Mecalac's AS700 swing loader is a unique machine in the European compact equipment segment - a machine that combines a skid-steer-style chassis with a fully rotating upper structure and a 700-series, 7-ton-class working envelope to perform functions that traditionally require separate excavator, loader, and self-loading machines. The AS700 targets urban utility work, landscaping, and underground construction contractors where the work envelope is constrained to the point that a conventional excavator or wheel loader cannot work effectively.
The machine's signature engineering feature is the "Rotating Upper Structure." Unlike a conventional skid-steer loader, where loading and excavation are performed only from the front face, the AS700's upper structure rotates through 360 degrees, allowing the operator to face the working attachment in any direction relative to the chassis. Combined with Mecalac's "boom-and-dipper" configuration - where the main boom mounts along the dipper arm, allowing the bucket to reach up and over the machine's side to truck-bed height - the machine can dig at a single working position, slew to the chassis side, and dump into an adjacent truck or stockpile without reversing or repositioning the chassis. This "dig-and-swing-load" cycle eliminates the significant productivity loss inherent in the continuous forward-reverse motion of conventional skid-steer loading work.
Mecalac's patented "swing steer" chassis geometry further enhances the machine's capability in confined spaces. Rather than turning by opposing left and right track speeds (which scuffs the tracks and disrupts the ground surface during rotation), the AS700's track frames are mounted on offset axles that allow a lateral sliding motion without counter-rotation - minimizing turf damage, finished landscape disturbance, and indoor-floor disruption. This slide-steer capability, combined with the rotating upper structure, allows the machine to work immediately adjacent to walls, fences, and existing structures while side-loading - a capability no conventional loader can match. Combined with auxiliary hydraulic circuits that support breaker, auger, and grapple attachments, plus bucket and attachment compatibility with Mecalac's 700-series excavators, the AS700 occupies a genuinely unique niche in compact earthmoving - bridging the gap between a skid-steer loader's footprint and an excavator's 360-degree working envelope.
