Futureworx preview: Construction equipment

Left to righ: James Harper, Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s Team Manager of Highways, JCB Chairman Lord Bamford and Councillor Daniel Jellyman, Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s Cabinet Member for Infrastructure, Regeneration and Heritage with the JCB PotholePro.

JCB is to feature its revolutionary PotholePro at Futureworx. Launched in 2021, the machine is a highly productive single-machine pothole repair solution to fix potholes permanently in less than eight minutes – four times quicker than standard methods and at half the cost of current solutions.

The machine’s development was personally led by JCB Chairman Lord Bamford. He said, “Potholes really are the scourge of our nation. Our country is quite rightly fixated on this dreadful problem and as a British manufacturer, I am fixated on finding a solution.

“We simply cannot allow our road network to continue to be blighted by potholes.

“JCB’s solution is simple and cost-effective and fixes potholes permanently, first time. Once the machine has done its job all the contractor then needs to do is just add tar.”

Stoke-on-Trent City Council recently celebrated a major milestone in its mission to fix potholes quickly and permanently – after completing almost three years of repairs in just over four months with the PotholePro machine.

The forward-thinking authority repaired a staggering 10,000m² of road with the JCB PotholePro in just 130 days – an area equivalent to eight Olympic sized swimming pools.

Using traditional methods, this task would have taken a staggering 1,040 days or almost three years.

Electric and hydrogen-powered construction equipment

JCB is also showcasing a range of electric machines including the 1TE Site Dumper and the 1.9tonne 19C-1E mini excavator and the HTD-5E which is a compact, walk-behind, high-tip, electric powered dumpster.

Hydrogen-fuelled combustion engine technology will also feature on the JCB stand.

JCB says its research shows that the new engine – based on the hardware of JCB’s Dieselmax 448 four-cylinder engine but with substantial modifications at the top end – not only produces no CO2 but also offers important advantages over battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell solutions, both of which are considerably more expensive.

Smart construction systems

Komatsu, alongside its Intelligent Machine Control division, will demonstrate Smart Construction, its family of solutions which Komatsu say will digitally transform earthmoving activities.

This is achieved by developing solutions that aim to increase productivity throughout the whole construction process, starting with the bidding process and ending with the final reporting.

With the Smart Construction family of solutions, you can analyse haul routes, remotely connect to your fleet, create a digital twin of the construction site, carry out drone surveying without ground control points, digitise documents, and send out tasks to the field.

(Image: Hitachi)

Smart Construction is brand agnostic and, no matter what your preferred brand is, is built to be easily adopted into your operations.

The display will bring visitors the experience of physical interaction with the solutions, gain information about the most innovative machines and talk to the distributor network that provides accompanying services.

Connectivity and telematics

Hitachi Construction Machinery UK (HCMUK) will be showcasing some of the latest ground breaking equipment and recent innovations from its Hitachi Connected Technology department.

On display during Futureworx will be 3D machine control and special attachment solutions installed and supported in the field by its highly skilled HCT engineers to Hitachi factory standards.

Complimenting the range of additional hardware options available from HCT, HCMUK will also be showcasing its new revolutionary live telematics system, CTFleet Link®.

CTFleet Link® is a mixed-fleet management telematics system, utilising both the Hitachi Global e Service API and a new bespoke API developed by HCMUK.

This enables customers to import ISO15143-3 compliant machine utilisation data from their full mixed fleet into one online portal giving fast access to the most important data sets such as fuel consumption and idling time.

Snorkel’s A46JRTE electric rough terrain articulating boom lift. (Photo: Snorkel)

Electric telehandlers and access equipment

Merlo is demonstrating its fully electric telehandler, the eWorker, at Futureworx. Merlo Generation Zero machines produce zero noise, zero emissions and zero fuel consumption.

SMT GB will be showcasing the latest and future products from Volvo Construction Equipment including Site Simulation, Co-Pilot, Electric machines, Autonomous machines and remote machine control.

In addition SMT will also be showing their latest Drone Services offering.

Snorkel will be highlighting the new lithium-ion, four-wheel drive range for the hire industry, on display will be its A46JRTE electric rough terrain articulating boom lift.

Snorkel’s A-series electric articulating boom lifts combine, what it describes as, superb manoeuvrability with clean and quiet operations.

The Snorkel A46JRTE delivers a working height of 16.3m and can lift up to 227kg from a chassis width of just 2.1m.

The conference and exhibition showcase will take place on day two - 31st of March - of the Futureworx event, with speakers from, Hexagon, Skanska, Costain, MachineMax and many more lined up.

The conference will also investigate future fuels, with a panel of experts providing insight into how the machines of the future can be powered. For more programme details, visit www.futureworx.uk

FREE registration for day two (31st March), which includes the conference and exhibition showcase, is now open.

Visit www.futureworx.uk/rsvp and enter the code FWXG22 to claim your free ticket. Places are limited and space is filling up fast.