Versatile concrete pour

One of Wirtgen’s SP 15i compact concrete slipformers has been used to handle a paving job within confined conditions in Germany
August 18, 2021 Read time: 3 mins
The Wirtgen compact slipformer was able to handle the job quickly and efficiently

Despite the machine’s compact size however, it can pave profiles up to 1.3m high, while the new offset mould now allows it to pave up to 2.2m wide compared with 1.8m for the previous variant. The SP 15i is suited to duties such as the construction of kerb and gutter profiles, concrete safety barriers, drainage structures or channels as well as narrow paths.

This last function came in useful for a project in Esterwegen, near Papenburg, Germany. The machine was used by a contractor for paving a 750m-long y 2m-wide cycle path alongside a rural road. As the adjacent trees left little space to work, the machine’s manoeuvrability came in useful, as did its compact dimensions. The intelligent steering and control system with the proven Ackermann steering system allowed the machine to be handled with precision. The computer-assisted steering system varied the speed of the individual track units so that the SP 15i followed the specified references accurately.

In addition, the system can adjust the steering angle of each track unit automatically, depending on the paving radius and the machine geometry. This means that the machine can, in principle, be used to pave curved profiles with minimum radii of only 500mm. In addition, the slipform paver can be easily manoeuvred with the help of the additional crab and coordinated steering modes.

The SP 15i used in Papenburg was equipped with two steering and two height sensors each that scanned the previously tensioned stringline on the left-hand working side, ensuring the process of levelling the 12cm-thick cycle path was precise.

The machine is versatile as the auger conveyor is hydraulically adjustable longitudinally, in the angle of incline and rotatable in order to feed concrete to the mould on both the right and left side of the machine. It has conventional levelling, mechanically scanning stringlines to control the position and height during paving.

The machine was used to pave a width of 2m and with a 120mm thickness
The machine was used to pave a width of 2m and with a 120mm thickness

Cloth and manual brushing was used to deliver the required surface texture. During construction, traffic on the quiet rural road kept flowing on one lane. At the same time, the construction site was accessible for the truck mixers to discharge the concrete into the receiving hopper of the paver’s 4.6m-long auger conveyor. The 2m-wide mould was fed via the auger. As the auger conveyor is capable of holding large quantities of concrete, paving was able to continue between loads from the truck mixers.

Due to the ability to continuously pour concrete and the machine’s average advance rate of 1.3m/min, the contractor was able to complete the project in just three days.

The machine was equipped with Wirtgen’s WIDOS information system and the contractor also benefited from the supplier’s SmartService service agreement as well as the WITOS FleetView telematics solution.

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