With machinery ever increasing in complexity and size, the ability to design an easy-to-operate piece of construction machinery which requires minimal to no user training is a value not lost on Ralf Peter, Dynapac’s National Technical Paving Specialist.
The City Paver, created by global construction equipment manufacturer Dynapac and distributed in Australia by CEA, is one example of this value, designed with user friendliness and operability in mind, cramming power into a compact package.
Having worked with competitive models in the past, Peter is one who understands the importance of each of those factors, however none less important than creating an easy-to-operate machine.
“Having an easy-to-use machine is important, especially for businesses which are consistently changing crews, or hiring different equipment,” says Peter. “Ideally, you should be able to jump into a new machine and know how to operate it on a basic level, even if you’ve never dealt with it before.”
To Peter, having simple functions and buttons that are recognisable to operators is what helps drive the easy operation concept of the Dynapac City Paver.
The City Paver features a large display
and operators control panel with simple buttons and switches that Peter highlights is important in assisting operators to both feel and control the paving operation better.
Size matters
With the City Paver being a compact frame paver, another feature Peter touches on is its ability to easily manoeuvre around site with speed.
“The City Paver can pretty much set up, pave, pack up and be moved onto the next project, all within a short timeframe,” says Peter.
Dynapac’s City Pavers are able to lay up to 350 tonnes of asphalt per hour, with working widths ranging from 0.7 metre to 4.7 metre wide.
“So even though it’s a smaller frame machine, it’s big enough to still put on extensions that allow the Dynapac to increase its paving width,” says Peter. “However, it still remains small enough to do a variety of smaller, more precise jobs, and it’s very good with fuel consumption.”
Continuous improvement
A way Dynapac has been able to continuously refine the machines’ user experience and friendliness is by going straight to the source: the users themselves.
“In Australia, when a customer comes to us, our process is to offer them a trial machine so they can fully experience what the machine is like,” explains Peter. “And then, we provide them with a feedback form which they fill out for us, painting a picture of how the machine performed compared with the customers’ expectations.”
From there, the CEA team passes the feedback onto the Dynapac factory in Germany where the engineers are able to collate this feedback with other clients’ feedback from all around the world to improve Dynapac’s machine design.
“This helps the machine to be consistently improved and made easier for operators to use,” says Peter. “[That comes by] listening to people that actually use it.”
Downer getting digital
Downer shares its experience with CEA and Dynapac’s City Pavers.
Downer are always exploring different styles of pavers from their current fleet, when an encounter with Peter opened the door of opportunity and they were able to try the new City Pavers. The initial trial saw Downer using a six-foot paver which was able to lay down 680 tonnes in its debut shift.
The amount of asphalt the machine was able to lay down, however, wasn’t the only benefit. The City Paver also offered Downer greater digital capabilities and data than ever experienced before.
The City Paver by Dynapac is a compact and user-friendly asphalt paver.
With Dynapac’s new City Paver having online instant reporting abilities, Downer fleet operators could gather real-time data on what the machine was doing, it’s performance and when these events were occurring.
This all falls under Dynapac’s inclusive customer service. Consistent updates are sent to the machine’s owners automatically, using the City Paver’s built-in GPS tracker to send data on where the machine has been, as well as information on how it is performing at any point in time.
And how did the Downer team find the equipment’s user friendliness? Downer reports finding Dynapac’s City Paver quick and easy to learn, with the Downer team being able to train people with limited previous machine knowledge.
Paving the way
With an overwhelming positive response from Australian customers in the last year, Peter is confident in the continuous up-take of the Dynapac Pavers.
“Even though we initially introduced it around 2016 and 2017, we’ve only just started to ramp up our marketing operations, and already we’ve had really positive feedback,” says Peter. “We’re currently running more trials in Melbourne and hope to develop a good customer base from here, because that’s what we’ve built this machine around: our customers.”
This article originally appeared in the June edition of our magazine. To read the magazine, click here.
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