INTERVIEW WITH DOOSAN

The Doosan Group was established in 1896 and has developed into a global leader in the Infrastructure Support Business. Doosan has 37,900 employees in 37 countries, 56 subsidiaries and 3,700 distributors worldwide with turnover in 2018 being $20bn. Doosan is number one in the world for desalination plant construction, the heat recovery steam generator market and chemical process equipment products in addition to being one of the world’s leading manufacturers of construction equipment and a global leader in compact equipment.

Furthermore, after starting out as the first large-scale machinery producer in Korea in 1937, Doosan Infracore became the first Korean manufacturer to begin producing marine diesel engines in 1958, before moving into the manufacture of construction equipment in 1977. In 2007, Doosan acquired Bobcat, the global leader in the compact construction equipment market, strengthening Doosan’s position as a world leader in the construction machinery business.

Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?

Doosan: More specifically Doosan Infracore Europe (DIEU) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Doosan Infracore focusing on the sale of Doosan branded construction equipment including the aftermarket activities of servicing and parts distribution.

E.E: What’s the news for 2020 about new products?

Doosan: 2020 will see the launch of our new -7 Generation Stage V machinery which include heavy crawler excavators from 30 to 80 ton and almost the entire range of wheel loaders.

The company will launch its biggest excavator, the DX800LC-7, in the European market. The DX800LC-7 is based on the DX800LC, one of the company’s most successful models in emerging markets, with a proven track record in terms of durability, productivity and total cost of ownership in harsh working environments. The new model will be available in Q3 of 2020. The company is also developing a larger model, which will be available in the European market in a few years.

Special application machines for the sectors of demolition and re-cycling will also be introduced in 2020.

The new DX235DM, the first of the company’s new range of High Reach Demolition Excavators was launched in April and two further models in the range – the DX380DM and DX530DM will follow later this year.

A 23ton wheeled excavator and a 22ton crawler excavator will be added to the material handler range of products 

E.E: What are the ranges of traded products?

Doosan:

  • Mini excavators from 1 to 8.6 ton;
  • Crawler excavators from 14 to 80 ton;
  • Wheeled excavators from 5.7 to 22 ton;
  • Wheel loaders covering operating weights from 12 to 36 ton and bucket capacities from 1.9 to 6.7 m³;
  • Articulated Dump Trucks with payloads from 28 to 41 ton;
  • Special Application machines;
  • Demolition – Crawler excavators 38 to 53 ton;
  • Material Handling – excavators 23 -25 ton.

E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?

Doosan: Before the pandemic the construction equipment market in Europe was expected to exhibit a growth rate of over 6% during the forecast period 2020-2025.

There is certainly growth in the market sectors where new technologies are concerned from electric /hybrid vehicles to digitalization, connectivity, and automation of construction projects.

E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?

Doosan: As customer adoption of Information & Communication Technology (ICT) increases on a global basis, it is expected that the construction industry will adapt to this tech-trend as well.

We believe the rapid development of ICT will have a direct positive impact on improving customer’s productivity and safety and overall efficiency. Therefore, providing solutions to digitalize information and share this data to manage the “future” construction site becomes vitally important.

Other trends include alternative power technologies, in particular renewables, electrification and fuels such as hydrogen which are main drivers for improvements.

E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?

Doosan: Doosan is increasingly focusing on technological innovation in order to differentiate from standard products in the construction sector.

Our Concept-X project is by far the most innovative future technological development. Therefore, we would like to explain this concept in more detail.

Concept X visualizes the future, it refers to integrated hardware and software solutions which we believe will form the basis for the future of the construction industry. It began as an internal focus in Doosan Infracore, as a way of pre-empting and implementing future construction technology and allowing us to offer solutions to client problems that could not be resolved using conventional equipment.

The aim of the Concept-X project is to visualize the role of cutting-edge technology in the future of the construction industry and to implement it before anyone else, in accordance with the Doosan style.

The “X” in the name is a nod to excavators, but it is also a reference to the X used to express the concept of an unknown variable in maths. The first port of call for Concept-X is to identify valuable solutions for the future of the industry by tapping into general tech trends such as AI, big data and so on. We also consider client recommendations when it comes to improving production efficiency and safety. Concept-X must also be a solution that improves productivity and safety in the workplace, while taking environmental impact into account, too.

Over the next few years, Doosan will commercialize some of the technology we are developing as part of the Concept-X project. This will include a complete electronic hydraulic system, MG/MC solutions, digitalization and scanning solutions for the workplace, a connected machinery monitoring centre and 5G-based remote operation, to name just a few of the solutions we are working on. There will be new machinery, but also software solutions.

To sum up, Concept-X technology will provide clients with increased productivity, improved safety and eco-friendly solutions. In this way, Doosan Infracore is rapidly transforming itself from a manufacturer focusing on construction equipment to also being a software company offering services and solutions.

In the quarrying and mining sector Doosan is working on digitalization solutions to bring about tangible benefits, just like we have seen with Concept-X.

In terms of productivity, we are working on autonomous solutions which make it possible to have unmanned operations running 24 hours a day, as well as on using connectivity to create an optimized fleet, on top of the health and security benefits of this type of technology.

In the field of production and inventory management, we will be introducing drone-based visual scanning. Health and safety in unmanned operations is another key focus. Furthermore, we will see precautionary maintenance based on digitalized diagnostics introduced.