JCB showcases material handling range

JCB India showcased its range of dedicated material handling machines in Delhi today. These machines aren’t the excavators or backhoe machines JCB are already known for. These are machines specially designed to lift, load, push, grapple or grab with.

The tasks can be performed by a variety of machines including the backhoes, however since these machines are designed for the task, the make things more efficient, productive and safe. Here is a small insight into these products-

Skid Steer Loader

This is a tiny loader that can dump at a height of up to 2.2 metres. The whole point of a skid steer is its tiny turning radius, allowing it to manoeuvre in small areas. Unlike other skid steers which have two booms on either side of the cabin, this one features only one boom allowing for side door access to the cabin, making it much safer to use. The JCB’s skid steer comes with 3 attachments as standard, but a total of 25 are available, depending the nature of the job. It comes in two variants, the Robot 135 and the Robot 155. The Robot 155 can carry a higher load and gets a more powerful engine as well. Being about 55 per cent localised, prices range between Rs 17 and 19 lakhs.

Super Loader

The super loader is a larger machine that can dump at a hight of up to 4 metres. It gets a torque converter, allowing operators to switch between forward and reverse gears with ease. It gets a four cylinder 49.5bhp engine that conforms to BSIII regulations. To make it more versatile, 10 different shovels are available for it including a high dump shovel, grabbing fork shovel and a bale grabber. The Super Loader comes in two variants, one with a maximum dumping height of 3.1m and the second with a maximum dumping height of 4m. The super loader can cost anywhere between 13 to 14 lakhs, depending on which variant you want. The Super Loader shares a lot of parts with the Backhoes and is nearly 100 percent localised.

Telehandler

The JCB Loadall is en extremely versatile machine. It gets a single boom which can reach rather high, up to 11 metres. The machine can carry a load of upto 3 tonnes at full stretch. The short wheelbase and rear wheel steering allows for surprising manoeuvrability. There are other variants of the Loadall as well, which can reach heights of up to 17 metres, but these aren’t made in India and are imported and hence cost much more. A number of different attachments can be used with the Loadall including clamps, grabs, forks, pushers and even platforms. The Telehandler costs anywhere between Rs 24 to 28 lakh. Localisation for this machine stands at about 95 percent.

All these machines are being manufactured in India and in addition to being sold in the country, get exported to a few of the 65 countries JCB exports to. Though in the past, the growth for such equipment has been flat, it has grown by 40 per cent since January 2016. According to Mr Vipin Sondhi, MD and CEO of JCB India, the most demand comes from sectors like road and highway development and irrigation. And once a couple of more sectors get involved and show demand, they can be confident that growth for their machines will be sustainable.