9 January 2020
Do you want to save money?
If you are tempted to “save money” and put on the field excavators to perform a trench digging you must take into account several factors.
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If you are tempted to “save money” and put on the field excavators to perform a trench digging you must take into account several factors.
Tracked Trenchers are the best solution for medium and big projects when the contractor wants to save money and meanwhile wants to achieve the highest productivity.
Maybe you don’t need a solar pile driver for your next work. There is the chance that a backhoe will fit the exact same job as a pile driver. It is a matter of excavating so there is no need to buy another heavy equipment to be added to your own.
You can see in this page the video that one of our customers recorded in Africa. The video portraits the Used Trencher Vermeer T555DTH we sold them at work in Burkina Faso.
It is common to see, around the world, a contractor digging with an excavator or backhoe loader instead of trenchers.
Is it the right choice?
From a point of view, it seems that it is, excavators cost less than trenchers, and it is easier to find them around the world, used and brand new.
Why electrical cables are mostly placed in overhead structures? Why cables are not generally placed underground?
A recent report from CIGRE widely shows us how we can set up an electrical network, using at its best both overhead and underground ways to put electrical cables.
Since the excavation is one of the most hazardous work in the whole construction field, in every jobsite we must avoid, as much as it is possible, all threats to workers.
In our case, trench excavation, the worst possible accident is the collapse or fall of a trench.
What are the conditions for a possible soil fall? A good starting guide is provided us by OSHA:
In the last years Vermeer has found another target for Trenching excavation, expanding the possible area of use of its machines.
We are talking about wind energy plants.
This is a field where the investment – just like the solar power plant – drastically increased in the past few years. Now the technology in our hands grants us to build solar and wind plants even in our houses, but bigger are the plants biggest are the business chances.
How a trencher could be helpful in the realization of a wind energy plant?
The other alternative for this excavation, backhoes, cannot be always recommendable. They are less expensives but not as efficient as a trencher. Obviously trenchers in this case are used for the cable laying among the farms themselves, digging an underground network.
On medium-big wind farm trenchers are a possible good solution.
Otherwise, in case of roads, bridges or irregular field, HDD Rigs are a good possible choice, since they allow to dig for hundreds of meters.
“One challenge to installing wind-energy transmission lines is the multiple passes required using traditional excavation methods. Vermeer designed the CL80 cable layer attachment to sort, configure and feed three cables, one ground wire, one conduit with fiber optic cable, and one tracer tape. The attachment also places and secures the cables in the specified configuration in the trench all in one pass”.
(Mark Cooper, director of specialty excavation for Vermeer)
The attachment is designed to work with the Vermeer T655 tractor. It features a series of buckets which rotate in a circular motion, removing more dirt from the trench than a standard trencher attachment. The bucket-wheel attachment has a cutting width of 22, 24 or 28 inches (55.9 cm, 61 cm or 71.1 cm), depending on the size of buckets used.
Vermeer designed the CL80 cable layer attachment, specialty equipment that enhances the installation efficiency of wind-energy transmission lines.
So we need to dig trenches to lay cables for our wind turbine. Anything else? There is a problem related to wind farm, and it has shown its threat recently in USA and Canada: lightning protection.
To reduce damages to the turbines there is a technique which requires to lay cables and conductive cement. San-Earth conductive cement offers a safe, economical long-term solution to the wind-farm grounding problem. It was specifically developed for locations where resistivity is high and access may be difficult. The recommended design for a conductive cement electrode system for a single wind turbine consists of a perimeter ground totaling 60 meters (197 feet) in length combined with four radial electrodes 30 meters (98 feet) each in length and installed at a depth of 1 meter (39 inches).
So you can simply use a rocksaw trencher to afford this task (Vermeer V5750 or Ditch Witch RT115).
We all know that geo-positioning is not the newest innovation in technology. We all have it in our phones, some has in cars and other “smart” accessories.
But in recent times 3D GPS are wisely used also in the excavation industry.
The main advantages can be easily spotted, but some few more words are worth spent.
Can a GPS tool installed in my trencher be a profitable investment?
Machines Broker is a brokerage company operating in the field of construction equipment, with a strong specialization in Trencher and Trenchless/No-dig technology.
Thanks to our vast network of contacts, from Eastern Europe to North Africa, customers rely on us to increase their chances of selling and purchasing used machinery.
MACHINES BROKER S.R.L.
