New 3D Piling Machine Guidance System for Mixed Fleet Piling Applications
Maysville, Kentucky, U.S.A. (September 16, 2014)— Carlson Machine Control has upgraded PDGrade™, an application-centric 3D positioning system for a variety of piling machines. First introduced in early 2013 and built on top of 18 years experience in machine guidance, PDGrade™, with its accuracy and ease-of-use, empowers piling contractors to work with higher efficiency, improving production while lowering cost and increasing safety.
The PDGrade™ Piling System v6.0 was developed especially for piling applications, notes Randy Noland, vice president for Carlson Machine Control. “The traditional piling workflow is a manual process requiring staking, marking, and trial and error,” he says. “With PDGrade™, piling contractors can benefit from high accuracy navigation, positioning and easy-to-use software that offers features such as navigation to pile, pile location, as-builts, and production reports. The system also increases safety, as it requires less people to be near the machines when erecting piles.
Key features of PDGrade version 6.0 include the ability to:
• Load pile design grid by supported file types (csv, dxf, dwg, and more) or enter patterns in the field;
• Navigate to hole (machine heading);
• Position piles more efficiently and with high accuracy;
• Store as-built points easily showing previously driven piles including their positional accuracy and azimuth;
• Get improved user interface designed specifically for piling, the simplest, piling centric software available;
• Work with much larger pile designs with no degradation of speed thanks to performance enhancements;
• Produce sophisticated reports through features built in to the software generated easily without telematics or back office software. Plan view with reports include:
o Average Pile Time
o Average Azimuth
o Number of Piles driven
o Number of Piles left to drive
o Display accuracy of driven piles flagging those outside user defined tolerance
o And more
• Get real-time piling status with support from the new LDx6 laser distance sensor for driving piles to elevation, surface or depth, without an external, traditional laser setup.
New optional LDx6 Laser Distance Option for Piling to an Elevation, Contour or Pile Depth-No Laser Setup!
“In addition to navigation and high accuracy RTK positioning to the designed pile location, PDGrade™ facilitates piling to an elevation, surface or depth,” adds Randy Noland. “These new features are achieved by offering scalable support for the LDx6 laser distance sensor.” The LDx6 kit mounts near the top of the feeder offering real-time indication of piling progress. Most importantly, this eliminates the need for a laser transmitter setup and the associated limitations such as range, line of sight and the need to continually calibrate and move the laser to new locations. The LDx6 laser distance sensor offers higher piling production.”
Easy to calibrate, easy to install
The basic configuration of PDGrade™ uses only two components, the CBx6 Control Box Console and the MC Pro Vx6. Installation has one-quarter the footprint of other systems with less points of failure. The system is supported by an industry-exclusive, three-year warranty. The rugged IP69K MCPro Vx6 provides GPS/GLONASS/BEIDOU L1/L2 high precision positioning and heading – up to 20Hz, along with dual axis slope. The CBx6 Control Box Console has a bright, sunlight readable display, IP67 rugged with the same 3-year warranty and big 10.4” touch screen. Connects with just one cable.
PDGrade™ Piling Positioning System is available now through Carlson Machine Control dedicated dealers in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Europe.
For more information about PD Grade™ and other offerings from Carlson Machine Control, visit www.carlsonmachinecontrol.com, email machinecontrol@carlsonsw.com, or call 606-564-5028
About Carlson Machine Control
Carlson Machine Control provides site management solutions for mining, solid waste landfills, dredging, piling and other niche markets. Solutions include 3D machine guidance and control, site connectivity and fleet production monitoring with productivity analysis and reporting.