The simple answer is that they carry out an ‘Operators’ Clinic’ with operators from across Europe and North America at their impressive testing site in the mountains in Boryeong, 200 km southwest of Seoul, South Korea.

This testing centre was opened in 2019, so engineers and operators could test prototypes in real conditions, as part of the development process for their future products.

From 26-30th August 2024, Develon conducted an operators’ clinic with selected operators coming from Europe and North America. All of these operators are experts in 2D/3D applications and tiltrotator usage. For a full week, they tested the performance of the company’s next generation of crawler excavators in real applications.

Develon testing Site, Korea
Earth, sand and hard ground – all type of soils were tested.

The operators had the opportunity to test the performance of the future Develon 23 and 25 t excavators, together with many new smart features, including:

  • Smart AVM, offering a 360° view linked with radar, to be able to recognize people vs objects, and to indicate potential dangers to the operator.
  • Breaker assist, providing an automatic system to control the frequency and efficiency of the breaker according to the stone/material being broken, taking account of the resistance offered by different surfaces.
  • 2D machine control, to help the operator to create slopes and other features to meet precise targets, by just using the arm.
  • E stop, still in testing phase, but this system is able to recognize people on site, and stop the excavator when they are too close to the machine.