Little and large

Ambion Brick are using a pair of Komatsu machines to help with the production of 25 million extruded bricks each year at their Bishop Auckland factory.

"A WA380-3 ‘Active+’ wheel loader is being used to transfer the principal raw material (coal measure shale) from the stockpile to the feed hoppers. To keep pace with current demand the machine has to handle around 80,000 tonnes of shale each year and, because the stockpile is only replenished once every 10 months and therefore covers a huge area, this often involves haul journeys of up to 600m."

"During the summer months the journeys are straightforward but during winter or in wet conditions the whole area becomes a quagmire and is virtually impossible to walk across. The WA380 has shown, however, that it can cope with these conditions."

Ambion Brick have also taken delivery of a Komatsu SK05J skid-steer loader for general clean-up and small-scale handling duties around the site.