Liebherr wheel loaders with innovative assistance systems and new joystick steering at Conexpo 2020

• A total of four wheel loaders at the Liebherr Group’s Conexpo stand

• Numerous wheel loader assistance systems will celebrate their trade fair premiere in North America

• Active personnel detection to be expanded at the end of 2020 to include an auxiliary brake function

Liebherr will present four wheel loaders to the trade audience at Conexpo. These include an L 566 XPower® which is equipped with numerous new assistance systems. Liebherr will exhibit these assistance systems for wheel loaders for the first time at a trade fair in North America. These include active personnel detection, adaptive working lighting, the integrated tire pressure monitoring system and the weighing system with Truck Payload Assist. The L 566 XPower® also has the new joystick steering for wheel loaders.

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The largest Liebherr wheel loader, the L 586 XPower®, which weighs 71,870 lb (32,600 kg), can also be seen at the exhibition stand. Liebherr installs a power-split travel drive as standard in all large XPower® wheel loaders. It combines the hydrostatic drive, which is ideal for short loading cycles with the mechanical drive, the benefits of which come into effect over long distances and up hills. Thus, the power-split XPower® drive ensures massive fuel savings and high performance, regardless of the use profile.

The L 538 represents the Liebherr medium-size wheel loader range at the exhibition stand. It is equipped with parallel kinematics for high holding forces in the upper lift arms area. This industrial design is suitable for working with heavy attachments, such as with high dump buckets when recycling. For customers from countries in Central and South America, Liebherr is showing the L 550 wheel loader. It is representative of the separate wheel loader series for less emission-regulated markets.

Active personnel detection improves safety, protects against accidents

The new assistance systems for Liebherr wheel loaders increase the comfort and safety of day-to-day operation in a variety of ways. They make it possible for machine operators to better concentrate on the work with their Liebherr wheel loader. An innovation, for example, is the active personnel detection at the rear. The system uses automatic alerts on the display and audible signals to signal hazards at the rear of the wheel loader.

A special feature is that the active personnel detection uses sensors to automatically differentiate between people and objects. If a person moves at the rear of the machine, the system alerts the operator. For persons in the hazard zone, it provides a warning at a greater distance than for static objects such as walls or columns. The operator receives a more specific warning in case of imminent danger of personal injury. The assistance system avoids unnecessary warning signals, reducing stress for the machine operator.

At the end of 2020, Liebherr will expand the active personnel detection on large XPower® wheel loaders to include a brake assistant. Along with warning signals in the cab, automatic braking provides additional aid for the machine operator. The auxiliary brake function helps to reduce reaction times during braking. This increases safety and reduces the risk of serious accidents.

New joystick steering with force feedback and position control

The new joystick steering for the L 526 to L 586 XPower wheel loaders is an innovative steering system which is an option available to customers. It allows the machine operator to steer comfortably with one hand. Especially in operations involving a large number of steering maneuvers, the joystick steering ensures less effort and more relaxed working as short movements on the ergonomically shaped joystick replace the intensive turning of the steering wheel. A comfortable armrest is always available for the left arm. Also when changing direction, the left hand remains on the joystick because a switch on the control element allows the travel direction to be changed. 

The new joystick steering for Liebherr wheel loaders can be operated intuitively. One reason is that the position of the joystick always corresponds to the current articulation angle of the wheel loader. Together with the force feedback on the joystick, the new steering system sets the benchmark in terms of ease of operation when compared to conventional joystick steering. This makes operation of Liebherr wheel loaders with the new joystick steering safe and comfortable even at high speeds and over difficult terrain.

Like most assistance systems, the new joystick steering is also available for the L 526 to L 586 XPower®models. In addition, for the models L 566 XPower® to L 586 XPower®, Liebherr offers the operator's cab in combination with joystick steering without steering wheel and column. In the steering wheel-free version, the spacious cab of the XPower® wheel loaders offers the machine operator even more space and an optimized view of the working attachment.