INTERNATIONAL EQUIPMENT NEWS
UK rental company goes for green
JCB’s electric mini excavator is said
to be five times quieter than its diesel
counterpart. This, combined with the
fact that it does not emit exhaust fumes,
makes it suitable for indoor jobs and work
on emissions- and noise-sensitive sites.
The 19E-1E is available with either
three or four lithium-ion battery packs,
providing a storage capacity of 15 or
20kWh. And with its battery management
system, the machine can deliver a typical
full day’s shift for a mini excavator.
It comes with an on-board charger
with a 110V input for 12-hour recharging
and the option of a 230V input for 8-hour
recharging. There is also a fast-charge
option that enables the excavator to be
fully charged in less than 2 hours.
UK-based plant equipment rental
company A Plant, has invested more than
GBP350 000 in ten of JCB’s new 19C-1E
electric mini excavators, in response to
growing demand for environmentally-
friendly construction equipment.
Dave Harris, business development
director at A Plant says that the company
has witnessed significant demand for
sustainable customer equipment over the
past year. This has therefore become a
key focus of the company’s investment
strategy.
“This year we have invested over
GBP4-million in low or zero carbon
equipment and are proud to be able to
deliver the latest, sustainable options to
customers,” he says.
Atlas Copco acquires
US distributor assets
Atlas Copco has acquired the assets
of US distributors Accurate Air
Engineering and Compressed Air
of California. The sister companies
are located south of Los Angeles
in California and have a sales and
service network covering almost the
entire state. Together they have 52
employees.
“This acquisition will complement
our existing footprint in the region,”
says Vagner Rego, business area
president Compressor Technique. The
business acquired from Accurate Air
Engineering and Compressed Air of
California will operationally become
part of the Compressor Technique
service division.
Russian company Zyfra has developed
an automated system to monitor the
condition of excavator bucket teeth based
on the machine vision BucketControl
system.
The system is designed to detect the
presence or absence of excavator bucket
crowns quickly and features functions
to alert the operator to the excavator if a
crown is lost or ceases to work. This is an
application developed jointly by the AI and
Mining divisions of Zyfra.
The on-board controller acquires images
from the camera, processes them using
internal software, analyses them and sends
a signal to the operator if a crown is lost
or ceases to work. The wear of the tooth
is also assessed, and when a critical value
is reached, a notification is sent to the
dispatcher. This data is transmitted to the
server in real time.
“With the help of machine vision, you
can locate a broken tooth immediately
and prevent it from getting into the
crushing compartment, whose breakdown
threatens the company with a loss of
up to USD200 000. When mining ore, a
broken tooth may cause damage to the
bucket, which would entail additional
damage worth several million rubles.
“Our BucketControl system will ensure
a cost reduction of 90% when finding a
broken tooth,” says Alexander Smolensky,
business development director of Zyfra.
The automated system to monitor
excavator bucket teeth has been further
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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020
AI to track excavator operations
Russian company Zyfra has developed an automated system to monitor the
condition of excavator bucket teeth.
developed to produce Fragmentation
– an automated system designed to
determine the granulometric composition
of crushed rock. This application measures
continuously the size of the pieces of
rock in the excavator bucket. Correlating
that size with the location coordinates
yields a performance map of rock which
measures the efficiency of rock blasting
to balance the cost of blasting against
the quarry output. “In contrast to images
taken after the blast, the entire depth of
exposed rock is analysed. That enables
us to increase excavator productivity
by up to 3%, minimising the chances
of oversized pieces hitting the crushing
compartment, making it possible to track
the quality of blasting operations and
ultimately increase rock removal by up
to 10%. Using the system to analyse
previous blasting operations will also
help determine the number of explosives
required for future blast works,” adds
Smolensky.
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