Since Volvo Construction Equipment launch of a full line of hydraulic breakers for excavators in mid-2014, customers in Qatar have already ordered 178 units at the last count, many of which by now have already clocked up several thousand working hours.
One satisfied Qatari customers is Al Ghebra Trading & Contracting – a subcontractor for contractors including Generic Engineering Technologies and Qatari Diar-Saudi Binladin Group (QD-SBG), which has been using its breakers on ground preparation for pipelines, buildings, roads and tunnels.
Currently the company is working on the ground preparations for a naval base in Simaisma, Al Khor in the north of the country, where its operators are tasked with creating 5-6m deep and equally wide shafts for utilities through dense limestone – operating 10 hours a day, seven days a week.
Al Ghebra took delivery of its first Volvo HB22 breaker together with a Volvo EC220DL excavator in July 2015, and after just one month working on the Al Khor site, the performance of Volvo’s HB22 breaker convinced owner Mohamad Alabdalah to purchase a further four excavators with breakers.
“The Volvo brand has a good reputation for quality and I wanted really good equipment. Then Volvo CE’s dealer in Qatar, ARACO, offered a bundled deal for the excavator and breaker. It was convenient and cost-effective to have the same supplier for both,” says Alabdalah.
Al Ghebra’s foreman Nwab Khan is also a fan of the Volvo breakers. He notes: “I like the rounded corners on the housing. A previous breaker I used had four plates welded together for the housing, and the welds started to crack and the breaker stopped working. The Volvo design is more durable.
“The auto-lube ensures that the chisel is always properly lubricated and the operator can keep working instead of having to stop to go outside and grease the chisel. It is also convenient to receive parts and service support for both the machine and the attachment from the same dealer.”
Volvo CE also delivers its breakers ready to use with hydraulic hoses, breaker brackets, maintenance tools, chisel, manuals and the breaker itself packed in a single crate – which is not always the case with other breaker suppliers where brackets and hoses may have to be arranged locally.
Al Ghebra has not required any technical support yet but has enjoyed a good dialogue with ARACO on how to plan the upcoming services.
Mohamad Alabdalah says: “On the Simaisma, Al Khor site there are many excavators that work with breakers from many different brands. We often compare how our equipment performs and I am very happy with the Volvo breakers. I would definitely recommend Volvo breakers to other contractors.”
Jonas Staaf, customer service director for Volvo CE EMEA, concludes: “At Volvo we have focused on designing and building productive and reliable breakers with good uptime that can also be considered cost-effective globally. Using a breaker that has been specifically designed for Volvo equipment ensures that both breaker and machine operate to their maximum potential.”
