Technology has had a significant impact on the plant machinery industry… here’s some of the benefits
[1] 360 Degree Cameras
All vehicles have blind spots – areas around the vehicle that are obscured to the driver by bodywork or machinery. When manoeuvring, these blind spots present a significant danger to anything or anyone in the vehicle’s path and inhibit the driver’s ability to operate the vehicle safely.
Mirrors and single-view cameras help to see blind spots, but even with this extra assistance, the driver may still not see everything in the vehicle’s path. After all, they can only be watching the road, or looking in one monitor or mirror at any given time. Research shows that in the time it takes to scan four mirrors, assess and then react to hazards, even at speeds as low as 5kph a vehicle could travel as far as 10m.
The Benefits of a 360 degree camera extend beyond reducing collisions with people and objects. The comprehensive view of the surroundings aids the driver when manoeuvring at low speed and minimises damage, as drivers of larger vehicles can see and avoid objects lying on the ground. Benefits include:
Eliminates blind spots, improves safety
Comprehensive view of the surrounding area in a single image
Reduces collisions with people and objects
[2] Dig Assist Technology
Dig Assist technology, the excavator machine control system offers many benefits to operators and company owners by helping to increase safety and productivity as well as reduce costs. Dig assist enables an operator to input the specifications for even the most complex trenches – including slopes and multiple layers – in a matter of minutes. Then a virtual guideline helps the operator stay on track. This eliminates much of the usual prep work and allows the operator to complete the work quickly and correctly.
[3] Grade assist technology
Grade with Assist is available on hydraulic excavators and automates boom and bucket movements, reducing manual inputs, errors and operator fatigue, and effectively improving grading consistency for operators of all experience levels. Grade with Slope Assist is a system for crawler dozers and helps an operator quickly reach the target grade by automatically maintaining the dozer blade angles. The wide range of benefits these technologies include:
Productivity
Efficiency
Safety
It’s safe to say that technology has had a positive effect on many aspects of the plant machinery business in terms of safety and efficiency across many aspects of the industry.
