Earthmoving & soil compaction

The Wirtgen Group is developing its manufacturing facilities outside of Germany. The company has extensive operations in Brazil and China and has now opened a new plant in India, which has started production already. Joint president Stefan Wirtgen said, “The first machine we made was a Hamm compactor. It is specially developed for the Indian market.”

New machines are now coming to the international market, with Chinese firms producing a particularly strong showing. At the last BICES exhibition in Chinese capital Beijing, one of the most notable developments was how many of the country’s equipment manufacturers now offer ranges of soil compaction and/or asphalt compaction equipment.

Effective compaction control is one of a series of technical innovations boosting performance efficiency – Mike Woof writes. Maximising compaction efficiency can be a major cost factor on construction projects. Both for soil and asphalt compaction sectors, the risk from leaving an area under or over-compacted is substantial.

World of Asphalt 2012 and the co-located AGG1 Aggregates Forum & Expo will be the largest in the history of the two events. Guy Woodford reports on some of the technology and equipment set to be on show. With over 6,500m² of exhibit space available, World of Asphalt 2012 (WoA) is among the global showpiece events of the year for all asphalt, pavement maintenance and traffic safety industry professionals.

JCB is strengthening its range of JS Auto tracked excavators for the Russian and CIS markets with the addition of the 29tonne JS290. Unveiled at CONEXPO Russia, the new machine is based on the undercarriage components and upper structure of the larger JS330. The JS290 is powered by the same six-cylinder EU Stage 3A compliant diesel engine and it bridges the gap between the S260 Auto and JS330 Auto in the existing line up. JCB says that by using this large capacity 7.8litre engine, the JS290 offers an unstre

Building on an 80-year history of serving customers in Russia, Caterpillar used the first CONEXPO Russia trade show in Moscow to unveil the first hydraulic excavator assembled at its facility in Tosno, Russia.

Three years ago Atlas Copco launched the first of the new generation of solid body breakers based on a new manufacturing method and new body design, and last year it sold more than 10,000 small breakers in the 50 to 550kg class. Atlas Copco SB breakers are used for road work, trenching, general demolition, plus primary and secondary rock breaking, and the company is now launching the mid-range model, the SB 302, for excavators of up to 9tonnes.

The new Blade Runner Series B from New Holland combines the characteristics of a crawler excavator and a crawler dozer. The combination of two machines is the solution that New Holland designed to enable the user to carry out different jobs with a single product. The Blade Runner from New Holland and its partner Kobelco (who have developed the Series B by combining the technological experience of the two manufacturers) allows the operator to work with precision and agility in applications such as digging di

Several key highway construction innovations will be unveiled at the Intermat show

LiuGong is widening its wheeled loader line-up with the addition of the compact 816III model. Despite its small size the 5.6tonne 816III is said to have a high power to weight ratio, has a bucket breakout force of 5.45tonnes and features a 0.785m3 bucket as standard. Power comes from a Yanmar diesel rated at 48kW and which meets Tier 3 noise and emission regulations.