Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/620628
January 2016 | EquipmentWorld.com 54 road science | continued LOFTNESS.COM 1-800-828-7624 CARBIDE CUTTER G3 // // // // // Available with 51-, 61- and 71-inch cutting widths 2-stage cutting chamber with staggered counter teeth and a shear bar Ensures small particle sizes, while eliminating jamming and wrapping Optional variable-displacement motor with load-sensing technology CARBIDE CUTTER G3 CARBIDE CUTTER G3 Untitled-6 1 12/10/15 10:23 AM BaileyBridge_BR0513_PG14.indd 1 4/23/13 9:32 AM of productive milling, and keep- ing crews with a single machine over time will boost performance. When crews stay on a machine month after month, year after year, they understand it, they know what to do on the ma- chine to keep it up and running, and will remember any issues or problems with the machine. While cross-training of crews is desir- able from a staffing point of view, having new crews all the time is not good for a milling operation. The best crews are those that have been with the machine for the life of the machine, because they come to treat it as their own. Grade and slope controls The variety of grade and slope controls available to operators of cold mills is broad, but they all as- sist operators in achieving smooth, predictable cuts. The grade control is a contact or non-contact control that senses the height of the material to be cut, and sends a signal to make a ma- chine correction in the depth, says Rob Hannan, district sales manager for Volvo Construction Equipment. The slope control, on the other hand, is a small sensor that is usu- ally located on or near the drum box that senses the side-to-side angle of the machine, and sends a signal to make a machine cor- rection in that side-to-side angle. "This control is a slave to the grade control," Hannan says. Hannan offers these tips to ac- curate cutting: • Ensure your system is in good working condition before you arrive on the jobsite, and adequately warm up your machine before starting the cut. • Adjust system sensitivity to jobsite and weather conditions; in cooler weather, machine hydraulics have a tendency to be slow until they warm up to operating temperature. • Remember slope sensitivity is usually adjusted lower than grade. • Know how fast your machine can run in slope before the ma- chine out-runs the slope control. "Every job is different, and the operator today has the opportunity to select the type of grade control system he wants to use," Wiley says. "It could be a laser system, running off stringline, GPS, dual- grade, grade-and-slope, averaging, averaging with three sensor heads, or with seven sensor heads." "The cold planer has the same slope capability as an asphalt paver," says Dobson. "Whenever