In the style of the classic issues of PHE Plant Hire Executive, former PHE Editor, and now EHN’s Consultant Plant Editor, Nick Johnson recalls some of the notable developments in compact earthmoving plant over the last 40 years.
of the mini The rise
Forty years ago, prominent small earthmovers included the Smalley 360 ‘walking’ excavator and the Thwaites Tusker Digger Dumper. Hand digging in confined spaces was still the norm in 1971 but, with hydraulics having replaced ropes on standard sized tracked excavators, the first of yet smaller versions were already being developed in Japan.
After moving his engineering business to Lincolnshire in 1962, Richard Smalley had introduced a 360° wheeled hydraulic excavator which weighed around one tonne. It was effectively the first mini excavator and, indeed, he originally called it the Mini Digger. But the model name was changed to the Smalley 360 after a complaint from the Austin Motor Company that made the Mini car and held the Mini trademark! The 1.0 tonne class Smalley 360 could be towed to site where it was then ‘walked’ to its operating position on its two wheels by adept use of the hydraulically operated boom, arm and bucket. For digging, the machine was supported on four stabilising legs. Japan appears to have been the birthplace of the true crawler mounted mini excavator with the first units produced there in 1970 by, it is thought, a company called Iwafuji Industrial. The following year, when Hire News first appeared, Takeuchi made its first mini, although, initially, its machines were sold by other companies under different brand names – a practice common in Japan at the time. Toyosha also introduced its Hinomoto Combac mini excavators in Japan during 1971. At this time Yanmar started making limited slew mini excavators with its first full slew model launched in Japan
40 YEARS OF COMPACT PLANT
Showing its ability to work in confined spaces is this pioneering Kubota KH10D crawler mounted mini excavator.
during 1975. Kubota, which made its first mini excavator in 1972, was the company that first introduced a true crawler mounted mini into the UK. It unveiled the then revolutionary KH10D to the UK market at the Public Works Exhibition in November 1978. Complete with cab, dozer blade and steel tracks, the KH10D weighed in at 3.15 tonnes and could dig down to 2.5m. The most significant design difference between this pioneer and the accepted mini of today was the use of a sliding kingpost (like that on a sideshift backhoe loader) to achieve offset digging capability.
The first UK sales of the KH10D were made in 1979 and that year also saw the arrival here of the first Japanese competition in the shape of Hinomoto Combac machines. By 1979 the Japanese mini excavator market had risen to 20,000 units from manufacturers including Handozer (sold as Minex and Nissan), Hinomoto, IHI, Iwafuji, Komatsu, Kubota, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Takeuchi, Toyosha (sold as Hinomoto) and Yanmar.
The first Hinomoto minis to be imported into the UK by dealer C Itoh Plant Sales included the CR15. It weighed 3.06 tonnes and had what subsequently became the accepted method of providing offset digging - an angling kingpost. Although these Hinomotos helped establish the UK mini excavator market, production of this brand apparently ceased during 1983 in Japan.
Powerfab pioneered the market for ‘walk around’ micro excavators with its 125 model, seen here being towed to site.
59
Denton, Manchester-based dealer Brown & Tawse Plant gained the Nissan mini excavator franchise for the UK in September 1980. It quickly had success with the 3.5 tonne N35 and 4.5 tonne N45 models
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