Better Roads Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/134675
RoadWorks by Marcia Gruver mgruver@randallreilly.com Inside the highway and bridge industries Bauma: a snapshot B almy weather helped give bauma, the world's largest construction equipment show, a massive shot in the arm. A record 530,000 visitors from more than 200 countries made it to the Munich, Germany, show in mid April. Here's a brief look at some of the major equipment introductions: Note: (Note: Some models may not be immediately available in North America.) struction, quarry and aggregates market. The 945E features a 328-horsepower Cummins engine The Wirtgen AutoPilot Field and a 2.2-cubic-meter bucket. In adRover (winner of one of bauma's six dition, the company's 375B radial Innovation Awards) consists of a com- lift skid-steer sports curved cab glass puter integrated into the paver, GPS for a wider, less obstructed view of receivers mounted on the machine the jobsite. It has a dump height of 87 and a control panel. The receivers inches and a 60- horsepower Perkins communicate with a GPS reference engine. Double lever pilot control and station on the jobsite. After the site a hydrostatic transmission with infiis measured and staked out, the Field nite speed control, enable operators to Rover plots the optimum course for crawl slowly over challenging sites. the paver, creating a virtual stringline. The course data is entered onto a Liebherr's R9XX excavator prothumbdrive, which is inserted into the totype heats up hybrid race. While machine's control panel. The paver emphasizing that it was only a proadjusts its position and paving heights totype, Liebherr displayed its R 9XX to match the data from the thumbconcept electric hybrid excavator at drive. the show. Liebherr's entry in this increasingly Fighting in the 45-ton weight class, popular category employs an electric the LiuGong Model 945E excavator hybrid driveline in a 40-ton excavator is the largest in the company's lineup, with a downsized engine. The R 9XX designed to give them a competitive draws its main power from a standard machine in the high-production con- diesel engine but also uses the en- gine to pump surplus energy to an electric storage device known as supercaps and a hydraulic pressure accumulator. Braking energy is converted to electrical energy and stored in the supercaps to drive the fully electric slew drive. According to the company, the hybrid system on the R 9XX can supply short-term peak power at up to twice the rated output of the diesel engine. The company has not said if or when the R 9XX will become an available as a production model. Eaton's LifeSense hydraulic hose monitoring system is now available in a wireless version. LifeSense, which has been available in a wired version since 2011, uses a sensor to monitor the life of individual hydraulic hoses. Each sensor sends electronic signals that are run against a hose diagnostic unit, detecting failure-related events within a hose. Each hose can be moniBetter Roads June 2013 5 Roadworks_BR0613.indd 5 5/31/13 11:05 AM