Designed to meet diverse production tasks ranging from mining, quarrying and road construction to large-scale earthmoving projects, these hydraulic excavators come to market with key enhancements in terms of safety, ultra-fast truck-loading cycle times, fuel efficiency, and longer-term downstream availability.
These new units Cat 374F L and Cat 390F L hydraulic will replace the D-Series hydraulic excavators launched globally in 2010. The Cat 374F L is equipped with the Cat C15 ACERT engine with a rated net power of 353 kW at 1 600 rpm (ISO 9249) while the Cat 390F L is equipped with the Cat C18 ACERT unit with a rated net power of 391 kW at 1 700 rpm (ISO 9249).Smooth and fuel efficient
These engine models consume significantly less fuel thanks to two new built-in features: automatic engine speed control and automatic engine idle shutdown. Automatic engine speed control lowers rpm according to production demands; whilst automatic engine idle shutdown turns the engine off when it has been idling for more than a specified amount of time, which can be preset via the in-cab monitor. Operators can also switch between high power and economy mode. High power is best suited to hard digging conditions.A major contributor to these machines’ efficiency results is Caterpillar’s introduction of the Adaptive Control System (ACS) valve, a further advance on the previous generation’s Proportional Priority Pressure Compensation (PPPC) system.
“The new ACS valve takes the PPPC system a step further and has been designed to intelligently manage restrictions and flows. It opens slowly when your range of joystick lever movement is small and opens rapidly when movement is high,” explains Barloworld Equipment group product manager Johann Venter. “More specifically, it puts flow exactly where you need it, when you need it, which means you will experience much smoother operation, greater efficiency, and ultra-fast swing speed gains in hard digging and truck loading.”
