Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/662812
April 2016 | EquipmentWorld.com 20 E lectronics continue to lead the dozer technol- ogy parade, but there have been two big shifts in the way electronics are used. First, nearly all machines offer electronics packages as stan- dard or optional equipment, where these features were once restricted to high-end models. Second, elec- tronics packages come in lots of sizes to fit a variety of needs and price thresholds. Komatsu came out with its D6li- 23 intelligent dozer in 2013, laying claim to being the world's first doz- er with fully automatic integrated blade control. It has since expanded its intelligent machine offering to include several dozer models. The model's built-in machine controls allow the machines to be placed in automatic throughout the dozing process, from rough dozing all the way through finish grading. At Cat, engineers are working on providing scalable technologies that can increase jobsite productivity and efficiency, says Sam Meeker, product application specialist. On the high- end side is the Cat GRADE with 3D, but there's also the new Cat GRADE with Slope Assist. "Slope Assist is a basic technology that provides entry- level, hands-off automatics. Opera- tors can grade to a target blade slope or mainfall with the push of a but- ton," Meeker says. All of this helps reduce operator fatigue, finish jobs faster and improve quality. The 700K SmartGrade dozer is John Deere's first with fully-inte- grated control. Deere teamed up with Topcon to create the Smart- Grade feature (as a factory option), which uses Topcon's 3D-MC2 for dozers. The factory-installed option offers several advantages, says Mark Oliver, crawler dozer marketing manager with John Deere. "There are no masts, cables, or other exposed hard- ware. Operations of SmartGrade are part of the JDLink telematics machine matters | by Richard Ries Technology has brought new levels of sophistication to dozers, affecting every area of operation. These massive machines are now capable of amazing finesse. DOZERS