Leica Geosystems and Doosan announces new Leica-Ready kit for factory fitting

HEERBRUGG, Switzerland, 1 December 2020– Leica Geosystems, part of Hexagon, and Doosan, a global industry leader in the engineering, manufacturing and marketing of compact and heavy construction equipment, today announced the release of a new Leica-ready factory kit for the Doosan DX255LC-5 excavator with the new semi-automated excavator functionality.

Leica Geosystems is continuously working on solutions to provide easy-to-use tools that will help contractors increase uptime, efficiency and safety by automating specific functions. Automating excavators, for example, will increase productivity, accuracy and decrease operator fatigue and fuel consumption.

"The automation journey into several areas in earthmoving equipment has been an active area of research and development over the past three decades in the industry. Starting with the world's first string-less paving solution, to 3D GNSS automatic dozer solutions, Leica Geosystems has been driving the change in the heavy construction industry,” said Magnus Thibblin, Leica Geosystems Machine Control President.

With this in mind, Leica Geosystems introduced semi-automatic functionality for excavators which offers part or full automation of the boom, bucket, tilt bucket or tilt rotator. Together with other automated features such as iXE CoPilot and Automatic Tool Recognition, operators are able to work with less fatigue and higher working comfort which can minimise over digging and reduced operational costs.

“Today we can offer semi-automatic systems for excavators, including tilt and tilt rotator bucket automation, Automatic Tool Recognition and CoPilot functions to help operators working with less fatigue and in higher comfort. The new semi-automatic functionality for excavators enables the operator to execute complex tasks, reduce manual controls, increase productivity, speed and accuracy of the work, even for less experienced operators, resulting in less over digging and reduced operational costs," concludes Thibblin.

2D and 3D machine control ready kit with semi-auto functionality for Doosan excavators

To meet the increasing demand for machine guidance systems from excavator customers, Doosan is introducing a new ready kit for the Leica iXE2 2D andiXE3 3D excavator machine control solution, which enables tilt bucket or tilt rotator automation for Doosan's popular DX255LC-5 25.5 tonne crawler excavator.

Thanks to the collaboration between Doosan and Leica Geosystems, the new factory kit enables customers to order Doosan's wheeled and crawler excavators pre-configured to be ready for the installation of Leica 2D and 3D machine control systems. Also, the Leica-ready kit includes all the components needed to install the new semi-automatic functionality for the DX255LC-5 excavator directly from Doosan's factory through Doosan Smart Solutions.

"Under our motto of 'Powered by Innovation', Doosan is keen on expanding our smart solution offerings. I am glad that our close partnership with Leica Geosystems, a leading innovator in smart construction, resulted in the new ready kit for the Leica 2D and 3D machine control systems, which surely will help our customers achieve better productivity and job efficiency," says Charlie Hyunchul Park, Doosan Europe CEO.

The kits include all the components (main brackets, wires and sensors) required to make sure an equipment is ready for the installation of the machine control solution and the semi-auto functionality, which gives customers the flexibility to install the complete system at a later date.

The Leica-ready kit is fitted on customer machines in the Doosan Customization Centre in Belgium. As a result, lead times on machines can be reduced and the process also lowers workload. It is even possible to modify existing orders up to just a few days before the machines are shipped to the customer.

Benefits of using machine control for excavators

Machine guidance systems give operators easy access to design surfaces, grades and alignments on a display inside the excavator cab. The systems use GNSS, GPS, laser, sonic or total station technology to accurately position the blade or bucket in real time, which is designed to significantly reduce material overages and improve the contractor's productivity and efficiency.

The site plan and grade information can be displayed in the cab, allowing operators to complete jobs faster with minimal supervision, obtaining higher precision finishing with a reduced number of passes. 

Learn more about the semi-automatic functionality for Leica iXE2 and iXE3 machine control solutions here.

About Doosan

For more on Doosan construction equipment, please visit the website: www.eu.doosanequipment.com