Prolec promotes productivity and safety

James Fisher Prolec unveiled new technologies for the enhancement of productivity and safety on construction sites at this year’s Plantworx exhibition, held in Peterborough between 11 and 13 June.

The first is PMX, which combines two established technologies: excavator hazard mitigation and geolocation. It helps to prevent equipment from striking pre-defined hazards and by creating virtual walls and ceilings beyond which the machine is prevented from moving.

Once a site is surveyed and hazards identified, hazard maps can be deployed to any PMX-enhanced excavator so that operators don’t need to repeatedly re-enter hazard locations on the machines. Nigel Shaw, General Manager at James Fisher Prolec, told IRN, “This means the onus is no longer on operators to set up parameters, and it leads to 30% time savings.”

He said that the journey to develop this system started about two years ago, and was demonstrated in projects on the M1 and M6 motorways in England.

The second new technology, TrackPilot, is specifically designed for excavator rail-road vehicles and it brings together the company’s rated capacity limiter and movement limiting devices into a single solution.

Designed from the ground up, the product is mounted directly on the engine bay so that it cannot be stolen or damaged, and the user interface has been developed for ease of use, displaying only that information which is relevant to the job.

Finally, the new R2S is an information hub that digitises the construction site during project planning phases. Information about obstructions, hazards and site infrastructure are collated into a single platform that can be used in conjunction with PMX to set safe working zones, as well as demonstrating progress to remote teams.

Shaw said, “For rental companies, Prolec offers to fit its base-level system onto a fleet and then rental companies can contact Prolec to have particular machines temporarily upgraded with extra functionality – which Prolec can switch on remotely – for a given time, while the equipment is on rent, thereby providing rental companies with the flexibility they require.”