Since 1920, the company, Müller und Töchter GmbH & Co. KG, has been operating various sand pits in the Franconia region of Bavaria in Germany. Now the arrival of the company’s first Doosan wheel loader, a new DL420CVT-7 model, with a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT), has significantly reduced fuel costs per tonne of sand produced.
The new machine is being used in the sand plant at the company’s headquarters in Wilburgstetten. The Doosan wheel loader is working exclusively on feeding material into the washing plant. The latter is unique in Germany and was recently awarded second place in the German Sustainability Award 2022.
Here, the DL420CVT-7 transfers more than 1 000 tonnes of sand into the washing plant every day. One of the main factors for the low fuel consumption is the variable transmission. Marc Glesius, sales manager for wheel loaders at Doosan in Germany, explains: “This transmission combines the advantages of a mechanical and hydrostatic transmission and eliminates the disadvantages underlying both systems. The variable transmission changes smoothly from hydrostatic drive to mechanical drive as the speed increases and depending on the requirements of the application.
“The advantages of this system include in particular the excellent traction offered by a hydrostatic transmission and the ability to drive over longer distances with a purely mechanical one. The fuel savings of up to 30% are due to the lower engine speed required to achieve maximum speed or traction compared to conventional transmissions.”
Especially for the quarrying and mining industries, where the productivity in terms of tonnes of materials per litre of fuel is crucial, the faster loading cycles and higher bucket capacity of the new generation DL-7 wheel loader series from Doosan provides more efficiency as well as lower fuel consumption. At Müller und Töchter, the DL420CVT-7 wheel loader is used with a 4,7 m³ bucket, working in both loading and travel modes, allowing the advantages of the CVT transmission to be fully exploited.
