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Danish Contractor Saves Time and Money Using Trimble LOADRITE Weighing System

Danish Contractor Saves Time and Money Using Trimble LOADRITE Weighing System

Danish Contractor Saves Time and Money Using Trimble LOADRITE Weighing System
 

Overview

Trimble LOADRITE increases productivity and profits by ensuring accurate payload weights

 

Customer Profile:

Per Aarsleff is a leading Danish contracting company. The company designs, plans and implements large-scale projects within infrastructure, climate change adaptation, the environment and energy. Per Aarsleff is based in Denmark and the Baltic Sea region, but is a global company with revenues of DKK 8.5 billion, one third of which comes from outside Denmark. The Group employs 4,500 people in the Danish parent company and its subsidiaries.

Business Challenge:

Construction on the Per Aarsleff company headquarters required excavating and removing 45,000 cubic meters (58,500 cubic tons) of earth and clay  from the job site. The company wanted a way to ensure that each truck was loaded to maximum capacity—without being overloaded- and to avoid making more trips than necessary due to underloading. 

Solution:

The team adopted the Trimble LOADRITE 2350 weighing system for excavators.

Benefits:

  • Eliminated underloading and overloading of trucks on job site
  • 47 fewer truckloads required to move 45,000 cubic meters (58,500 tons) of earth and clay, which reduced the use of one truck by six full working days

Per Aarsleff is one of the leading civil engineering contractors in Denmark. The company focuses on designing, planning and implementing large-scale projects within infrastructure, climate change adaptation, the environment and energy.

The Per Aarsleff team recently started the construction of the company’s own new headquarters in Hasselager, near Aarhus, Denmark, covering a space of  12,000 square meters (7.5 square miles). The goal is to have the project complete by the end of 2016.

Before building could begin, the Per Aarsleff team had to excavate and remove 45,000 cubic meters (58,500 cubic tons) of earth and clay from the job site. In order for the company to be profitable, it was important to control costs and make sure that the trucks did not run under-loaded.

Per Aarsleff machine operator Søren Kristensen is able to remove approximately 2,500 cubic meters each day, with trucks carrying between 30 to 39 tons each, using a 36 ton excavator.

Per Aarsleff chairman Casper Gram estimates that the trucks often run underloaded by approximately one ton. On a job that requires moving 58,500 tons of soil, underloading each truck by one ton would equate to an extra 47 truckloads of soil moved during the course of the job. This enabled the company to reduce the use of one truck by six full working days.

To help ensure that trucks are loaded to their full capacity enabling Per Aarsleff operators to work as efficiently as possible, the team turned to their local Trimble dealer, SITECH Danmark, for advice. With help from the SITECH dealer, Per Aarsleff adopted the Trimble LOADRITE X2350 weighing system for excavators, which enables operators to know exactly how much material is loaded on the truck.

The system is comprised of sensors on the excavator’s boom, bucket and machine hydraulics to measure weight and compensate for machine slope. Bucket-by-bucket payload information is displayed to the excavator operator on an in-cab indicator. The technology provides accurate weighing to ± 3% margin of error with no disruption to the operation of the excavator.

Having the Trimble LOADRITE X2350 weighing system installed on Per Aarsleff equipment has helped Kristensen prevent underloading and the company reduce costs. Now, Kristensen can load with precision and honk when the truck has reached its maximum load. The weighing system keeps track of the quantity of material moved, and the precise loads have also given him the reputation of being a master excavator operator.

“Equipping our excavator with the Trimble LOADRITE X2350 weighing system optimizes the economics of earthworks excavating,” said Kristensen. “Now the trucks are loaded exactly with the optimal weight. The trucks are no longer underloaded, and we don’t have to worry about them being overloaded, either.”

Gram predicts that the new technology will continue to be important in his workflow and cost savings. “The weighing system is the right way to do it in terms of project economics, truck driving safety, fuel consumption and road traffic,” he said.