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Whether a contractor is based in the south and has to deal with high temperatures and high humidity, or in the west with high temperatures and low humidity, well into the north where the operating season is much shorter, having the right technology can make a difference in the bottom line. After all, when the going gets hot, not only must the equipment be up to the tasks—and the hours—required, but so must the operators. Fortunately, during the past few decades there has been a quantum leap in machine technology as well as with associated products that help keep machine users more comfortable and ready to tackle the job, no matter how severe that job may be.
Pig-Pickin’, Gatorade, and A/C
Paul Macia, president of Mammoth Grading Inc. of Raleigh, NC, admits he became hooked on the idea of operating machines when an uncle put him on a bulldozer for the first time—Macia was 12. When he finished high school, he followed his academic efforts in accounting for two years before joining the family in running 13 Dunkin’ Donuts franchises. “But I’d never forgotten that experience on the bulldozer, so I worked with my uncle in his highway construction business before moving to Raleigh and starting Mammoth Grading. We have 89 employees and a fleet of 23 trucks and 82 construction pieces, including John Deere 9400 tandem tractor pans, 40- and 30-ton site trucks, 14 excavators, and a lot of Cat and Komatsu pieces. We do grading and utility work, including water and sewage mainline projects. This keeps us busy year-round most of the time. The few days we can’t work are mostly because of severe rain, but weather generally isn’t a problem.”
One of Mammoth’s 18 current projects involves a 360-lot subdivision for KB Homes. Mammoth is doing all the dirt work, paving, and curb, gutter, and asphalt work. It subs out the asphalt, but the rest is done in-house on this particular 18-month project. This helps Macia keep the project cost-effective for the size of the crew and the size of the equipment. After noting projects have included schools and municipalities, Paul comments that about 60% of the company’s work is private, such as that for KB Homes, with the other 40% commercial. “By providing in-house utility work we have set ourselves up for effective subdivision work.”
At the time of the interview Mammoth Grading had just finished its annual employee appreciation day with a pig-pickin’. Macia explains, “That’s barbecued pork, and we invite all employees and their families to it.” While it’s done off the clock, it still is one of the more popular employee activities.
But when the going gets hot—which is most of the summer in Raleigh—Macia looks to other means for keeping his people as comfortable as possible. This includes the field superintendent carrying large-capacity coolers in the back of his pickup as he visits with the operators. The coolers are filled with bottles of water and Gatorade. “It’s a fun little deal that helps build team spirit,” Macia comments. It also encourages operators to drink lots of fluids to avoid dehydration, which can be a problem in his part of the country.
This, along with competitive wage scales plus air conditioning for every piece toting a cab, helps keep employee turnover to a minimum. When asked what he looks for in a new employee, Macia recalls his first experience: “Someone with his heart in the right place. Someone with experience, who’s interested in the business and loves the construction industry. People that enjoy their jobs are a lot better employees.”
He adds that keeping the equipment in tiptop operating shape makes a big difference in how employees feel about the machine they’re operating. “We make sure we have a/c in all our cab equipment and that the a/c fans work properly.”
Macia explains this proper care of vehicles is possible because the company has a maintenance agreement with VehiCare Corp. of Charlotte, NC. “I’ve had VehiCare right from the beginning. We were running equipment and had no maintenance program set up at all. Too often we’re 60 miles or more from home base, so we’re just not equipped to handle field maintenance or to make a lot of trips back to the shop and then back to the work site. They’re taking care of all maintenance, including oil changes and the like while we do our own minor repairs. We send them weekly hour readings for each machine, and they keep track of which machine needs a 250-hour, 500-hour, or 1,000-hour service.” In Mammoth’s case, when the engine is running, so is the meter. Macia prefers to be cautious.
“The best part is they’re a 24/7 operation so they can come out and do the service work when our people have gone home for the day,” he says. “They go through each piece, checking belt conditions or possible leaks, and write a report on what we need to do, or we may give them the green light to do it right then. They help us discover problems before they become disasters.”
After pointing out that Mammoth has experienced mechanics back at headquarters, Macia notes that the service company will stop at the shop and help discern the specific problem the in-house mechanics are dealing with. “It’s like having a second opinion before investing a lot of money in a machine, especially in an older piece of equipment.”
How Big Is the Footprint?
When it comes to providing a service to the industry, the first questions that come to mind are how big the company is and how close it is to a specific contractor’s service area. “We have just under 300 employees and service over 1,000 customers across the country,” responds Jon Engel, director of sales and marketing for VehiCare. He adds that while the company’s footprint is predominantly in the Southeast, it also has operations and service technicians in Ohio, Indiana, Washington DC, Maryland, Texas, Arizona, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida.
Engel, who has been with VehiCare for over 10 years, comments that in economic terms, shutting down a vehicle or piece of equipment for routine preventive maintenance (PM), Department of Transportation violations, or other maintenance can cost thousands of dollars in lost productivity, revenue, and business. “Our focus is to minimize downtime, cut costs, and reduce risks associated with maintaining and operating trucks and equipment. We do this by providing service during our customers’ non-operating hours,” Engel says. This way companies are spending time on what they do best, rather than on maintenance or breakdowns. This translates to more revenue and better profit margins.
He adds that VehiCare works with fleets of 10 or more Class 5–8 diesel trucks and/or off-road equipment. “Oftentimes companies just can’t keep up with their maintenance because of the high demand on their time. This causes breakdowns and escalates costs.” He then cites the instance his firm was called in to assist a waste management company that had just purchased another company. It had inherited some additional equipment and needed extra labor to help with Federal Highway Administration inspections, PM services, and a variety of other maintenance tasks. It took two service technicians 90 days to help the company catch up. VehiCare sent two ASE-certified technicians to the customer’s shop to complement its existing staff.
Engel continues, “When companies need to outsource their maintenance, we sit down with them and gain an understanding as to exactly what their needs are and how to best operate around their business. From that point, everything happens on a scheduled, perpetual basis, with regard to PMs or any other type of work that may be required. We provide 250- to 1,000-hour PM services for off-road equipment and A-, B-, and C-level PM services for truck fleets on-site at the customer’s location. We also have major shops to handle repairs, diagnostics, and a/c in addition to providing labor for shop staffing. VehiCare provides service to Cargill, Freightliner, Waste Management, IMI Concrete, Mammoth Grading, as well as many others.”
Bore Welding Keeps Downtime to a Minimum
When a contractor’s fleet consists largely of articulated equipment, including backhoes—and anything else where metal consistently rubs against metal—there’s going to be wear leading to downtime. But Adcock Construction, which is located in the Chicago area of Naperville, IL, has found a solution, reports Randy Jurkas, a welder mechanic for this midsize grading contractor. “We were incapable of repairing worn-out bores and had to call on our supplier to arrange for repairs. This meant we were looking at about a week’s downtime.”
Then, last year Adcock discovered the Bortech BoreWelder, which was conceived and designed by Rees Acheson in 1982. Jurkas, who has 27 years’ experience as a welder, including 10 years with Adcock, admits he was excited to learn of this technology. “It’s made a big difference in the cost—there’s do doubt about it. A regular repair job costs us about $8,000 for someone else to do the work, and I’ve done three machines since we got the welder. The welder didn’t cost two-thirds that much, so it was definitely a good buy.”
All three involved the hitch assembly for a Caterpillar 627 scraper, which has more than 30 bores per machine. “There’s a lot of moving parts on a scraper,” Jurkas admits. “We also did the bores on the blades of a Cat D8 and on other machines. The downtime is about the same, but the cost is way down because it’s done in-house. If I do the repair, the net cost is about 25% of what the company has paid in the past.” While Adcock Construction has four mechanics, Jurkas is the only one who does the bore welding.
When asked how he discovered the technology, he explains he’d heard about bore welding and wanted to know more, so he went on the Internet. “I found three to four different companies; all offered the same brand but with different boring bars. Instead, I contacted Leo White directly and he arranged for Technical Tool Solutions to come out. We had a little Komatsu bulldozer that needed some bores done on the blade. They did those while I was there, and within just two days I had the technology down.” Jurkas adds it took perhaps two more weeks to really fine-tune the use of the machine.
He comments that the welder, a 306P, is compact and can weld inside a 1.5-inch bore yet will handle a bore up to 27 inches without the need to buy any more parts. “This covers the need for the fleet because 6 inches is our maximum bore size.” Jurkas points out that the older technology, that of using sleeves, required subsequent reboring of existing metal. This meant that each repair left the machine with less metal where it needed that metal most.
“With the Bortech, which comes with centering cones to center the boring bar in the bore,” Jurkas says, “I just attach the bearings to the base material and bore out a small portion to make sure all impurities are out of it. I then go ahead and use the bore welder, building up to 0.10 inch over finished size. Then I hook up the bore machine and bore within half of a thousandth of an inch of what’s needed.” Time spent for repair depends on how badly worn the bore is, the size of the bore, and the working conditions. One project consisted of three 4-inch bores and took Jurkas nine hours from uncoupling to recoupling.
“Occasionally there is a problem. If there is, go back to square one with the timing, set rotation, and set step size, voltage, and calculations for the diameter. It’s a very easy formula, but you’ve got to follow it,” he says. When a contractor looks at the cost of replacing a $500,000 scraper versus saving the bores and reconditioning older machines, a bore welder makes sense. "Some of those repairs were questionable—if we’d have had to pay someone else $8,000 to do them. But the cost of us repairing worn bores is minimal compared with buying a new machine. Now everything I do is like a major savings, and the front-office people are very happy with that.”
What’s the Bore Welding Range?
Speaking from company headquarters in Keene, NH, Leo White, president of Bortech Corp., comments, “Users can weld any bore between 0.5 and 54 inches. An entry-level machine sells for about $5,000, while a general-purpose machine will cost around $13,000 and can be used on any excavation machine that has a pivot point.” He adds that a full day’s training is included in the purchase price, which usually is sufficient for getting a welder—whether new or experienced—up and running with the technology.
White continues, “I bought this company a year ago from Rees Acheson, the developer of the welder. The most extreme build-out I’ve seen since then is 0.5 inch of rise material on a scraper. On average, contractors need to rebuild the bore every two to three years, and there’s a limit to the number of sleeves you can add before there isn’t enough metal left on the other part. This technology allows the owner to rebuild over and over with no limit to the number of rebuilds.” He says an experienced welder can repair four bores in a day, needing just one day’s downtime. Plus, while the welding is going on, the mechanics can look to rust descaling and other maintenance tasks that help make the most out of the downtime.”
He points out, “Users buying from us get a range of welding torches for different size bores and consumables, such as welding tips. The package is designed to last for a couple of months; then the contractor can tailor his inventory for needs hereafter.”
What about new products? White replies, “We’re working on some new stuff, but not for the grading and excavation industry. That industry makes up 80% of our current business, but we’re branching out into power plants and the electrical production industry and anywhere else that metal moves against metal.”
When It Comes to Field Repairs
For those who need to do their repairs in the yard, one of the challenges is getting a down machine up high enough to work on it. But Bill Gibson, marketing manager for ARI-Hetra in Manassas, VA, reports his company has found a solution with its mobile lifting systems. But that’s not all. Gibson explains, “Basically we specialize in three product categories: mobile lifting systems, exhaust extraction systems, and wheel service equipment, all designed for heavy-duty vehicles. We go from 40,000- to 320,000-pound capacity.”
The goal of the mobile lifting system is to increase productivity by having service technicians avoid having to jack up a vehicle and then get under it with a creeper. That practice is not a safe or effective method. The blocks they use could become oil-soaked or cracked, so the vehicle could slip off. Also, it’s much more difficult to change a transmission when working on the floor, and there is the possibility of injury to the technician when changing position from lying on the floor to standing up.
Gibson reports what sets the ARI-Hetra lifting system apart from other mobile models is a recirculating ball screw. This greatly reduces friction while the lift is in operation, increases the life expectancy of the lift, and is simple to use. While it’s primarily designed for shop use, it can be used outside and thus increase shop capacity. The lift is designed to fit under each tire; the units are connected by a cable so the lifting is synchronized. Safety features include a default brake setting, so power has to be consciously applied to lower the system. Gibson points out that a roof venting system doesn’t prevent mechanics from inhaling diesel fumes. In this instance, the solution is to have an exhaust system attached to the tailpipe that can suck up the fumes and discharge them outside the building, reducing daily exposure. The latest introduction for ARI-Hetra is its automatic, tire inflation safety cage. It is possible that a tire could explode while being inflated because of the high pressure involved, Gibson comments; with this new machine the company avoids the chance of serious injury while making tire inflation easier for mechanics. Once the tire is mounted on a rim and before the bead is set, the mechanic rolls it over to the cage, opens the cage, inserts the tire, hooks up the inflation hose, and closes the cage. If the tire does explode, the debris will be contained within the cage. Furthermore, the mechanic merely has to press a button for the desired pressure and walk away. Should the bead fail to set, the machine can be preset to over-inflate up to 20% to help set the bead and then automatically deflate to the proper operating pressure.
Communicating Despite the Noise
It’s no secret that construction sites with several pieces of equipment tend to be noisy. Nor is it any secret that some sites are so large that no amount of flag-waving can help an operator understand just what’s designed. But the Helmet Communication System (HCS) from Mine Safety Appliances Co. (MSA) of Pittsburgh, PA, tackles that challenge, thanks to a bone microsound system that picks up the helmet wearer’s voice and transmits it to the site superintendent, and vice versa. “It attaches to an elastic headband, and the bone microsound presses up against the back of your neck,” says Denis Ryan, product line manager for MSA. “Then your voice is transmitted from the bone mike through a radio to the person receiving the message. The other person can simply have a radio by itself, a similar setup, or a speaker that goes over the ear.”
Ryan points out that the main benefit is the system virtually eliminates high ambient noise levels. “It’s very simple to use, to put together. You just have to purchase the correct adaptor for your radio. As soon as you make that connection, it’s a matter of attaching the HCS to the helmet.” The only caution is the one wearing the HCS must ensure that the mike is against his or her neck or there’s loss of volume.
“Another nice thing is it uses the power from the radio,” Ryan adds. “You don’t have to worry about batteries. It is certified intrinsically safe for use in hazardous environments. You can suit up fully and still maintain communication.” Another advantage is at a mere five ounces, it weighs less than even a cell phone. After all, user comfort is a major component in consistent use of whatever technology’s involved.
Fans of the Internet
While company reps or suppliers have been great sources of information for products grading and excavation contractors may need, there’s yet another source, one that can be tapped in-house: the Internet. Two manufacturers that readily come to mind are companies that provide fans. The first is Huber Reversible Fan Inc. of Erie, PA, and the other is Flexxaire of Edmonton, AB. Huber first hit the market in 1957, while Flexxaire’s cooling fan replacement system was the 2003 CME (Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters) award winner for best technological innovation. The first was designed to increase operator comfort in the days when a/c was not all that common. The second focuses on clogged radiators, overheating, and overcooling issues.
So it is that whether it comes to old-fashioned employee care or to the latest means for sourcing equipment, employers that keep up with the principles involved tend to be more successful than those who yearn for a static world.
Journalist Joseph Lynn Tilton specializes in land and building issues.
GEC
- May/June 2006 |
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