Bagger 293
Bagger 293 in the Hambach brown coal mine, 2008 | |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name |
|
| Cost | €92.46 million (2007) (equivalent to €114.23 million in 2022) or US$100 million (2007) (equivalent to US$141.6 million in 2023) |
| In service | 1995 |
| History | |
| Germany | |
| Name | Bagger 293 |
| Builder | TAKRAF |
| Laid down | 1985 |
| Launched | 1990 |
| Commissioned | 1995 |
| Notes | Second largest ground vehicle ever built (after the Overburden Conveyor Bridge F60) |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Type SRs 8000-series Bucket-wheel excavator |
| Tonnage | 14,200 t (31,300,000 lb) |
| Length | 225 m (738.2 ft) |
| Beam | 46 m (151 ft) |
| Height | 96 m (314.9 ft) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | 12 x caterpillar tracks |
| Speed | 2 to 10 m (6.6 to 32.8 ft) per minute (0.1 to 0.6 km/h) |
| Capacity | Blade capacity: 21 m (69.9 ft) in diameter, 20 buckets each holding 19.6 cubic yards (15.0 m3) or 16.5 short tons (15.0 t) |
| Complement | 5 |
Bagger 293, previously known as the MAN TAKRAF RB293, is a giant bucket-wheel excavator made by the German industrial company TAKRAF, formerly an East German Kombinat.
It owns and shares some records for terrestrial vehicle size in the Guinness Book of Records. Bagger 293 was built in 1999, one of a group of similar sized 'sibling' vehicles such as the Bagger 281 (built in 1958), Bagger 285 (1975), Bagger 287 (1976), Bagger 288 (1978), and Bagger 291 (1993). Moreover, like the Bagger 288, the Bagger 293 cost around 100 million US dollars at the time of its construction with exactly the same construction and assemblage time period of ten years.
It is used in a brown coal mine near Hambach in Germany. It is called Bagger 293 by its current owner, RWE Power AG (the second-largest energy producer of Germany). It was called RB293 by its former owner, the brown coal company Rheinbraun, which in 1932 became a subsidiary of RWE. During an internal reshuffle in 2003 it merged with another daughter company to form RWE Power AG. Manufacturer TAKRAF generally refers to it as an excavator of the Type SRs 8000.
Like its siblings, the Bagger 293 is operated by a disproportionately small crew of just five.