Skip to main content

Smooth sailing for paving with Topcon’s SmoothRide

Topcon Positioning Group’s new road scanning solution SmoothRide can gather highway asset data at highway speeds with no need for lane closures, crash trucks or escorts. SmoothRide is a vehicle-mounted resurfacing solution for paving and milling projects. It uses a combination of core Topcon technologies designed to deliver the smoothest surface possible, while efficiently managing the quantity of material for each project.
April 14, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Topcon’s Jörg Velten with the RD-M1 scanning unit

7300 Topcon Positioning Systems’s new road scanning solution SmoothRide can gather highway asset data at highway speeds with no need for lane closures, crash trucks or escorts.

SmoothRide is a vehicle-mounted resurfacing solution for paving and milling projects. It uses a combination of core Topcon technologies designed to deliver the smoothest surface possible, while efficiently managing the quantity of material for each project.

With the new RD-M1 scanning unit, the system maps the existing surface elevations - with many more points captured versus what can be expected with traditional tools. This provides more accurate data needed to confidently estimate materials, as well as to form the basis of the final design surface.

The workflow consists of a vehicle-mounted road scan, existing and finish surface design, and machine control using GNSS with sonic tracker sensor guidance.

Once the road information is gathered, operators can use Mobile Master Office point data processing software to recreate the existing surface. Magnet Office with Resurfacing is then used to digitally create a high-resolution model of the required finished mat.

The resurfacing module allows operators to create a design using specific regulatory requirements such as minimum thickness, desired cross-slope, and overall smoothness.

The information is then passed onto a paver or milling machine to allow for variable depth paving to where it is required - with the result being a much smoother road as well as faster completion times, explained Jörg Velten, Topcon Construction’s European support manager.

All videosAll show news

Related Content

  • Vögele develops heat monitoring technology for paving
    January 6, 2017
    Vögele is introducing a sophisticated package that will help contractors boost paving quality. The new RoadScan system is a non-contacting technology that determines temperature across the mat and helps assess paving performance. The system uses infra red technology to monitor temperature across a 10m wide scanning area and measuring up to 2.5m to the rear of the paver. Marketing manager Roland Schug explained, “We are measuring temperature in 25cm by 25cm areas and with 20 measuring points for each of the
  • Runway refurbishment at Leipzig/Halle airport
    May 4, 2022
    Leipzig/Halle airport in Germany is now benefiting from a newly rehabilitated runway as well as a number of taxiways
  • Komatsu introducing intelligent excavator
    December 8, 2014
    Komatsu has continued its development of Intelligent Machine Control (IMC) systems, in cooperation with global partner Topcon, with the launch of the PC210LCi-10, the first fully integrated OEM machine control crawler excavator. Unlike its IMC-equipped D61PXi/EXi dozer that was introduced last year, the popular 21 tonne excavator has been unveiled first in Europe, rather than in Japan or the USA. The machine, which is built at Komatsu UK’s excavator plant in Birtley in the North East of England, offers sem
  • Accurate, efficient drilling system
    April 13, 2012
    Moba’s MDS-2000 Drilling System is being used for the first time in a South American quarry. Used over two shifts by operators since September 2011 to monitor and control drill blast holes at a granite quarry in Vacamonte, Panama, Moba has equipped an HCR-1200 EDII type drilling device from FRD Furukawa Rock Drill with the drilling system in collaboration with B-B-S Bohrsysteme. The MDS-2000 enables drill holes to be made parallel to each other and to the desired depth and pre-set angle.