Mobility in tree maintenance with the Atlas 190W mobile excavator

The Atlas 190W mobile excavator makes tree maintenance and felling easy – safety and soundness are top priority – 22 t mobile excavator with various additional equipment – capable of grabbing and moving trees weighing several tons.

An impressive sight to behold is when the mobile excavator saws down a tree weighing several tonnes and "carries" it to the place where it is to be deposited without having to set it down. Fitted with a Woodcracker, the 22 t Atlas mobile excavator 190W can accomplish such work without any problems. Such as here in Münster, where an old park complex is being renovated by the Baumpflegezentrale tree maintenance agency from Greven. The excavator is equipped for this purpose with an endlessly rotating Woodcracker CS610 compact grapple saw. The Atlas mobile excavator is driven by a 6.7 l EU stage V engine with 129 kW/175 hp output. The hydraulics deliver the necessary power at a maximum operating pressure of 350 bar so that trees can be effectively held and processed.

The agency from Greven specialises in tree maintenance, felling, expert assessments, treatment and control of tree diseases and tree pests. "We never cut down any trees without first checking for conservation of species. We keep an eye out for animals such as squirrels, bats, breeding birds and others," says Björn Dewitt, Managing Director of Baumpflegezentrale. They are also pre-qualified. That's basically proof of suitability for the awarding of public contracts. The agency also offers helicopter felling services, in addition to the work mentioned above. "It is not always possible to fell trees in the traditional sense. In some cases, branch and trunk sections weighing several tonnes have to be transported, broken up and loaded in a matter of minutes without direct access to a road. This is when helicopter felling is often the only way to remove a tree safely and efficiently," says Dewitt. The ATLAS 190W mobile excavator is often used on the ground.

"We were able to offer a technically very solid yet economical solution with the ATLAS 190W together with the special equipment for the operations of the company Baumpflegezentrale. This was only possible because we had studied the requirements profile and then developed the machine solution. Wider undercarriage, wide double tyres, cab protection grid, hydraulic quick coupling, endlessly rotating tiltator and grapple saw is what is needed for tree maintenance operations so that work can be performed safely and effectively," says Christian Schwenniger, area sales manager at Tecklenborg in Werne, the Atlas dealer responsible for the region. On top of that, the oscillating axle with the largest oscillating range provides enormous ground clearance. This also facilitates 360° stability with heavy loads without an outrigger support.

The Atlas 190W weighs between 20 t and 24 t, depending on the version. It has a maximum reach of over 10 m and can move weights of up to 15 t. The fine-tuned and solid construction of the 190W is something that makes a positive impression in practice. Sensitive and precise operation is thereby possible. The power that the hydraulic system delivers can be fully utilised by the work equipment without putting too much strain on the machine and its parts such as articulations, bushings, etc. "The solidity of the Atlas mobile excavator was a very important argument in favour as far as Baumpflegezentrale was concerned," says Schwenniger. You can see this very well during operation. The attached grapple saw with a grapple opening of 1,280 mm works as if it were a hand saw cutting thin branches. In real life, however, trees and branches that weigh several tonnes are processed without the ATLAS mobile excavator wavering.

It's also the design details of the 190W that make working a safe and pleasant experience: the best all-round visibility thanks to the stepped retracted cladding on the right and cameras on both the right and rear, supported by natural daylight illumination when necessary. The comfort cabin with low interior noise level is another feature that supports effective work with the 190W. "The Atlas mobile excavator operates using fast and powerful hydraulics. The upper carriage, for example, can rotate 360° eleven times a minute. The drive can handle gradients of up to 55 percent," Schwenniger reports. There are many important arguments for using the Atlas 190W mobile excavator, which is why Baumpflegezentrale now uses it as a vital piece of equipment.