A road planer for the safety-concious

The new Simex PL1500 asphalt planer comes with a suite of safety and performance benefits, Craig Einam from Queensland Rock Breakers explains.

Designed for milling deteriorated surfaces for resurfacing, the Simex PL1500 is an essential tool for today’s milling and construction industries.

Building upon Simex’s existing range of PL cold planers, the new PL1500 carries the same manufacturing focus, with built-in hydraulic side shift and the optional hydraulic transverse tilt and depth adjustment.

Thanks to its 150-centimetre width, the PL1500 can mill three-metre-wide lanes in just two passes.

The PL1500 also offers optimal visibility when attached to a skid steer or front-end loader with the help of the optional Simex Performer – a performance optimiser which signals operator how to work with Simex attachments to maximise power and performance.

As Queensland Rock Breakers’ Sales Area Manager Craig Einam explains, the PL1500 maintains the robustness of its predecessors, such as the PL1000 and PL1200, making it a cost-effective attachment to maintain and operate.

“With the Simex PL1500 planer, you can get a lot closer to the objects, which removes the need for more manpower and other equipment like jackhammers,” Einam says. “Operators that use these planers love the fact that the machine can do a lot of the work for them.”

Constant planing depth

Carrying the same features as previous planing products, the PL1500 has the exclusive self-leveling system which helps ensure a constant planing depth in any condition.

This is achieved by the installation of lateral slides, which allow for the planer to automatically align to the milling surface. Both slides move independently, providing greater stability and more precise planing movements.

Hydraulic adjustment is also optional for the PL1500, providing efficient operation over uneven surfaces for workers.

As Einam explains, the PL1500 was designed and developed with modern projects in mind.

“Where it comes to pre-set milling on hard and compact surfaces such as asphalt or concrete, the PL1500 really excels. We have seen benefits for operators not only during the operation, but also after,” he says.

“Thanks to the exclusive self-levelling system, we have seen operators reuse milled material for backfilling trenches. The PL1500 can create a sustainable outcome for many projects.”

Einam adds that efficiency is no longer an objective for many operators within the construction industry – instead it is a necessity.

“Due to the finite nature of some road base aggregates, reusing or recycling existing road bases through stabilisation is now more important then ever for many operators,” he says.

Optimum on all surfaces

The PL1500 has a proven performance on straight surfaces, but what about sloped surfaces?

Independent depth control is the answer. With depth controls on either side of the planer, it can create a sloped surface for a wide range of projects.

This is also aided by the PL1500 having a drum tilt capacity of 16 degrees, covering a multitude of sloped applications.

When paired with the self-levelling feature and the traverse tilt system, this ensures that height differences are minimised in the final product, even if a project is over un-even ground.

Depth adjustment, side shift and transverse lift for the PL1500 can all be operated hydraulically, ideal for using the attachment on different surfaces, including walls.

Additionally, most milled material can be contained within the work area, with perfect adherence to surfaces drastically reducing the chances of materials being launched during operation.

Simex planers are available across the country throughout the Simex dealership network which includes Walkers Hammers in Victoria and Tasmania, GroundTec in New South Wales, Queensland Rock Breakers in Queensland and Northern Territory, Total Rockbreaking Solutions in Western Australia and Renex Equipment in South Australia.