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First Volvo EC550E excavators in UK

Promising 20% higher production and 25% higher fuel efficiency, Great Britain’s first Volvo EC550E crawler excavators are a welcome addition to Ashcourt Group’s growing fleet of construction equipment from SMT GB. Yorkshire-based Ashcourt Group was the first customer to place an order with equipment dealer SMT GB following the launch of the ground-breaking new Volvo EC550E crawler excavator and has now received the first two units in the country.

The family-owned construction company will use one of the new Volvo EC550E excavators for civil engineering projects, where its strong lifting capacity will come into play. In mass excavation configuration, the second machine will work primarily at Ashcourt Group’s Partridge Hall Quarry, helping on earthworks jobs as needed.

Ashcourt Group typically runs the chalk quarry near Burnby, which it has operated since 2014, with one excavator to rip out material from the face and one loading shovel to fill the mobile crusher and screeners, sort the piles, and load the Volvo FH trucks to transport the aggregates and lime away from the site.

For the last few years, the company has paired a Volvo EC480E crawler excavator with a Volvo L260H wheeled loader. The new EC550E excavator, however, promises 20% greater production than the EC480E in typical dig and dump applications thanks to its larger bucket and faster cycle times.

The larger bucket is enabled through the increased undercarriage dimensions (for stability), as well as the upgraded structural component dimensions on the frames, boom, and arm. The faster cycle times result from the engine’s high torque at a relatively low rpm combined with large displacement pumps. The 2,200Nm (340kW) engine is well in line with much larger competitor machines.

While the EC480E is aimed at customers looking for an efficient and reliable 50-tonne class excavator, the EC550E challenges the 60- to 65-tonne class, says Volvo, breaking the norm of production having a direct link to operating weight. It offers performance closer to the EC750E, but in a smaller, more easily transportable format with the same transport dimensions as the EC480E.

“We had the EC750E here at Partridge Hall Quarry in 2019, when we hosted the ‘Live it. Dig it.’ event together with SMT GB and, because of the width of it, it needed two police escort vehicles,” explained Ashcourt Group’s Quarry Manager Damian Towse (pictured above). “Moving machines around in East Yorkshire can be problematic with some of the roads and access into sites, so the EC550E suits where we need to be size wise with that productivity boost.”

As well as offering 20% greater production than the EC480E, the EC550E is also designed to deliver a 25% improvement in fuel efficiency, which will likewise support Ashcourt Group’s profitability. The improved fuel efficiency on the EC550E comes from the new electro-hydraulic system, which uses independent metering valve technology (IMVT) instead of a conventional spool-type main control valve (MCV) – an industry first in this excavator size class. Oil is pumped exactly according to demand to eliminate hydraulic losses, reduce fuel consumption, and give excellent controllability.

“It’s hard to get your head around the lightness of the controls for the size of the machine. It’s bizarre in a good way,” Damian said after half an hour of testing in the quarry. “You’re used to pulling the levers and having that resistance on the hydraulics. On this, you still have the feel but it’s so much lighter on the levers and more controllable, like driving a 14 tonner, which is good for avoiding fatigue. The bounce reduction technology also gives you more control as it stops the machine moving around as much.”

Overall, Damian found the new EC550E to offer a comfortable and user-friendly operating environment. “For a tall person, it’s got plenty of room in the cab, the general position of the levers is spot on, and everything is accessible with finger touch. And it’s great that you can alter the settings to the way you like to drive and save different operator profiles, so you don’t have to go through them each time. Compared to the EC250E we have, there’s also a button on the side of the screen you can press, and it saves you having to scroll through, which is ideal.”

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