Construction Profiles: Fall 2013

CONSTRUCTIONPROFILES

FALL 2013

A PUBLICATION OF GUNTERT & ZIMMERMAN

G&Z CONSTRUCTION PROFILES: FALL 2013 WWW.GUNTERT.COM2

Executives with Zachry Construction Corp. say it didn’t take long

to train their crew and hit a good stride with their new Guntert &

Zimmerman paver working on a $64 million Interstate project in

Columbia, South Carolina, U.S.A.

Zachry recently launched work with the New G&Z S850SL with

Dowel Bar Inserter (DBI) by paving sections of 12-inch-thick concrete

on Interstate 20 at 18 feet wide. Production in early May was running

between 200 and 350 cubic yards of concrete per hour, or between

3,500 and 4,000 feet per day, said project manager Curtis Schwartz.

As a part of the continuing development on the east side of

Columbia, the South Carolina Department of Transportation is

widening Interstate 20 from two lanes to three on a 6-mile stretch

near Interstate 77. First, Zachry will pave an inside lane and shoulder

in an 18-foot-wide slab on each side of the four-lane divided highway.

ZACHRY CHOOSES A G&Z PAVERFOR LARGE INTERSTATE PROJECT

Then, in a multi-staged process, the contractor will remove the existing eastbound and westbound lanes and pave two new lanes at 24 feet wide on each side.

G&Z CHOSEN FOR VERSATILITY AND ACCURACY

The new paver is equipped with both a G&Z DBI and Leica PaveSmart 3D stringless machine control system. The DBI played a major role in Zachry’s decision to buy the new paver, said Zachry’s equipment manager. Originally, Zachry management had planned to pave the I-20 project at 34 feet wide. Management decided to buy the Guntert & Zimmerman machine because of its versatility and the fact that it could be used at desired widths with a dowel bar inserter. Zachry’s management likes the accuracy of the time tested G&Z

Equipment UpdateHIGHWAY PAVING

G&Z CONSTRUCTION PROFILES: FALL 2013WWW.GUNTERT.COM 3

DBI design. Tests confirm that the dowel bars meet specification for horizontal, vertical and skew alignment. Joint spacing is 15 feet for the I-20 project, and the Guntert DBI places the dowel bars right on the money, says Mark Fancella, Zachry’s paving superintendent on the I-20 project.

“I used to be a firm believer in a competing paver,” says Fancella. “But now I’m a Guntert man. I like the side forms on it. You can move them in and move them out. And I like the swing legs. The place where we’re paving now is in really tight quarters. We only had three feet on one side, paving up against a median barrier. We just tucked the legs in and we had no problems.”

The AccuSteer System on the Guntert paver permits an operator to turn the tracks 90 degrees and steer the machine sideways. Also, the swing legs can semi-automatically walk into the outboard/transport position to walk the paver directly onto a removable gooseneck trailer. The DBI is equipped with a new patented self-loading system that speeds up the entire loading process.

We asked Schwartz how he likes the new paver. “It’s going well,” he said. “There has been a learning curve associated with it. This is our first job on the East Coast, so we’ve hired and trained new crews.”

A FIRST AT ZACHRY

This is Zachry’s first stringless machine control system on a concrete paver. It only took about a week for crews to learn the new Leica system. Thanks to the dowel bar inserter, trucks can dump concrete

directly on the grade in front of the S850SL paver with DBI. With the Leica PaveSmart 3D system, Zachry uses three robotic total stations – with two of them active at any time. The Leica system regulates the steering, grade, attack angle and crossfall of the paver. PaveSmart 3D guides the paver in relation to a digitized 3D model of the highway, running on the onboard machine computer.

The paver is equipped with two, mast mounted, Leica prisms used as tracking targets for the two active robotic total stations. When setting up the robotic total stations, a technician back-sights each of them to five known control points. That fixes the location of the total stations relative to the digital model. The two total stations then follow the movement of the two prisms on the paver and communicate to the machine computer the paver’s precise location via radio link. The machine computer then computes the differences between the paver’s actual location and the digital terrain model. Knowing those differences, the Leica machine computer then instructs the G&Z paver to regulate the steering and grade automatically.

Fancella says it works best to set up the total stations 250 feet in front of the paver. As the machine passes the first total station, the next total station in sequence picks up the paver; this is called “leapfrogging”. The crew moves the first total station around to the front of the paver for the next “leap”. That way the crew and the paver never needs to stop – a capability unique to Leica’s technology Even in traditional stringline paving, stopping the paver is highly undesirable for mainline paving, as it typically introduces a “bump” in the surface which will count against the ride bonus the contractor is striving to achieve.


One of the design challenges G&Z faced with the S850SL was the need to pave in narrow clearance situations at full width. To add to the challenge, G&Z took on the task of ensuring that the S850SL’s narrow clearance capabilities were also achievable with a DBI.

From its founding in 1942, G&Z has prided itself on being an innovative equipment design and engineering company. The S850SL has continued this tradition by achieving its design goals. With the optional Narrow Profile Paving Kit, the S850SL can pave full width with as little as 12” (30cm) of companion lane trackline available next to a temporary median barrier with or without a Dowel Bar Inserter attachment.

This type of narrow profile paving has never been possible before with a larger, mid-size slipform paver. Now contractors have more options when faced with “near-zero” clearance trackline paving conditions. Contractors no longer have to sacrifice concrete smoothness or the width they want to pour under narrow profile situations.

NARROW CLEARANCE LIKE NEVER BEFORE

It’s absolutely necessary to use an accurate digital model and to calibrate the paver correctly, in order for the stringless control system to work properly, Fancella says. He likes the idea of paving with no stringline. “You can back trucks in directly in front of the paver without worrying about a stringline,” he says. “When you use a stringline, it’s like you’re trapped inside of a room. But with the stringless control system, the paver is out in the open.”

Zachry’s estimators and production personnel considered the investment made for the stringless machine control system, and they see a relatively short return on investment. Far less surveying and staking is required with the stringless control system. Plus, the stringless system is safer – nobody worries about tripping over a stringline or breaking it.

Another reason Zachry bought the Guntert & Zimmerman paver is for the telescoping ends (TeleEnds) on the machine’s paving kit. They make it easier to quickly change widths as much as 8’, especially if the Dowel Bar Inserter is not on the machine.

Zachry management visited the G&Z factory, and they were impressed with G&Z’s manufacturing process. “Guntert puts a lot of time and effort into the precision of the machine,” says the equipment manager. “And I just felt like it was going to produce the product that we have to pave today.”


Equipment UpdateAIRPORT PAVING

Clearspan Technology Middle East (CTME) is showing a strong presence in the Middle East Region by expanding into concrete slipform paving. CTME has been working with stressed hangar construction technology, a very competitive and economical way of building hangars for aircraft, large warehouses, go downs, etc.

As a part of its airport construction group, CTME acquired a G&Z S850 concrete slipform paver. CMTE has completed two fast tracked projects for Qatar Airways at Doha International Airport (DIA) where flight traffic is ever increasing. Based on CMTE’s past project performance with Qatar Airways, it was awarded a six bay and a two bay apron expansion contract. “The schedules were so tight that without our G&Z machinery, the program would not have been possible,” says Joe Sarlak, Owner and Managing Director of Clearspan.

The projects totaled $7 million. The 500m x 138m six bay apron was the first project to tackle while the 132m x 66m two bay apron

was the second to be completed. CMTE paved the aprons at 6m wide with a thickness of 375mm in alternating lanes and finished with fill-in lanes. “The machine is outstanding; we have experienced no downtime and no mechanical failures,” praises Sarlak. With the project fast tracked, there was little room for error.

After the success on the apron expansion projects, CTME is planning to bid similar projects in Qatar, where infrastructure expansion is planned as Qatar becomes a prominent destination in the Middle East Region. Sarlak says, “With the acquisition of our G&Z paver, we can offer an added advantage to project owners who have tight schedules and high quality requirements.”

CTME is gearing up to accept the challenges in the construction market with G&Z’s technologically advanced concrete paving equipment and customer service through parts and service support.

FAST TRACKED APRON CONSTRUCTIONUTILIZES G&Z’S DEPENDABLE S850


EGON: SERVICE EYE IN THE SKYWhat is the value of a machine that can instantly communicate with a project or equipment manager, service technician or operator to let them know that all is working within established parameters? Better yet, what if it were to notify them when a small issue occurs, so it can be addressed before a major downtime event arises? As concrete paving contractors will attest, paver downtime can result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars and lost paving days, and G&Z’s number one priority is to limit this loss.

This is the promise of Guntert & Zimmerman’s EGON (Equipment Guidance and Operation Network) system. Introduced this spring at bauma 2013, EGON adds remote interface and diagnostics to the company’s tried-and-true onboard Plus+1 machine control system for all of G&Z concrete paving equipment. “The system offers real-time connectivity to the paver via a Wi-Fi or GSM connection

from anywhere in the world,” says Ron Guntert, CEO of Guntert & Zimmerman Const. Div., Inc.

Paving contractors already have experience using G&Z’s Plus+1 control system for paver configuration and operation and for the use of a third-party stringless paving system. EGON pulls everything together in an easy to use system and includes the industry’s most advanced diagnostic systems to simplify paver service, offer real-time connectivity and improve paver performance.

INTELLIMATICS™

The new EGON system takes the concept of telematics — monitoring engine functions to catch small issues before they become major

Equipment UpdateNEW TECHNOLOGY


problems — and expands this to all aspects of machine operation. According to Frank Flores, CEO of Flores Automation and partner with G&Z on the IntelliMatics system, nothing on the market comes close to the depth of monitoring, reporting and diagnostics capabilities as offered by EGON. Guntert adds, “We use the term IntelliMatics to describe the depth of the system’s capabilities.” At the heart of the system lie Sauer-Danfoss controls that monitor machine performance. An environmentally sound, sealed PC is tied to the machine’s existing CAN Bus connection for monitoring.

An LCD display is mounted above the operator’s console, which allows the operator to control machine functions and view machine performance. The antiglare, high-resolution screen features sensor-controlled backlighting to ensure optimum viewing in all lighting conditions, even direct sunlight. The entire operator’s console, including LCD display, comes in a compact package that can be easily moved along the hand rail of the operator’s platform.

As part of EGON’s expanded diagnostics/monitoring system, G&Z’s engineering team designed a web based remote user interface to

enable connectivity to the paver from anywhere in the world. This enables input output monitoring, remote troubleshooting, error code reporting, machine location monitoring, data logging, maintenance reminders and remote setting changes, as long as a person has a Wi-Fi or GSM connection. “It’s the closest thing to having a mechanic on the machine without him/her traveling to the jobsite,” says Flores. EGON consists of seven segmented controller groups — left machine side, right machine side, power unit (engine) and four to monitor the toggle switches on the operator’s console. Creating these segmented groups offers a clean, modular design that results in less wiring and easier diagnostics. “Maximizing paving uptime is the key behind EGON,” says Guntert.

Once EGON detects a system fault or a component operating outside of set parameters, the fault is immediately emailed to the customer and G&Z. “For example, if a stringline sensor, pressure transducer or any other component on the machine fails,” says Flores, “G&Z may notice this before the operator does, and the crew can be notified to take corrective action.”


BOOSTING EFFICIENCY

When logging into EGON via the internet, the main screen shows the seven controller segment groups. For easy troubleshooting, the group where the error occurred will show in red, whereas all the other groups will remain green to indicate there is no issue.

Navigation throughout the web based interface is easily handled by a series of tabs at the top of the page and covers critical machine functions ranging from steering and elevation to speed and slope. “These are the four diagnostic screens that help companies and operators to improve machine performance,” mentions Flores.

The system will report if the machine is not performing within set parameters, and allows an authorized person to remotely adjust settings such as the speed output of a track or the elevation to get better ride numbers. “The information provided by EGON is a powerful tool to help contractors lay a better road surface and save money,” comments Flores. “For instance, if the elevation valves were

to fall outside of set parameters and the operator wasn’t aware, this could result in the installation of a pavement not meeting a smoothness specification resulting in a “must” grind or even worse, removal and replacement of the pavement.”

EGON also monitors all hydraulic system and power unit functions. Service personnel can receive e-mail alerts as a reminder that service interval levels have been reached or an oil filter needs to be changed. The hydraulics page also monitors fuel level, so the maintenance technician can see when the paver is low on fuel and dispatch a fuel truck, even before the paving crew requests it.

The versatile reporting system also gives companies a valuable tool for machine management. System managers can download items such as fault history, engine data, machine run time and filter life as part of machine management tools to help the paver operate at peak efficiency. The system’s GPS page gives the precise location of the machine, so companies can keep track of their assets.

EGON is available for all G&Z highway and airport concrete pavers using the Plus+1 system and can be retrofitted to existing field units using Plus+1. Additionally, all G&Z placer spreaders and texture cure machines can be equipped with EGON.

“The sky is the limit with this system, and the potential customer savings over the life of the paver are limitless,” concludes Guntert. “EGON has taken machine connectivity and remote diagnostics to the next level.”


EQUIPMENT GUIDANCE & OPERATION NETWORK

CONTRACTOR INSPIRED. GUNTERT ENGINEERED.

G&Z IS ALWAYS ON SITE WITH EGON

G&Z’s EGON IntelliMatics™ is the first in-depth remote monitoring and diagnostics system in the concrete paving market. With EGON, G&Z Service Technicians can remotely troubleshoot equipment issues from anywhere in the world, helping contractors Maximize Available Paving Time and Minimize Everything Else. EGON gives contractors peace of mind no matter how remote the job site or how critical the schedule. www.guntert.com

[email protected]

Guntert & Zimmerman Const. Div., Inc.222 E. Fourth St. Ripon, CA 95366 U.S.A.Phone +1 209-599-0066 Fax +1 209-599-2021Toll Free 800-733-2912 (USA / Canada)Email: [email protected] Web: www.guntert.com

Construction Profiles is published by Guntert & Zimmerman to inform readers of applied construction technology utilizing Guntert & Zimmerman equipment. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced either in whole or in part without the consent of Guntert & Zimmerman. Printed in U.S.A. Manufactured under one or more of the following U.S. or Foreign Patents: 5,590,977; 5,615,972; 69629817.1; 839230; 5,647,688; 69834187.2-08; 988426; 5,941,658; 6,082,927; 6,176,643; 6,390,726; 6,390,727; 6,579,037; 6,293,689; 281161; 6,527,428; 6,450,679; 2424022; 7,316,522; 7,311,465; 7,458,748; 7,753,619; 7,950,874; 8,118,518; 8,382,396; and 8,459,898 and Patents Pending. Some items shown may be optional. G&Z reserves the right to make improvements in design, material, and/or changes in specifications at any time without notice and without incurring any obligation related to such changes. Brochure No. 400P121

Construction Profiles: Fall 2013

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