripper (Xcentric) and another 80 t excavator equipped with a bucket to load trucks.