Bobcat, a leading manufacturer of construction equipment, has launched its TL43.80HF telehandler in the Middle East and Africa region mainly aimed at companies involved in manufacturing, building materials, warehousing, quarrying and mining sector.

With the new TL43.80HF, Bobcat now offers a range of 15 different rigid frame telehandler models, covering maximum lifting capacities between 2.6 and 4.3 tonne and maximum lifting heights from 6 to 18 m, said a statement from the company. 

“At Bobcat, for over 60 years, we have been constantly innovating the market – always developing new machines for customers’ needs. The new TL43.80HF is no exception to this legacy as it completes our range of telehandlers and ensures customers can benefit from unmatched loading productivity and lift capacity,” remarked Olivier Traccucci, the senior product manager at Bobcat Telehandler.

“Bobcat machines are made for tough jobs, whilst still providing all the agility and versatility any application would require,” he said.

A new 300 kW dynamometer is now installed in the Innovation Center

Unlike any other manufacturer on the market, all Bobcat telehandlers are covered by a three year/3,000 hour warranty as standard, with the option of extending the warranty to five years/5,000 hours, stated Traccucci.

All Bobcat telehandlers are designed and produced at the company’s plant in Pontchâteau, France, he added.

Thanks to a high lift capacity of 4.3 tonne and a maximum lift height of almost 8 m, the TL43.80HF is a compact telehandler offering an impressive package, which brings together robustness, rough terrain ability and ease of use for the operator in the same machine.

“The very high stability of the TL43.80HF is due to the box welded frame, the low load centre, the long wheel base and the new massive rear counterweight, allowing Bobcat to minimise the overall dimensions of the machine, resulting in a width of only 2.30 m and a length of less than 5 m from the rear to the fork face,” explained Traccucci.

“Together with a short turning radius of just 3.71 m, this new Bobcat telehandler is a very manoeuvrable machine, a particularly useful feature when it comes to working in confined environments,” he added.

Bobcat said the rough terrain capability of the TL43.80HF has also been optimised for applications such as working and digging in piles of materials with the incorporation of new heavy duty Dana Spicer axles with limited slip differential and the outstanding tractive force available of up to 90 per cent of the machine weight.

In addition, the TL43.80HF offers as standard automatic functions that allow the operator to focus entirely on the work at hand, such as boom cushioning, the parking brake and the reversible fan which helps to keep the cooling system (radiator) clean in dusty environments. 

The new model also provides an ideal solution for the heavy-duty, high-productivity segment of the agricultural market, taking lift capacity, lifting height and breakout force to unprecedented levels in this area, said the statement from Bobcat.

It is available with a choice of three different Agri packs for the farming market meeting different levels of expectation in terms of ease of use and level of comfort, it added.

INVESTMENT IN INNOVATION

Meanwhile, Doosan Bobcat has announced a swathe of investments in new technology, machinery and processes at the company’s Innovation Center in Dobris in the Czech Republic.

The Innovation Center is the R&D hub of an integrated site at Dobris that also includes manufacturing, sourcing and training at the same location. 

New invesments: CNC horizontal boring machine and CNC 5 axis milling machine

Doosan Bobcat said the ability to design, test and manufacture Bobcat machines locally is one of the company’s competitive advantages in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. The new investments are intended to boost these advantages and involve every part of the operations in the Innovation Center, from rapid prototyping and prototype assembly to performance and durability testing. 

The Innovation Center is a European Engineering Center of Excellence, serving as an expert R&D centre for all Doosan Bobcat engineering teams across EMEA and has global responsibility for small compact loaders and compact excavators from 0-3 tonne. 

It focuses on creating new innovative solutions, product development, research and testing activities.  The facility, with more than 8,000 sq m of floor space for prototyping and testing and 1,400 sq m of office area, is a place where new advanced – and in some cases – unique technologies are installed.

With recent advances in computer designing and modelling, many manufacturers omit (or at least limit) the creation and testing of physical prototypes.  In contrast, at Doosan Bobcat, the company knows their importance and has invested heavily in its production technologies. 
 

NEW INVESTMENT

Over the last 12 months, Doosan Bobcat has completed several more significant investments and has installed three important technologies at the Innovation Center: CNC horizontal boring machine; CNC 5 axis milling machine and Dynamometer.

The total cost was approximately 36 million CZK ($1.65 million) with 50 per cent incentive grants provided by the Czech Government.

CNC BORING MACHINE

Bobcat’s TK43.80 crane

Both machines have been installed to support faster prototype builds providing full control of the processes without the involvement of third parties. Other important aspects are fixtures production for the Dobris manufacturing plant and testing of machining processes that help in the introduction of new machining in the production plant.

DYNAMOMETER

A dynamometer is a tool for measuring engine or powertrain system loadings in laboratory conditions. Based on the loading, machine performance (cooling, hydraulic parameters, fuel consumption and so on) are tested in a set ambient temperature. Testing on the dynamometer is mandatory for new engine implementation and for application approval on the supplier side.

A new 300 kW dynamometer with six electric generators is now installed in the Innovation Center. The dynamometer load tested machine allows Doosan Bobcat to test and optimize cooling performance in the ‘hot’ climate-controlled chamber at temperatures up to 55-degC.  Advanced functions of the dynamometer allow replication and simulation of real duty cycles in a laboratory environment based on data from the field.

REAL LIFE TESTING – POLYGON

Not far from the Dobris Innovation Center and the main plant is the location for the Bobcat polygon for field testing. With more than 20 engineers, operators and technicians plus six hectares of space with artificial lighting, machine shops and diagnostic laboratories, the polygon is a really unique asset in the industry as a whole.

Field testing on the Bobcat polygon has been identified as one of the company’s important success drivers in terms of quality and rapid innovations.  Because of this, another expansion of this testing has been prepared. It is planned to almost double the size of the polygon in the future to 10 hectares, with a road circuit and new specialized sites where different types of machines will be built.