Liebherr-Australia’s fabrication team sets new record

This achievement marks a 16 % increase on the 43 buckets fabricated in 2024, reflecting the continued strength, capability and efficiency of Liebherr-Australia’s fabrication operations.

A global point of difference

As one of the largest national operations within the Liebherr Group, Liebherr-Australia manufactures buckets for Liebherr’s comprehensive range of mining excavators entirely in-house. This enables Liebherr to deliver purpose-built attachment solutions engineered specifically for Australian mining conditions, while maintaining full control over quality, safety and delivery timelines.

‘What the team in Adelaide was able to achieve in 2025 is outstanding,’ says Steve Smith, Liebherr-Australia’s fabrication manager for mining. ‘As well as setting new manufacturing benchmarks, the team also achieved the highest possible result in our internal global audit for excellence in fabrication and welding, compliance with Liebherr global requirements and rigorous quality standards. This outcome reflects the team’s strong governance, technical rigour and commitment to Liebherr’s global quality standards.’

Building these 50 buckets involved more than 60 employees across the fabrication team putting in a collective 92,600 productive hours, highlighting both the scale of output required to meet customer demand and the depth of expertise across the workforce.

Investing in automation and future capabilities

As part of Liebherr-Australia’s ongoing investment in productivity and capability, automated welding technology has been implemented at the Adelaide facility in the form of a collaborative robot, or ‘cobot’. This cobot supports the fabrication team with high-precision welding tasks, improving consistency in the welding process while also reducing reliance on manual welding hours. With the introduction of this technology, welding speeds at the Adelaide facility are now six times faster, which saved more than 2,000 labour hours in 2025 – the same time it takes to fabricate an entirely new R 9600 bucket.

‘This investment strengthens Liebherr-Australia’s ability to deliver high-quality attachments at scale, while upholding rigorous quality standards, supporting workforce safety and building long-term fabrication capability,’ says Steve.

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