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Partnership
27
L o n g T e rm C u s t ome r R e l a t i o n s h i p s
Asphalt Paver
as a Pathfinder
Does the emergence of the
increasing number of vehicles on the
roads cause traffic jams, accelerated
wear and tear of the roadbed, and
other troubles for motor vehicles?
No, not exactly. As for bulldozers,
graders, rollers, and asphalt pavers,
the situation is just the opposite. The
more state-of-the-art, powerful
machines are used by the road-
building companies, the faster and
better the construction works are
performed, the more grateful is the
car drivers’ community, who enjoy
driving along the new highways.
The condition of the Russian roads still
lags behind the world standards, and
this gap cannot be filled without
upgrading the machines. Reliable,
productive machinery, the supplies of
which are supported by availability of
parts and materials, form the basis of
road construction. At the same time,
companies planning to buy new
machines face a difficult choice: which
machine to prefer?
If the company needs all-purpose
machines, like an excavator or
a bulldozer, the issue is more or less
clear. If the goal is to buy an asphalt
paver or a concrete spreader, recycler
or remixer the task becomes more
challenging. There is not much
specialised equipment in the road-
building companies’ fleets, and the best
way to fulfil the shortage of
information is to study the experience
of using machines on a specific site, to
listen to recommendations of those
who started to master new
technologies earlier than the others.
Heading for the future
The Caterpillar AP655D asphalt paver
came to possession of ZAO Edinstvo in
June 2011. This Irkutsk-based company
bought the new machine to fulfil
a specific task — capital repairs of the
Novo-Leninsk bypass road, which is the
part of the federal M-53 highway. The
total length of the road section to be
repaired was 5 km 250 meters.
The roadbed had to be reinforced, the
roadway and the roadsides had to be
broadened, the old pavement had to be
removed, and three new layers of
asphalt had to be paved. In addition,
the lighting system had to be upgraded,
two traffic lights had to be installed,
and barrier railing and rainwater
drainage system had to be replaced.
The Trud Group of Companies was the
general contractor of the project, which
invited ZAO Edinstvo, a road-building
company, to take part in the project.
– We had already had the experience of
using Сat
®
machines. In 2009, we
bought a D9R bulldozer,– says Andrey
Pilkevich, Deputy Director of ZAO
Edinstvo for construction of motor
roads.– We liked the machine. It is
productive, reliable, simple in
operation, and the service support
offered by Vostochnaya Technica, the
Caterpillar dealer, was pretty good, as
there were no problems with supplies
of materials and parts. The bulldozer
was bought for a specific task — large
volumes of ground were planned to be
removed at the Boguchansk aluminium
plant — about 2 million cubic meters,
and a powerful machine was needed
for that.
– We considered all the options. We got
the offers to buy asphalt pavers of
European manufacturers — Wirtgen,
Vogele, Bomag — these are good,
reliable machines; the only problem
we’d face is the technical support
availability, – says Andrey Pilkevich. – It
is difficult to deal with a company
located in Moscow or Vladivostok,
while the service in road-building
projects is very important, as problems
may unexpectedly arise. Everything is
clear with Vostochnaya Technica –
I make a call to a dealer, and a
mechanical engineer comes to the site
within 1 or 2 hours. Undoubtedly, a
specialist may come from Moscow, as
well, but the question is when.
Therefore, we chose Caterpillar.
Vostochnaya Technica is located
nearby, and the maintenance and parts
delivery process is well organised. The
personnel are here, and it is a
significant advantage.
For Irkutsk, the AP655D asphalt paver
was an entirely new machine: no road-
building companies owned it; so, it was
not possible for us to find out
everything useful about the details of
its operation first-hand.
Yet, we were able to find information
on the Internet. The users noted several
проблемы. С «Восточной Техникой» все
понятно: звоню дилеру, и через
1-2 часа механик уже на площадке.
Из Москвы специалист, конечно, тоже
прибудет, но вот когда? Поэтому выбор
пал на Сaterpillar. «ВТ» расположена
рядом, процесс техобслуживания,
доставки запчастей, масел полностью
отработан. Люди находятся здесь, это
большой плюс.
Технические параметры AP655D также
не вызывали вопросов. Ширина плиты
меняется от 2,55 до 8 м, вместимость
бункера составляет 14,1 т (6,5 м3), есть
вариант с резиновыми гусеничными
лентами Mobil-trac System и со сталь-
ными гусеницами. В первом случае
машина движется заметно быстрее,
скорость ее перемещения составляет
14,8 км/ч, укладка осуществляется
со скоростью 25 м/мин. Во втором
варианте скорость снижается
до 5,3 км/ч, но на укладку асфальта
замена резины на сталь не влияет, она
остается той же — 25 м/мин. Плюсы
резины — гусеницы перемещаются
по свежеуложенному асфальту,
не оставляя на нем следов.
Для Иркутска AP655D был совершенно
новой машиной, ни у одной из дорож-
ных компаний такой модели еще
не было, значит, и узнать что-либо
об особенностях ее эксплуатации
из первых рук не представлялось воз-
можным.
Однако в Интернете можно было без
труда найти отзывы. Пользователи
отмечали сразу несколько сильных сто-
рон. Первая — поверхность готового
дорожного полотна, уложенного
с помощью этого асфальтоукладчика,
имеет строго выведенный уровень, зна-
чит, нет проблем при сдаче готового
объекта. Машина маневренна и устой-
чива, точно реагирует на управление.
Второе — агрегат обеспечивает стабиль-
ное качество укладки. Особая подвеска,
разработанная компанией Caterpillar,
хорошо сглаживает все неровности,
а трамбовочная вибрация бруса обес-
печивает заданную плотность покрытия.
Машина подходит для объектов, где
необходимо обеспечить качество
полотна в сочетании с быстрым темпом
работ, например, на городских и заго-
родных трассах. Приводились примеры
эффективного использования при