As the sun rises on a winter's day in the east of South Korea, operators at the Gunwi plant sandstone quarry are already hard at work. Volvo EC700C crawler excavators and A40F articulated haulers can be spotted buzzing around the site as they go about their daily activities.

 

Run by Bo-kwang Industry, the Gunwi quarry in South Korea's North Gyeongsang Province operates 11 hours a day, six days a week, extracting sandstone. Once the sedimentary rock is broken up into smaller stones, the EC700C excavators gather them up and load them on to the A40F haulers. These stones are then transported for crushing into even smaller particles and sandy powder before being shipped off to a ready-mix concrete plant.

 

A couple of years ago this bustling and industrious site witnessed a potentially fatal accident unfold. According to Bo-kwang Industry CEO Byung-youn Park, the company puts a lot of emphasis on safety for its employees there. Park clearly recalls the incident when an operator suddenly crashed his machine while carrying out routine tasks. Safety is the number-one priority for this family-owned quarry business. 

 

The sandstone quarry stretches more than 4,30,000 m2, employing 30 production staff and nine office personnel on site, ably supported by seven Volvo machines - three A40Fs and four EC700Cs.

 

Sandstone production at Bo-kwang Industry involves two general phases of quarrying and processing. The first step is accessing the sandstone deposits that are then excavated by the operators who locate or create small cracks in the stone. 

 

The A40F haulers then deliver the material to a grinder to be processed into the required size before being transported to its final location.

 

It is important for Park to maintain productivity and cost-effectiveness on such a busy site, and he says one of his main reasons for choosing Volvo was for fuel efficiency. 

 

From a managerial point of view, safety and efficiency are important contributions to the smooth running of the quarry, but for the operators, comfort is high up on the wish list. The operating lever of the machine is smooth and easy to control.

 

The operators at the quarry are won over by the Volvo machines, finding them roomy, safe and comfortable.