English
A partnership built on productivity
Winter 2015
When a long-time customer asks for help in meeting expansion initiatives, it’s time to look for new ways to improve productivity — to be a partner in growing their business by finding faster, more versatile solutions to get the job done.
And that’s just what James Ware Construction did when Burr Oak Tool, a customer for nearly three decades, came to them for a 120,000-square-foot expansion to a state-of-the-art building (also built by James Ware Construction) at Dresser Industrial Park in Sturgis, Michigan.
A full-service design/build general contractor and qualified builder of Butler® pre-engineered building systems, James Ware Construction found the improved productivity it was looking for in its first-ever Doosan machine — a DX225LC-3 crawler excavator configured with a bucket and a thumb attachment.
According to owner James Ware, the DX225LC-3 excavator with a 36-inch bucket helps perform general excavation duties, including trenching foundation footings and utilities, and loading topsoil, gravel and refuse into dump trucks.
Ware also put the 167-horsepower excavator to the test digging a 10,000-square-foot drainage pond and breaking up frozen fill during a construction schedule that ran throughout winter. The machine’s hydraulic system and strong breakout forces — topping 33,500 foot-pounds — provided the muscle to help remove approximately 2,000 yards of topsoil, as well as leveling and grading 1,000 yards of gravel.
The bucket’s abrasion-resistant steel construction had the added durability to excavate and backfill 1,200 linear feet of footing at a depth of 42 inches, as well as trenching more than 1,000 feet to install 36-inch drain pipe backfilled with stone.
Ware says the Doosan crawler excavator, with its pin-on thumb, has improved his crew’s productivity and profitability compared to his previous construction equipment.
“The Doosan excavator replaced another excavator brand with a stationary thumb. With its increased size, we can dig and load faster,” says Ware, “and we can use the thumb later this year for a demolition project.”
The Doosan DX225LC-3 with thumb combination was more affordable and easier to operate compared to the company’s earlier excavator. Specifically, the Doosan machine’s joystick controls were a top performance option the company evaluated before purchasing from Carleton Equipment. Equipped with two-way auxiliary hydraulics, joystick controls and joystick-mounted attachment control buttons, Ware’s operators can make more precise thumb movements even in the most abrasive jobsite conditions. “This excavator has smooth controls,” Ware says.
Ware’s success with the Doosan excavator’s thumb has him planning ahead to the productivity advantages he can gain with future Doosan attachments. “The DX225LC-3 is plumbed for a hydraulic breaker that we’ll rent as needed,” he concludes.
