Hydrema is originally a Danish company, but has also been producing in Weimar in Thuringia since the 1990s. The company manufactures excavators and dumpers. So far so normal at Bauma, but Hydrema sees itself as a premium manufacturer, which means you have to pay a little more, but in return you get one or two extras. We can't wait to find out what that is!
Klas Bömecke: This is an excavator as I imagine it. Martin Werthenbach: Well, you can't put it quite like that. After all, you are standing here in front of the excavator with 10 unique selling points that we are allowed to present before Bauma and also after Bauma.
Klas Bömecke: What are the unique selling points? Martin Werthenbach: I'll just name the most important ones. Firstly, the short rear overhang. We have the shortest rear overhang on the market. This MX-14, for example, has a rear overhang of 1.55 meters and in addition - and this is the extreme difference to all other manufacturers - the shortest front swivel radius. Klas Bömecke: That means that it gets very close with its bucket, or what? Martin Werthenbach: You have recognized that very well. We have very special arm kinematics in this excavator and the machine can get very close to the machine with its working tool. It can virtually excavate under itself. Klas Bömecke: It can dig itself out of the ground. Martin Werthenbach: If you want to put it that way, yes! But the big advantage - I talk to our customers a lot - the big advantage is simply that we can use this arm kinematics to load a truck standing next to us, for example. The excavator can pull its arm all the way back and still open the bucket.
Klas Bömecke: Okay. This city excavator has been on the market for a while now as a city excavator and you have - I believe - responded to customer requests. Martin Werthenbach: Of course we listened to what other wish lists there were. It wasn't much, but we implemented what we wanted to do and what we could do. For example, we have now pre-installed 4 speed levels here. The point is, the machine has so much power that it makes no sense to always run the machine at full speed, which many customers do out of habit with their other machines. The machine has the most powerful engine in the class up to 16 tons. We have 167 hp here and we have now changed the preliminary stages so that we say: Silent Mode, then it has 1,500 revolutions and already 146 hp at the power output, which is more than some others have as nominal power. Then we have City Mode, where we are at 1,700 rpm, Standard Mode at 2,000 rpm and then Power Mode at 2,200 rpm. That's the full speed. Over there we have a two-way excavator, which is the sister machine of this device, but as a rail. It stands in one position and rotates continuously, so you can see very clearly what a short rear radius means and what a short front swing radius means. A huge difference to many other manufacturers.
Klas Bömecke: In addition to the excavators - as you just mentioned - you also have dumpers. I believe this is also a so-called dumper, right? It's very spectacular here, of course! Martin Werthenbach: You recognized that correctly. Because we want to show here that we have the so-called boogi axle here, or the so-called tandem axle, and the advantage of this machine is simply that it is always in constant contact with the ground. We have two balancing brackets in the front, which ensure that the wheel that wants to tilt upwards is pressed downwards, so to speak. Then you have the internal cylinders, which are protected against impact damage - or the steep tipping angle.
For example, you can drive up a slope and still tip over and the material spills out. Then, if you take a look at the cab and the viewing angle that the driver has from the cab to the front, it's simply brilliant. That is also an issue: safe driving. Then there's the lightweight construction. We use steel of the highest quality and can therefore dispense with some struts, so that the machine itself is very light.
Klas Bömecke: Even though it's so massive? Martin Werthenbach: Yes, even though it is so massive. And the advantage is that the machine naturally has a low offset and is light, which means it saves fuel. Klas Bömecke: Exciting and impressive, thank you for giving me a brief insight. I hope you continue to enjoy the trade fair. Martin Werthenbach: Nice to have you with us.