Hydrogen-fueled equipment to come in 2022

JCB is investing $138 million on a project to produce carbon-free hydrogen engines, the company announced last month. The first hydrogen-fueled machines will be ready for customers by the end of 2022.

According to JCB Chairman Lord Bamford, the company is investing in hydrogen because electric power has limits and is not an all-around solution, especially when it comes to larger machines. “We will carry on making engines, but they will be super-efficient, affordable, high-tech hydrogen motors with zero CO2 emissions, which can be brought to market quickly using our existing supply base,” says Bamford.

The company has already shown a prototype hydrogen-powered JCB backhoe loader. A second JCB machine – a Loadall telescopic handler – was unveiled October 19 at an event in London attended by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.        

Firmatek acquired Kespry’s drone-based aerial intelligence platform.BuildwittDrone maker Kespry bought by Firmatek

Two leaders in the world of drone applications for the construction, mining and aggregate industries have joined forces. The combination of Firmatek’s drone-data processing and engineering services with Kespry’s drone-based mapping intelligence platforms will create new opportunities to deliver a vertical SaaS platform for drone-based analytics.

The acquisition will accelerate the use of artificial intelligence technologies and deep-learning frameworks to analyze and process topographic analysis of mining and aggregate worksites, increase data accuracy, improve site safety and eliminate potential risks.

“By combining Firmatek’s resources with Kespry’s expertise and leadership in AI-driven, SaaS software, we can provide better outcomes for our customers,” says Lauren Elmore, Firmatek’s chief executive officer.

Equipment World has reported on Kespry’s offerings several times in the last few years. To learn more about its technology, check out the links below.

With three big updates, Kespry gives construction customers little reason to take their drone data elsewhere

John Deere dealers to offer Kespry’s automated construction drone service in exclusive deal

Kespry Drone 2s brings centimeter-level survey accuracy, single base station setup to automated drone platform

Tag tools and attachments with the Kin asset tracking system and you’ll always know where they are.TrackunitIf you can’t find a tool, try checking your Kin

Everybody knows that workers waste significant amounts of time searching for lost equipment. And according to Trackunit, only one out of five lost tools are ever found. One solution, announced at the ARA show in Las Vegas, is Trackunit’s new Kin Asset Utilization, which collects movement data from tagged assets and shows you in real time if the equipment is being used.

The Kin ecosystem resides within a platform to greatly increase the scope of data available to users and organizations and continues to enhance solutions in an ever more data-led construction market.  

The Kin tags leverage the company’s mesh network and connect to the company’s Raw (TU600) installed network of devices via the Trackunit Manager and the Trackunit Go app. Each connected tag links to the TU600 network installed on machines around the globe, connecting the user and expanding the data available for business insights.

Couplers and work tools bearing this logo can work with any excavator from OEMs that are members of the Open-S Alliance.Open-S AllianceVolvo joins Open-S Alliance

Recently Volvo announced it has joined the Open-S Alliance. The alliance is a group of manufacturers that have agreed to design hydraulic attachments in such a way that their quick couplers and adaptors will work with any excavator regardless of the brand of the machine. This makes it easier for contractors to use different couplers, tiltrotators and work tool brands without being locked into a proprietary solution from one manufacturer.

The Open-S Alliance is a manufacturer-independent organization. There are three levels of membership: full, associate and supporting, depending on if Open-S products are developed, produced in-house or sourced. Since early 2021, Volvo CE has delivered quick couplers and adaptors directly from the factory and is now joining the Open-S Alliance as a supporting member.

Survey says data driving AEC transformation

More bricks than bytes, construction has been slow to adopt digital technology. But that is changing, according to a new report from Dodge Data & Analytics and Autodesk. The study finds the most frequently used BIM (building information modeling) technologies by architecture, engineering and construction firms are cloud computing (42%), model-based simulation (33%), virtual/augmented/mixed reality (28%), 3D printing (25%) and reality capture (25%).

The technologies best poised for growth, with a relatively high percentage of respondents who expect to adopt them in the next two to three years, include generative/outcome-based design (20%), 3D printing (19%), model-driven prefabrication (18%), model-driven simulation (18%), robotics/automated equipment (18%), reality capture (17%) and AI/machine learning (17%).

More details the free report can be accessed at www.construction.com

As supply-chain problems tighten construction equipment availability, LiuGong North America in Katy, Texas, says it has a compelling message to customers and potential dealers:

We’re here, we’re growing, and in some cases, we have inventory.

Earlier this year, LiuGong detailed a major revamp of its offerings to U.S. customers, including a transition from the E-series to the F-series excavators, a new line of Dressta dozers scheduled to debut in the second half of 2022 and the introduction of new wheel loaders over the next 24 months. This fall, the company had select models including its new F-series compact excavators displayed at both the Utility Expo and the ARA Show.

During the shows, Equipment World sat down with the LiuGong executive team to catch up.

With most of its products manufactured in China, LiuGong is seeing the supply constraints impacting the construction equipment industry. “I’ve not seen anything like this in 29 years of being in the industry,” says Kevin Thieneman, executive chairman and vice president. “We have to choose what we ship from month to month because you can’t get space on ships.” 

Still, because China recovered earlier from the pandemic’s impacts and because more Chinese production is now directed overseas as domestic demand lessens, LiuGong North America finds itself in a better position than some of its competitors. It has inventory for sell, albeit much of it spoken for when it comes off a ship.

Take, for instance, LiuGong’s new F-series compact excavators, which LiuGong has limited inventory. “Availability equals retail at this point,” says Chris Saucedo, vice president and general manager, construction equipment, “and so just about everything that’s coming off the boat is already spoken for, and our dealers are working with each other to fill needs and get more business.” 

Dealers, dealers, dealers

The green areas in this map indicate locations that LiuGong North America is targeting for dealer acquisition. (As of September, 2021; Alpha & Omega in Texas has since signed on.)LiuGong North America

Job number one for LiuGong North America is to strengthen its dealer network, says incoming president Andrew Ryan. “We have representation in about a third of the most important North American markets. We want to rapidly increase our representation, not by adding just numbers of dealers but by adding quality dealers that believe in our brand story.”

LiuGong is specifically looking for dealers in the Southeast, Pennsylvania and the central Midwest, among others. (See map above.)

“We don’t have any hard and fast rules about working with LiuGong at the expense of working with others,” Ryan says. Multiline dealers, he says, have an existing infrastructure that allows the company to build incremental relationships. “When you’re in a multiline dealer environment and that dealer is deciding to make an inventory investment with us or a competitive brand, that sharpens you.”

LiuGong’s vision here is to become a full-line OEM. Potential U.S. products waiting in the wings in the company’s plants in China include motor graders, compactors and backhoes. (LiuGong already sells Tier 3 versions of several products in Mexico.)

Another thrust for Ryan is to grow LiuGong North America’s aggregates business. “We’re asking our dealers to be prepared for expansion of our line into larger products over the next three to five years, specifically wheel loaders and excavators and, eventually, 100-ton rigid-frame haul trucks,” he says. 

“Quarry and aggregates have been a great success for us,” Thieneman says, who also points out that KHL’s Yellow Table now ranks the global company as the 15th largest construction equipment manufacturer in the world, with more than $4 billion in sales revenues in 2020. 

Another thrust is rental. The company has about 30 distributors, and about half of them are in the rent-to-sell space with a few in rent-to-rent. “It’s likely we will complement our dealers’ rent-to-sell strategy with certain regional account customers,” Ryan says. “We can be a very good supplier to a midsize regional rental company.” And in areas where there is no current dealer coverage, “there will be big opportunities for us to form relationships with rental companies, and perhaps see them choose to represent us as a dealer over time.” 

Ryan is also working on building the North American team. “We want to make sure they feel empowered and entrepreneurial,” he says. “It’s a very different environment in this startup space than it would be with one of our more mature competitors. This is a see-a-problem-solve-a-problem kind of place.”

LiuGong also wants its dealers to know the brand’s clear expectations of product support. “You have to have buyer confidence that you’re going to be there long term after the sale,” Ryan says. “You’ve got the parts stocked, the technicians and the service infrastructure to keep customers running and productive.”

Head-to-head with the big guys

LiuGong’s 835 wheel loaderLiuGong North America

For those who hesitate to buy a Chinese-made machine, Thieneman points out that LiuGong produces global equipment. It uses Cummins engines and ZF transmissions. “When you break it down that way, it then becomes a question of dealer support.”

Moreover, the company will put its compact excavators “head-to-head with the big guys,” Saucedo says. “The product is very strong.”  The 1.8-metric-ton 9018F and 2.7-metric-ton 9027F started arriving earlier this year. LiuGong will also introduce two additional models, the 4.5- and 5.5-tonne units, that will round out the F-series line, says Saucedo. The full-size excavator offering is now in transition, with the last E-series machine sold in September. The F-series full-size excavators will appear early next year. 

Although LiuGong expected its revamped Dressta dozers to first make their appearance this fall, that schedule has been pushed back to Q2 next year. It now has five machines in a test program here. 

Ryan comes to LiuGong after 25 years at Caterpillar where he worked on Cat’s expansion into the rental and compact equipment segments, along with working with dealers and in aftermarket parts. After a two-year stint in financial technology, Ryan returned to construction, signing on with LiuGong in late summer.

“We have that startup energy and the excitement of creation combined with the experience and financial capacity of a global brand,” Ryan says of LiuGong. 

A U.S. appeals court has extended the temporary stay of the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate until the case makes its way through the court system.

The 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals based in New Orleans ordered November 12 that the vaccine requirements for businesses of 100 or more workers remain stayed and that the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration take no further action to enforce its emergency temporary standard while a legal challenge makes its way through the court system.

The court ruled that OSHA overstepped its authority in requiring that employees of larger businesses be vaccinated against Covid-19 by January 4 or that they undergo weekly testing and wear a mask. The mask requirement for unvaccinated workers was to take effect December 5.

The court said “the stay is firmly in the public interest” and “the mandate has contributed to untold economic upheaval in recent months.”

“The public interest is also served by maintaining our constitutional structure and maintaining the liberty of individuals to make intensely personal decisions according to their own convictions – even, or perhaps particularly, when those decisions frustrate government officials,” the ruling said.

The order comes a week after the court issued a temporary stay on the mandate. It stems from a petition for review from a multitude of plaintiffs from several states, including the Trosclair family-owned supermarkets and businesses in Louisiana; the states of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, South Carolina and Utah; and various other businesses and groups.

They argue that the mandate adversely affects businesses that are already facing a worker shortage, and it would make it more difficult to hire and keep employees.

OSHA’s response to the petition says the emergency standard “is necessary to address a grave danger” and that the “legal objections lack merit.”

OSHA has also argued that the emergency standard is not a mandate because employees have a choice on whether to get vaccinated or get tested.

The standard does not require employers to pay for weekly Covid testing, and Covid vaccines are free. However, employers would be required to pay for time off for workers to get tested and vaccinated, as well as time off for any side effects from the vaccine.

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