How do you raise productivity, lower fuel costs and make your operators happier all at the same time? According to KJ Services Ltd, the answer is a brand-new work tool—the Cat® H130Es hammer.

The South Wales-based company recently purchased the new hammer primarily for its Cat 323D excavator, which it’s using to break up limestone for a quarry customer.

“We have had some great feedback from the operator,” says Jack Stephens, plant manager for KJ Services Ltd. “More importantly, our customer has seen real benefits, as we’ve been able to break down more rock within the allocated project time.”

In fact, Stephens reports productivity gains of up to 20% using the H130Es hammer, which typically operates on 10-hour shifts, five days a week.

“In financial terms, our customer is now getting almost one day a week more activity from us due to the increase in productivity—of course, this will go straight to their bottom line,” he says. “Equally for us, by opting for a three-year warranty supported by the Llantrisant Finning branch, we are able to reduce any downtime from what is already a reliable product. This ultimately means we are able to offer all of our customers a much better and more competitive service.”

In terms of reliability, Stephens is a fan of the H130Es’s automatic shut-off feature, which instantly stops the hammer when the tool breaks through material—eliminating the high internal stresses created by blank firing.

“OUR CUSTOMER IS NOW GETTING ALMOST ONE DAY A WEEK MORE ACTIVITY FROM US DUE TO THE INCREASE IN PRODUCTIVITY—OF COURSE, THIS WILL GO STRAIGHT TO THEIR BOTTOM LINE.”

“To be honest, being able to tackle misfiring through the functionality of the new hammer was one of the main reasons we selected it,” he says. “The hammer will only fire once the full weight is on the stone and then stops automatically.”

Automatic shut-off is just one of the features operator Colin Morgan appreciates about the H130Es hammer, which he describes as “one of the best we’ve had.” Fuel efficiency is another.

“It’s running on half revs on the machine, which saves fuel and is more economical,” Morgan says. “It’s a lot more productive—a lot more.”

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