Quality guaranteed
How does Hitachi ensure its construction machinery is of the highest quality? With stringent testing procedures carried out at its Urahoro Test Site in Japan.
- Where is it?
- The Test Site is located in Urahoro, 50km east of Obihiro, Sapporo. The rural region has temperatures ranging from -25°C to 35°C.
- How big is it?
- It covers 427 hectares, up to 3.3km long and 1.8km wide at its furthest points. A license has been issued for excavation work on 153 hectares – the size of 30 Tokyo Domes (a 55,000-seat baseball stadium in Tokyo).
- Which Hitachi machines are tested there?
- Assistant Manager Koji Otani says: “Most Hitachi product lines are tested here, including Zaxis mini, medium, large and wheeled excavators, medium and larger wheel loaders, and the large AC-drive rigid dump trucks.”
- What kind of tests?
The main tests are for durability, stress and performance.
Durability includes an excavating and operating test from 1,000 to more than 10,000 hours, and a non-stop 24-hour swinging test with a remote-controlled machine.
Stress incorporates machines travelling along a bumpy test track, and being subjected to a strength test by hooking the bucket to a fixed object.
To test performance, measurements are taken for such variables as productivity and fuel consumption.
- What else happens there?
The site is also used for:
- Zaxis-5 excavator end-user tests
- supporting the development of advanced technology, such as fleet management for Hitachi dump trucks
- demonstration opportunities for Hitachi customers in Japan
- other promotional events for the domestic market and local community.