Products

A methane-powered bus has set a speed record of nearly 124km/h at a test track in the UK. The bus, from the southern city of Reading, was converted to run on compressed methane from cow manure and was painted black and white like a Friesian cow. Mechanics removed the bus’s engine governor that restricted the vehicle’s speed to 90km/h. The bus then broke the record on the banked high-speed circuit at Millbrook Proving Ground, near the city of Bedford. The cow waste was broken down by anaerobic digestion to p

It seems that people will park in the smallest of places, despite the efforts of urban street designers and town planners to ensure an orderly arrangement of suitably spaced cars. The advent of smaller-than-small cars has meant that drivers will park in smaller-and-smaller spaces. Surely some spaces are just too small to attract drivers of even the smallest car. But the city of Bristol, in southwest England, has taken no chances and has painted the double-yellow ‘no parking’ lines in areas where no one in t

Paver hire business MAC Surfacing, based at Tipton in the England’s West Midlands, has chosen two new Volvo wheeled P6870C pavers for its hire fleet. Established back in 2004 as a paver hire business, MAC started with mini pavers. It is now a nationwide hirer offering pavers, planers, transport and other equipment along with labour. The latest Volvo P6870C machines bring the total number to 20. The P6870C is powered by a Volvo D6 Stage IIIB compliant 130kW engine and at its heart features the EPM II –

The latest Bobcat S550H high flow skid-ster loader is ideal for surface pavement repair work, according to one user in northern England. Hemswell Surfacing, near Gainsborough in the county of Lincolnshire, recently purchased a new generation Bobcat S550H high flow together with Bobcat sweeper and bucket attachments from AMS Bobcat, the local authorised Bobcat dealer. The machine has controls that allow for precise movements even in the tightest of spaces, said Alan Jennison, head of Hemswell Surfacing. “

Swedish company Nibu Borr is using one of the newest developments in rock drills from Sandvik Construction, the RH460 hammer. This is the latest member of the down-the-hole range which continues Sandvik’s extensive portfolio of rock tools. Nibu Borr is focused on water well and energy drilling along with drilling for piles and reinforcements on construction projects. "You never really know what you’re going to encounter until you start drilling,” says Daniel Knutsson, head of drilling activities for Nibu

A brand new Dynapac SD2500CS tracked paver is building a bypass road around the town of Essen (Oldenburg) in northwest Germany. Traffic has to pass through the town centre, leading to traffic jams and unsafe situations. A bypass road will relieve the town centre of this traffic and will increase the comfort of living in the city centre. The old B68 highway is a narrow two-lane street, where, according to residents, two trucks struggle to pass each other. The SD2500CS is being run with a V6000TVH v

Hikvision is broadening its range of DarkFighter ultra-low-light CCTV cameras. There are six new models, including bullet, box, outdoor dome and PTZ variants. At the same time, ultra-low-light performance is also boosted with the release of the DarkEye super large aperture (SLA) lens, which offers a consistent of 0.95 across the entire focal range. This is said to offer good low-light performance from close-up to maximum zoom.

A sophisticated system to evaluate in-vehicle safety has been developed by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) in the UK. The protocol is based around four key categories of assessment: Relevance, Deployment, Usability and Resilience. A product is scored in each category with an overall score determined to allow a TRL recommendation status to be given to the product. The evaluation protocol can be used to provide independent support for the claimed benefits of the evaluated product and/or to provide exp

A novel system is now available that allows a smartphone to be used to measure road defects. Developed by Grimmer Software, the RoadBump Android application can be used to measure the roughness of a road. This tool can provide estimates of International Roughness Index (IRI) in metric or standard units, without requiring high-cost laser profilers.

Evonik has developed a simple but effective concept to reduce the risk of wrong-way drivers. The company’s cold plastic, one-sided rumble strips have been developed following a string of incidents in Germany in which drivers have travelled in the wrong direction on stretches of high-speed autobahn. The marking system has undergone successful initial tests and the concept has been received well by German police, looking for a system to deal with the problem. There are around 75-80 crashes/ year in Germany

A novel system for delineation is available from SignPost Solutions. The SPS 2Twenty unit uses elements from the firm’s successful SPS 3 Sixty product, including the synthetic, low-profile rubber base that is said to be durable and long lasting. The system is said to be ideal for marking out car parks or cycle lanes. The posts can carry a variety of symbols and signs and are made from high-impact materials that allow a long working life. The novel design of the base means that these delineators can be

A fleet of machines from Volvo Construction equipment is helping boost production at a quarry company in Texas. Family firm Conners Crushed Stone is using its Volvo CE fleet to help quarry and crush high-quality limestone at five quarries in Texas, USA. Although best known for its oil fields, the state’s natural resources also include extensive limestone deposits. Veins of limestone run throughout the state, from the heights of the state’s Big Bend Mountains all the way down to the Rio Grande on the bor

Machines from CIFA are playing an important role in providing protection during a port expansion job. There is a considerable need for additional sea protection during a major port expansion project in Italy. The port of Civitavecchia is being expanded as part of a programme to boost its capacity and capabilities and develop the facility both for its commercial and tourist operations. However, the work comes with considerable need to improve the protection from the sea, so as to ensure that its roadways

XCMG says that its XAP80J asphalt plant offers high mobility and fast set up times. This compact plant can be easily transported in a container and can be assembled or disassembled quickly on site. The plant has a capacity of 80tonnes/hour and has a power rating of 307kW, while its fuel consumption is 6.5kg/tonne. The low noise output is said to allow the plant to be used on sites in urban areas, aided by its lower emissions. The firm is boosting exports of its asphalt plants and has now supplied a

US firm Asphalt Drum Mixers is widening its range of stationary and self-erect asphalt storage silos. These units are designed to be versatile and can be used with the firm’s own asphalt plants as well as those from competitors. The firm says that the design of its stationary and self-erect silos allows them to be used in various asphalt plant configurations. The company also offers an array of capacity options to accommodate the output of any operation. The capacity of ADM’s self-erect silos ranges