Skip to main content

Dynapac planer improves racing line

A Dynapac PL350T cold planer helped carry out critical demarcation work on the roads used for the famous Isle of Man's TT motorcycle races. It was used to remove the road markings on the isle in the Irish Sea in readiness for the races. The Dynapac machine is equipped with a special micro milling drum which contains 117 bits, compared to the standard 38, spaced at intervals of 3mm as opposed to the conventional 12mm. In addition, to avoid a sharp edge at the sides of the demarcation area, the drum is slight
July 30, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
A 206 Dynapac PL350T cold planer helped carry out critical demarcation work on the roads used for the famous Isle of Man's TT motorcycle races. It was used to remove the road markings on the isle in the Irish Sea

in readiness for the races. The Dynapac machine is equipped with a special micro milling drum which contains 117 bits, compared to the standard 38, spaced at intervals of 3mm as opposed to the conventional 12mm.

In addition, to avoid a sharp edge at the sides of the demarcation area, the drum is slightly offset by 1 or 2mm at the edges, although very flat across its 300mm surface. This is essential to avoid any danger to the high-speed bikes.

The planer's additional 600kg of ballast on top of the cutter housing ensures the minimum vibration during milling operations and a much smoother and uniform result.

According to the isle's Department of Transport (DOT) maintenance team, other drums with smaller diameters cannot use the standard bit system, which means the Dynapac bits last approximately four times longer than competing drums as they have to use mini-bits.

The machine offers a huge increase in productivity over the previous and labour-intensive method used for line removal with standard blasting equipment.

The TT fortnight attracts around 40,000 visitors/year, takes months to plan, not least by the island's DOT, both in securing the route for bikes, which hit speeds of over 300km/h, and in ensuring the safety of both riders and spectators. House-fronts, walls, lamp-posts and safety barriers are all protected with air fencing and roundabouts are removed along the highly demanding 60km route.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Road repairs fuel demand for milling machines
    February 13, 2012
    A need for road repairs is fuelling demand for new milling machines, Mike Woof reports. With many roads in Europe and North America needing repairs, manufacturers continue to meet demand by offering improved compact milling machines, as well as full-sized planers. The versatile and manoeuvrable compact machines can play a useful role in on-site recycling jobs for urban road improvements while the larger mills can be vital for in-situ recycling work.
  • New paving range
    February 8, 2012
    Several key additions to Dynapac's equipment line-up will extend the firm's machine range for the road construction market. Paving, planer and compaction lines will benefit from new machines, with president Claes Ahrengart emphasising the investment in research and development Dynapac continues to make.
  • New developments for milling machine manufacturers
    February 20, 2014
    The market for milling machines is highly competitive and there is an array of firms offering equipment to the global market. German company Wirtgen is the worldwide market leader and has an enormous range of models available, but other companies too are keen to grow market share, with Caterpillar and Roadtec strong in North America and BOMAG, Dynapac and Caterpillar are also pushing hard to build share in Europe for instance. Other companies too are keen to grow their shares of global sales and several of
  • Productive compaction
    July 20, 2012
    Dynapac is introducing its top-of-the-range CC624HF tandem asphalt roller to the Asian market at Bauma China. This 14tonne class high frequency tandem asphalt roller is aimed at a market with contractors, road contractors and rental companies. The CC624HF features a drum width of 2.13m and produces a static linear load on the front and rear drums of 30 and 29.1kg/cm respectively. A choice of engines is offered, rated at 93 or 113kW. In addition to the central water tank, optional extra capacity can be speci