ARTHMOVING contractors, typically those preparing new residential and industrial estates which combine road work and site preparation, are being encouraged by experts to look at the deployment of their earthmoving machinery and to assess new ways to reduce operating costs.
To examine this issue, Construction Contractor, spoke with Peter Witte, senior industry consultant with Caterpillar of Australia . “As the design of new equipment advances, new opportunities are opening up,” says Witte. “Stop and look at the conventional concept of dozer work, that is ripper and blade work usually followed by a final trim with a grader. For the Cat Accugrade system, the option of a dozer with integrated hydraulics is emerging. This gives computerised control of the blade down to the last millimetre or two. The dozer can, in fact, do final trim work thus opening up more options for contractors deploying their machines.”
“A feature of the new 3D Accugrade system that we can build into dozers – and graders – is an integrated solution for the machine control. Cat’s system is the first in the construction industry to provide a machine integrated, sensor-independent solution that allows operators to easily interchange between laser and GPS,” explains Witte.
According to him, there are now many sites in Australia, where contractors have moved on from the raw cut to a final trim with dozers with 3D assistance. The Accugrade system utilises high-precision GPS technology thus enabling the operator to eliminate costly reworks by providing real time feed back of the entire job to the operator. “This, in turn, ensures that material is moved correctly the first time, with fewer passes, thus improving productivity by say 30 per cent or more,” adds Witte.
The system can help make experienced operators faster and help the productivity of the not-so-experienced operator. It certainly seems set to make a big breakthrough and present a real gain for both owners and operators. “Owners want the best from their assets, workforce and equipment, moving dirt efficiently increase productivity and also lowers operating costs by using less fuel,” says Witte.
Following close on the heels of this cost saving option is another item which relates to a lowering of the actual operating costs of dozers It is more than an evolutionary move forward in design, it may be fair to consider it a revolutionary move forward.
The development, to reduce the operating costs for dozers, has been Caterpillar’s new undercarriage system known as SystemOne, that is to be available on many of its dozers – from D3s up to the D6s. To put the SystemOne development in context, it could be considered the biggest advance since the introduction of the elevated sprocket and suspended undercarriage for dozers since the 1970s.
As owners and operators of dozers would know, the undercarriage represents a major operating cost component. Machine owners, who have started using the system in a variety of applications, report that they expect undercarriage life to increase by up to 50 per cent, or more, depending on application and site conditions. “In some severe applications a SystemOne undercarriage has been known to exceed double the life of previous undercarriage design,” explains Witte.
Another point that is important to operators looking to capitalise on blade control down to the last millimetre or two is that the new Cat SystemOne prevents scalloping of the link which can contribute to vibration of the tracks. “The two systems – Accugrade and SystemOne – really do combine to deliver a final trim finish with the one machine and, most likely the one operator. This can introduce a combined cost saving that many contractors will want to know about and experience,” concludes Witte.
Source: Construction Contractor