From: Conquering the Complexity of Excavator Bucket Controls
Adventures in the Field
Contractors who have used electronic bucket controls on excavators say this technology saves time and money in the field, reduces manpower requirements, and greatly improves operator accuracy.
Jim Jolly, general superintendent of Weaver-Bailey Contractors Inc. in El Paso, AR, has a dual-slope MikroDigger laser bucket control from Mikrofyn A/S on a Linkbelt 240 excavator used to rebuild Interstate Highway 40 through North Little Rock, AR, in 2005.
“The operator sets up the system and receives a readout inside the cab,” Jolly says. “If he’s digging a flat grade, he can set the depth from a known grade. If he’s digging a ditch or pipe trench, he can set the slope percentage.”
Jolly says the guidance system takes a while to learn, but “once the operator trusts it, it eliminates someone on the ground checking the grade. The operator also can work 15% to 25% faster.
“The system in the machine is a guide. The operator has to know what he’s doing. When he gets flashing lights, he knows he’s at or close to grade. A good operator will rough grade first, then start watching his readout. That’s where the time saving is, in the last half a foot or so. Otherwise he might have to put half a foot back in.”
Jolly says the control system cost $13,000, requires practically no maintenance, and paid for itself on the I-40 job in about four months.
Good for Small Jobs
Robert G. Hicklin, vice president of Robert Hicklin Grading Inc. in Fayetteville, GA, specializes in small commercial jobs that typically involve moving less than 100,000 cubic yards of earth, such as grading for building pads and parking lots, and digging retention ponds. He has four Komatsu excavators, two of which are equipped with electronic bucket controls.
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“They have speeded me up 100%,” Hicklin says. “The operator doesn’t have to get out and check the grade line or wait for a guy outside to check it, and you don’t have to worry about overdigging or underdigging. The detector starts to beep when you get on grade, so you know not to go any deeper.”
Hicklin uses a laser-based MikroDigger system. He says a GPS-based stakeless system “wouldn’t be cost-efficient yet for our size company. A GPS job has to be designed on a computer. Most of our jobs are drawn on paper, and you still need stakes for the people who come behind us to pour the foundation of a building pad, or the curbs around a parking lot.”
Guidance Versus Automation
Bob Cotner, owner of Solid Rock Excavation LLC in the Denver suburb of Parker, CO, has two separate electronic bucket control systems on excavators: a MikroDigger on a Komatsu PC 300-7, and an automated Topcon system on a Caterpillar 320. He uses the control systems primarily to establish grade when digging basements, and also to calibrate slopes for retention ponds and pipe work, and to dig underwater to clean out ponds and ditches.
“The Topcon actually pulls grade,” Cotner says. “You bail dirt—dig manually—until you get close to grade, within three- or four-tenths of a foot. Then you step on the switch and put it in auto mode. The system runs the boom and bucket to finish the grade for you.”
Cotner’s Topcon system cost $40,000 five years ago. It has a laser receiver on an automated tracker jack that moves up and down an 8-foot mast mounted on the side of the machine. “It’s so sophisticated that it takes a lot of calibration,” he says. “You can teach a brand-new operator to interpret data from the system, but it’s finicky. I have to be particular about the operator I put in that machine.”
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The MikroDigger system he acquired a year ago cost $15,000. Although it isn’t automated, Cotner says it is easier to operate. “When an operator knows conceptually how to do the work, the Topcon system has taught him what grade looks like,” he says. “The MikroDigger teaches him how to manually pull a perfectly flat grade at the bottom of the hole. It takes someone with three or four years of excavator experience, but within six months with the MikroDigger, he’ll be operating as if he has 10 or 12 years of experience.
“For a standard house, we figure one basement a day. We have a man who uses the MikroDigger most of the time, and on a good day he’s now doing a basement and a half. He was on a steep learning curve for several months, and then he took off and just flew.”
July-August 2006
From: Conquering the Complexity of Excavator Bucket Controls
Adventures in the Field
Contractors who have used electronic bucket controls on excavators say this technology saves time and money in the field, reduces manpower requirements, and greatly improves operator accuracy.Jim Jolly, general superintendent of Weaver-Bailey Contractors Inc. in El Paso, AR, has a dual-slope MikroDigger laser bucket control from Mikrofyn A/S on a Linkbelt 240 excavator used to rebuild Interstate Highway 40 through North Little Rock, AR, in 2005.
“The operator sets up the system and receives a readout inside the cab,” Jolly says. “If he’s digging a flat grade, he can set the depth from a known grade. If he’s digging a ditch or pipe trench, he can set the slope percentage.”
Jolly says the guidance system takes a while to learn, but “once the operator trusts it, it eliminates someone on the ground checking the grade. The operator also can work 15% to 25% faster.
“The system in the machine is a guide. The operator has to know what he’s doing. When he gets flashing lights, he knows he’s at or close to grade. A good operator will rough grade first, then start watching his readout. That’s where the time saving is, in the last half a foot or so. Otherwise he might have to put half a foot back in.”
Jolly says the control system cost $13,000, requires practically no maintenance, and paid for itself on the I-40 job in about four months.
Good for Small Jobs
Robert G. Hicklin, vice president of Robert Hicklin Grading Inc. in Fayetteville, GA, specializes in small commercial jobs that typically involve moving less than 100,000 cubic yards of earth, such as grading for building pads and parking lots, and digging retention ponds. He has four Komatsu excavators, two of which are equipped with electronic bucket controls.
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“They have speeded me up 100%,” Hicklin says. “The operator doesn’t have to get out and check the grade line or wait for a guy outside to check it, and you don’t have to worry about overdigging or underdigging. The detector starts to beep when you get on grade, so you know not to go any deeper.”
Hicklin uses a laser-based MikroDigger system. He says a GPS-based stakeless system “wouldn’t be cost-efficient yet for our size company. A GPS job has to be designed on a computer. Most of our jobs are drawn on paper, and you still need stakes for the people who come behind us to pour the foundation of a building pad, or the curbs around a parking lot.”
Guidance Versus Automation
Bob Cotner, owner of Solid Rock Excavation LLC in the Denver suburb of Parker, CO, has two separate electronic bucket control systems on excavators: a MikroDigger on a Komatsu PC 300-7, and an automated Topcon system on a Caterpillar 320. He uses the control systems primarily to establish grade when digging basements, and also to calibrate slopes for retention ponds and pipe work, and to dig underwater to clean out ponds and ditches.
“The Topcon actually pulls grade,” Cotner says. “You bail dirt—dig manually—until you get close to grade, within three- or four-tenths of a foot. Then you step on the switch and put it in auto mode. The system runs the boom and bucket to finish the grade for you.”
Cotner’s Topcon system cost $40,000 five years ago. It has a laser receiver on an automated tracker jack that moves up and down an 8-foot mast mounted on the side of the machine. “It’s so sophisticated that it takes a lot of calibration,” he says. “You can teach a brand-new operator to interpret data from the system, but it’s finicky. I have to be particular about the operator I put in that machine.”
The MikroDigger system he acquired a year ago cost $15,000. Although it isn’t automated, Cotner says it is easier to operate. “When an operator knows conceptually how to do the work, the Topcon system has taught him what grade looks like,” he says. “The MikroDigger teaches him how to manually pull a perfectly flat grade at the bottom of the hole. It takes someone with three or four years of excavator experience, but within six months with the MikroDigger, he’ll be operating as if he has 10 or 12 years of experience.
“For a standard house, we figure one basement a day. We have a man who uses the MikroDigger most of the time, and on a good day he’s now doing a basement and a half. He was on a steep learning curve for several months, and then he took off and just flew.”