Screen shot from Kobelco’s K-Dive video. (French version.)Kobelco Construction Machinery Europe, working in partnership with Deutz AG, will show off its first electric compact excavator at next week’s Bauma trade show in Munich, Germany.
The electric-powered 17SR follows the company’s hybrid excavator, the SK210HLC-10, introduced during the 2016 Bauma. The 1.7-metric-ton uses Kobelco’s “expertise in developing highly efficient construction machinery for urban job sites and Deutz’s superior electric drive technology,” says Kobelco. (Note: no photo was available before the show.)
The machine is still in concept form, but Kobelco indicates that it plans to develop the machine during the next two years in partnership with Deutz, with a European introduction in 2021. “Our objective is to manufacture a fully-electric mini excavator that will be capable of performing at the top of its class, with a long life battery for utmost convenience,” Kobelco says.
Other show introductions include:
Kobelco’s K-Dive concept enables its excavators to operated remotely, providing a way to control the machines away from dangerous jobsites such as disaster zones and waste disposal sites. This could potentially enable operators who are unable to physically work on a jobsite to still perform work.
In order to do this, Kobelco created a simulator cab, designed to mimic the look and feel of a real excavator. With the advance of 5G mobile communications, the company hopes to enable real-time data transfer between the simulator and machine. Kobelco says it will soon test remote operation of excavators in Japan, with field monitoring to be completed by next year.
In a joint collaboration with Leica Geosystems and tiltrotator manufacturer Engcon, Kobelco with show an SK210LC-10 excavator that is equipped with Lieca’s iXE3 technology and an Engcon EC226 tiltrotator. The attachment allows the excavator bucket or other tool to tilt plus or minus 45 degrees and fully rotate 360 degrees. Kobelco says the machine uses the first system to control boom movement up and down, bucket angle, tilt angle and rotation angle with “just one single movement of the control lever.”
The alliance was announced in August in the U.S.
