Quality Fabrication and Engineering’s Road Ant is providing industry with a safe and robust option, as demand increases for forward moving aggregate spreaders for road construction across Victoria.
The road construction and maintenance industry has undergone significant change since the Victorian Government’s mandate in July 2022 which required all vehicles that discharge aggregates to become forward moving,
Businesses received a five-year notice from the Victorian Government in 2017 (VicRoads Standard 408 clause 408.11) to design, approve and implement a forward aggregate spreading machine.
Now four months on from the 1 July mandate, Quality Fabrication and Engineering’s Road Ant is still making noise across the industry.
As Quality Fabrication and Engineering General Manager Glenn Hardiman tells Roads & Infrastructure, the uniquely designed dual control aggregate spreader aims to reduce risks for operators and nearby spray seal ground crews.
“As we started development on the Road Ant, we knew that safety was a concern throughout the industry. That’s one of the main reasons the mandate was introduced in the first place,” Hardiman says.
“In the past there may have been a focus on operating as simply as possible to optimise profits. But this attitude led to several near misses and unfortunately some injuries to workers.
“If we can prevent just one accident, then I believe we’ve achieved a lot.”
The Road Ant can be operated from both the rear and front ends of the machine, removing the need for reversing on site when spreading.
Hardiman says that the Road Ant was built from the ground up to address the safety concerns of those within the industry.
“Our concept focused on ensuring that the operator could fully, and safely have control of the vehicle from either end, while maintaining correct weight distributions to both steer and drive axles.
“David Taylor, our Design Engineer was pivotal ensuring that our design and practical trials would confirm the front axle group had enough weight at all times, so operators can safely steer and stop the unit while not overloading the rear axles. This can often cause damage to the freshly spread surface.
Visibility was another concern that was directly addressed in the Road Ant’s design.
“Having a dual control forward moving spreader, with this kind of discharge ability, greatly removes the need for ground spotters,” Hardiman says. “The operator has clear view of work site at all times.”
The Road Ant also features an automated emergency braking (AEB) system. When reversing, if a person or object is detected within a work area limit set by the operator, the system will automatically apply the brakes.
To match its efforts in design and engineering of the Road Ant, Quality Fabrication and Engineering patented the innovations internationally, through PCT/AU2020/050636.
“Our team really pushed the engineering boundaries to achieve such a flexible and robust machine, especially in regards to our machines ability to be successfully adapted to a variety of cab chassis,” Hardiman says, “We believe that the Road Ant addresses the long term needs of the Australian spray seal industry.”
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- Dual spreading control with Road Ant
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A host of new features
Quality Fabrication and Engineering is always looking to develop the Road Ant, particularly when it comes to increasing the sustainability and technological offerings of the forward moving spreader.
“We’ve installed a new hydraulic system which greatly reduces the load on the vehicle’s engine, so the machine isn’t working as hard as it would with previous systems. Therefore, it creates less emissions. It’s also smoother to operate because of the reduced engine load,” Hardiman says.
A new control panel, fitted alongside a ‘smart spreading’ feature have also been introduced with newer iterations of the Road Ant model.
“The new control system is very user-friendly, allowing operators to control the speed of the vehicle virtually, therefore reducing the chances of “over spreading” or spreading more stone than necessary.
“The smart spreading feature automatically monitors the rate of material discharge, relevant to road speed. If the need to sweep off excess stone is reduced, this drastically reduces waste.”
VSA’s view
VSA Roads, one of Victoria’s leading spray sealing, asphalt and quarrying companies, recently added two Road Ant models to its existing machinery fleet.
Operating since 2009, VSA Roads has surfaced more than 2300 kilometres of pavement annually.
“Our operation is very extensive,” says Justin Bartlett, VSA Roads Managing Director.
“We needed a vehicle that would allow our operators to have a direct line of sight towards the front of the machine, instead of relying on mirrors and cameras. Operator visibility was one of the biggest reasons why we went with the Road Ant.”
Bartlett says VSA Roads has found the Road Ant to be the vehicle of choice for difficult working environments, including compact applications. A testament to the Road Ant’s agility, despite its throughput and size.
“We’ve found that the Road Ant really comes into its own in the most challenging applications where we need to seal pavements. It’s very effective on shoulder widening, through intersections and through areas where there’s variability in the width of the working area,” he says.
“For us, it’s a significant point of difference as we’re able to achieve considerable productivity improvements.”
Bartlett says he’s been impressed with Quality Fabrication and Engineering’s service and anticipates that the professional relationship between the two companies will only get stronger.
“You can tell how passionate they are about their products. If there’s an opportunity for improvement, those guys are already thinking about how to make this system better,” he says.
“They genuinely believe in the Road Ant. For me, that’s what really stands out.”
This article was originally published in the November edition of our magazine. To read the magazine, click here.