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British Steel is re-establishing itself in the construction equipment market as a supplier of long product steel and special profiles. British Steel as an entity disappeared with its acquisition first by Corus in 1999 and then Tata in 2007, re-emerging in 2016 as an independent company – having bought back its name for £1. The company supplies long bars to manufacturers such as Caterpillar to build undercarriages, as well as crane rails, and bucket and cutting-edge profiles to various customers. Forks and

Social and political factors favour the growth of the European construction equipment rental market, but the industry faces a number of challenges, said Gérard Déprez, president of leading rental company Loxam speaking at the Intermat Rental Day conference. Growing awareness that the shared economy brings cost and environmental advantages through more intensive and judicious use of equipment, together with a drive towards more mechanisation is increasing the demand for rental.

Jean Claude Fayat, president of the family-owned Fayat Group, said that the construction sector is now seeing strong performance, and this is helping group turnover. The road maintenance market is one business segment that is particularly healthy for the group at present. The Intermat show in Paris has also been good, with visitor numbers and customer enquiries noticeably up for 2018 compared with the show three years ago. He commented that visitors have also had a strong international profile and said: “I

Road paving projects can have first class surface protection with Astrak’s premium rubber pads for steel-tracked equipment. The DuraLine Plus pads are made of abrasion resistant Malaysian rubber suitable for a wide range of machines, said Martyn Pointer, Astrak’s group sales director. Independent test results show that the pads offer more than 25% more durability compared to standard quality rubber pads. The chunky one-pied vulcanised Roadliner version of the pad bolts directly onto the steel track

Trimble is expanding the capabilities of its EarthWorks machine control technologies. The firm introduced the first EarthWorks package for use with excavators in 2017 and is now offering a similar system using many of the same components for the dozer market. According to Martin Wagener, worldwide product implementation manager for Trimble explained: “There are the same sensors for the dozer as on the excavator." The compact and rugged inertial motion sensors (IMUs) are mounted on the dozer and measure

Trimble has developed a new SPS986 GPS receiver/antenna unit that offers increased capabilities over earlier generation units. “It has updated boards inside and gives a GPS position,” said Martin Wagener, worldwide product implementation manager. An important feature is its new sensor and Wagener said, “It has an internal angle sensor called eBubble.” This detects if the mast is at an angle when taking measurements and automatically corrects the reading to take account of the degree of tilt, boosting

What is the state of digitisation in the construction sector and - more importantly - where will it be in three to five years or more? Will the players, large and small, in the value chain simply react to new technologies or shape them for the sector to become more efficient, productive and innovative?

Trimble is now offering a sophisticated new drone package called Trimble Stratus, through the firm’s partnership with drone-mapping and analytics company Propeller Aero. According to Martin Wagener, worldwide product implementation manager for the firm, the system allows the user to employ any type of commercial quality drone. The important part of the package is the Aeropoint, a small flat plate developed by Propellor. This is placed on the ground and acts as a point of reference for all of the drone’s ge

Yanmar Construction Equipment Europe (CEE) has introduced the B75W, B95W and B110W compact wheeled excavators. The machines have lifting capacities of the 7400 kg, 9300 kg and 11000 kg respectively. Fitted with Yanmar EU Stage IV / EPA Tier 4 Final engines, the wheeled excavators have an integrated smart control system that provides the driver with maximum control, and allows excavator functions to be adapted to the driver and construction site if required.

As more and more cities declare low-emission zones, Scania is ready to help contractors and operators meet these environmental concerns with a new G 410 B8x4*4 tractor unit that runs on compressed natural gas. The truck uses Scania’s latest OC series engine which delivers 305kW and 2,000Nm of power … in line with diesel engines of a similar size. However, and more importantly, emissions are only around 15% of a similar diesel engine, making the vehicle ideal for companies running in urban locations.