Products

In Northern Nigeria motorcyclists have attempted to dodge new laws requiring the use of helmets by wearing dried pumpkin shells on their heads. Officials have cracked down on motorcycle riders wearing improvised helmets made from calabashes, dried pumpkin shells that are usually used to carry liquid. Motorcycle taxis are widely used in Nigeria to travel around the country's congested urban areas.

Chinese police were surprised to discover that a driver they stopped during a routine check had no arms. The man was steering the vehicle with his feet and explained that he had been doing so for many years. He said that ever since he lost both arms below the elbows in an industrial accident, he had used his feet to steer his vehicle without difficulty. The man was stunned when police officers issued him with a public safety summons and claimed that he was a safe driver, despite his disability. The driver s

A British woman discovered that the windscreen washer fluid in her Toyota had run out, so she stopped at a filling station for a refill. However the air and water dispensers were out of order and when she asked inside the filling station, was told that she was not allowed a bucket of water to refill the fluid reservoir or wash her windscreen as this contravened the firm's health and safety policy. Using a cloth she managed to clear the screen sufficiently to allow her to drive 3km to another filling station

An American man rammed his vehicle into a car being driven by a woman and later claimed he had done so under express instructions from God. The man crashed his pick-up truck into the woman's car while he was travelling at over 160km/h. His vehicle hit the rear of the car and both vehicles spun across a median then came to a stop along a barrier in the opposite lanes. Luckily the drivers suffered only minor injuries and police commented that this could have been a sign of divine intervention given the high s

The decision by MB S.p.A. to exhibit a wide range of its bucket crushers in 'camouflage uniform' at the Bauma 2007 exhibition in Munich, Germany, brought it to the attention of the United States Army. Now the company's crusher buckets are found in US Army shipyards, and in what it describes as "an ever-increasingly demanding, improvised market."

A new bridge, said to be the largest in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in terms of area, is being constructed as part of a major highway project. The US$550 million Saadiyat Expressway project, which involves Leighton Construction (Abu Dhabi), related to one of Australia's largest contracting groups, in constructing a ten-lane, 6.5km long highway to link the UAE's main city, with an exclusive island lying just offshore.

Contractor BAM Nuttall and specialist piling sub contractor Aarsleff Piling, have been working closely to develop a cost-effective solution to a tricky piling problem. The two firms have developed an alternative and versatile technique to reduce the risk of delays installing 2,150 precast concrete piles along part of the route of an innovative guided busway in Cambridgeshire in the UK.

Aquajet Systems says that its latest hydrodemolition robot offers greater versatility due to its dual-power feature. The machine can be switched easily between diesel and electric drive, with the latter option suiting use in built-up urban areas or enclosed workzones.

Atlas Copco's lightweight XAS87Kd compressor has been designed to meet the needs of the European construction and construction rental industries. Weighing under 750kg, the trailer-mounted unit is easy to transport and can be towed behind a vehicle by and holder of a standard driving license in most European countries.

Productive highway line marking removal is possible with the new Starjet-Plus model from NLB. Featuring a novel water jet system, this machine helps contractors remove more pavement marking or runway rubber/shift than before. This is said to be the first high-pressure water jet system featuring on-board filtration, allowing users to fill the water tank once and work all day without stopping to refill.

Prismo Traffic Products has introduced a new moulded road stud that (in BSI British Standards road trials) is said to have exhibited a remarkable retained retro-reflectivity and 100% location retention over a one-year period. The technology behind the new product, branded Stimsonite Model 980, also designates the stud as "the highest performing reflecting road stud currently available to highway engineers."

Axiomatic says that its versatile new valve controller can be used in an array of applications. This multi-purpose valve controller features one universal signal input to 2-3A outputs and is designed for use in harsh operating environments. The Dual Output CAN Valve Controller can be used to operate two proportional or on/off solenoid valves, with the ability to accept a voltage, current, resistive, digital, frequency or PWM input.

The sophisticated Cellocator unit from Pointer Telocation allows fleet managers to listen to what happens inside a vehicle during emergency situations. A panic button can be used by the vehicle driver to activate the hands-free unit, which can also provide voice communications between the driver and a fleet manager in the office.

ASI Solutions has developed a fast pothole repair technique in the shape of its Rhinopatch process. This comes with a life-time guarantee and is said to offer a fast repair solution when a pothole or other road surface defect fails. The firm says that using this technique means that there is no need for a works team to re-visit a site and further disrupt traffic. The solution is to provide a road repair using replacement material of a superior quality to the existing road surface and to eliminate any joints

An innovative Light Tape product is said to offer a fresh approach to edge lit acrylic signs. These signs have previously been illuminated with bulky fluorescent tubes that limit their application and are expensive to run and maintain. However, the new Light Tape product can produce high visibility.