Strassing-Limes GmbH, based at Bad Soden-Salmünster in Germany, has used a Bobcat T250 compact tracked loader equipped with a new laser-controlled precision grader attachment from Bobcat to replace the road surface on the high street of the village of Eppertshausen, close to Darmstadt.
Home to a population of 5900, Eppertshausen has a high street running through the village which is very narrow and has tight curves and small traffic islands at crossroads, making the use of heavy duty machinery impossible. Instead, Strassing-Limes GmbH used the laser control and ultrasonic sensors on the compact combination of the new precision grader attachment and the Bobcat T250 loader to carry out the work in these confined spaces, building the road base at high speed and with the greatest possible precision.
Commenting on his decision to use the Bobcat equipment, Jürgen Faupel, Director of Strassing-Limes, said: “In similar situations, we have previously worked with an excavator fitted with a hydraulic swivel bucket. However, this meant that the crossfall on the road had to be measured manually. By using the Bobcat loader with the laser grader, we can now carry out the work almost twice as quickly.”
The loader-grader system, developed by Bobcat Bensheim in cooperation with Mössinger Lasertronic, combines two control systems to create a highly efficient system. The T250 compact loader is equipped with a laser-controlled front grader and an ultrasonic sensor. The ultrasonic sensor takes the upper edge of the kerb as a reference height and the crossfall of the road is then determined by the gradient sensor integrated in the laser receiver. This means that the driver need only drive forwards, as the grader blade is controlled by the hydraulics. This almost fully-automatic system saves an enormous amount of time while also guaranteeing cutting-edge precision.
