What a car! 20 cylinders; 2700 kilowatts of power, that’s around 3670 hp; Payload around 300 tons. Mature: larger than any human. Only the maximum speed of this giant is modest: 54 kilometers per hour. The Liebherr dump truck with the name “T274” is a visitor favorite at the Bauma, which runs until October 30th, and not only has a lot to offer to the specialist audience. During the tour, you meet Nicole Schmitt, CEO of Bauma, who is all smiles: The start of the trade fair with prominent figures from politics and business was successful, but she was still very tense. “I hope the adrenaline level is lower when the first day is over,” says Schmitt – and wishes “a lot of fun!”
Komatsu electric excavators are manufactured in Düsseldorf-Benrath and shipped from there all over the world. You have to disassemble them first. 18 low-loaders are needed to transport such a PC4000 model.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
Outside on the open-air site you can marvel at the “real” excavators, the Komatsu “PC4000” for example, a 400-ton machine with 1800 hp that is purely electrically operated to remove large amounts of earth in mining. The driver’s cab is enthroned eight meters above the ground, and the giant is controlled by just one person. “The PC4000 is our second smallest device,” says Thomas Jordan, who is responsible for sales in Scandinavia. The operator, as he calls the driver, will always be needed, but: “In future he will no longer have to sit up in the cabin, in the middle of the jungle or the Arctic.” For example, he should sit in the office in Stockholm and operate the device remotely, over thousands of kilometers. There is already a prototype.
Why not excavator drivers? Under the motto “Think Big”, pupils in the 7th to 12th grade are to be inspired for a profession “outside the mainstream”.
(Photo: Catherine Hoffman)
“We have four toy excavators here that are remote-controlled,” says Simon Pfister, a mechatronics technician in his third year at Liebherr. During his training, he learns both mechanics and electronics. At the fair, Pfister and other trainees show visitors how they can compete against each other with the small excavators. Whoever shovels away the most grains of sand in six minutes wins. “The remote control is just like a real excavator, and the models are also true to detail. But a real excavator is of course more sensitive, you can control it better,” says Pfister, who – of course – already has an excavator driver’s license for the company premises.
Clumsy into the future: With virtual reality glasses, customers should be able to test excavators and the like in the future.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
In the future, the construction site will also be digital. Visitors to Bauma can get an impression of how that feels. Virtual reality glasses transport them to the Mimetik test site in Hoyerswerda, where they can steer construction machines from Liebherr and Wacker Neuson. “Using the companies’ digital design models, we can accurately represent their devices,” says Ievgenii Tsokalo, co-founder of Mimetik. “We just implemented the physics so you can move them like real machines.” In the future, customers will be able to test drive devices using this technology. However, the project at Bauma was specially developed for Messe München “to amuse the visitors,” says Tsokalo. “At the same time, we want to show what’s possible today.”
With its material handlers, Sennebogen is one of the top two companies in the world. The company from Straubing turns 70 this year.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
When ships are loaded with bulk goods such as animal feed, building materials or coal, material handlers are used, which can lift extremely heavy loads. The SENNEBOGEN 885 is the largest material handling machine ever shown at a Bauma, it is used in inland and sea ports and achieves a handling capacity of up to 1800 tons per hour. The company from Straubing in Lower Bavaria is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. “Our story began in the 1950s with mechanical rope devices, today we are fully focused on material handling – for example at the scrap yard, in the timber industry or in the port area,” says Robert Aumüller, Head of the Port business unit. It is a small-volume business that is very close to the customer.
Tour of the excavator simulator: the school classes came by in the morning, and in the afternoon civil engineer Kim Köhler tested her talent as a driver.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
In the foyer of the ICM, Komatsu employees have set up a simulator that looks like a game console with an original excavator seat and screen. Schoolchildren can playfully try out the job of an excavator operator here. The task: digging up earth and shoveling it into a dump truck. A monitor shows a yellow excavator moving over a huge construction site. “Now tilt the shovel forward, higher, higher,” says Melanie Timm-Meers, the company’s training manager. Kim Köhler pulls the brakes and jumps off the simulator: “Now my sister can.” Kim is a civil engineer. “I’m interested in how such an excavator drives,” she says, already steering towards the welding simulator. “We otherwise use it to train welders and steel fitters,” says Timm-Meers, “so that we don’t waste so much material at the beginning.”