Monthly Archives: August 2013

Avoid Costly Repairs by Implying Preventive Maintenance Measures in Your Heavy Equipment

You may have the best of the heavy equipment available in the market to get the job done but what use it is of when it does not work at the time you need them the most. The reason for this is very strong and also alarming. It is certainly not that you have bought faulty equipments but it broke down as it was not properly maintained. The heavy equipment working constantly in the construction site are prone to dust and other foreign particles that can choke the flow of oil to its important parts which can lead to the breakdown. If not taken care off at the right junction, it may become a very expensive affair to you.

As you read on, you will come across many hazards that can occur due to not taking good care of your machine.

Hazard to the project:-  Big projects are given on the basis of the goodwill you carry in the construction industry and also on the type of equipments you have to get the work done. The project giver does not simply hand away projects to any newbie and are always on look of people who are experienced in this sector. They also see to the fact how maintained are the machines. If they have doubts on it, you may as well receive a negative reply from them which definitely will hurt your business. Moreover, the one that you have in hand may take a halt as you can’t move an inch ahead with your ceased to work equipments. This may take a bigger toll on your business and moreover to the goodwill that you have created in the last many years.

Cost to get the equipments repaired:-  We all know how expensive are heavy equipments and it is quite obvious that the parts of the machines are no less expensive. This means that if any part of the equipment goes faulty and is needed to be repaired, you need to shell out a good sum of money to get it replaced with a new one. Now assume that you have good number of machines which needs to be repaired. This means that you need to spend a fortune on them while you are also suffering a setback in your business. This would be completely unacceptable to any businessman who has been in this sector for years.

Cost incurred on the mechanic:-  The mechanic who repairs heavy equipments are very high in demand which is why they are quite expensive. They will get the machine up and running for you but will also charge hefty fee for that. You on the other hand are left with no option than paying him his charges.

All these could have been avoided if you had a team who will do nothing but look after the machine. The team can be a member of 3 people who are able and competent in their domain. They would be responsible to service the equipments are regular intervals and take due care of the machines. In this way, you can save a lot by taking good care of your machines.

It Is Better To Let Out Your Machines Rather Than Keeping Them Idle

What use is your heavy equipment for you if you are not able to utilize it due to non availability of work in hand? It is bitter to see them rot in the sun and rain and make no use of it. Heavy equipment are rather highly expensive and one cannot afford to see them do nothing. Well business is a mixture of ups and downs. The construction equipment was working in full swing when you had projects in hand. This was indeed the time when your business was picking up and getting projects were no longer a difficult job. However, when there is a declining trend in the business, you got to give some rest to your machines and at times the resting period simply does not wants to end.

It is then that you might want to take some very serious decisions. You can either think of selling them but that does not make much sense to you if the overall construction market goes sluggish. You may probably not find many buyers to take the deal. Other than that, if at all you get some buyers, they would like to buy the machine at their desired price. This means that you may have to sell it at a price way below the one you actually wanted to. In addition to this, when the market takes its turn and the real estate sector gets back in form, you’ll get projects but will find short of equipment.

In order to counter such a situation, it is prudent to let out your machine to a small time contactor who will pay you monthly rent for the equipment and once the tenure expires, you can expect to get the stuff back in the same condition that you’ve given him. Necessary paper work also needs to be undertaken before you let out the equipment to the party.

How to find a party

Finding a taker is no difficult deal as long you know the right ways to advertise your product. You can take help of newspaper classifieds or put them on internet or can even ask the people from your profession if they know someone who is interested to buy used equipment.

In order to advertise it in a newspaper, you need to get your facts right. Check which newspaper has a wider circulation in your city so that your advertisement reaches out to maximum people. You can even advertise in magazines which are exclusively meant to provide information on heavy equipment. People will know about you through such mediums and you will definitely get through with it.

You can also take help of posting an ad in a website which is into buying/renting and selling or heavy equipment. There you can have a larger scope to reach out to people looking for stuff you want to let out. All you have to do is give a brief description of your product and your contact details. Let the one interested call you up and you can ask them to have a visit and check the equipment all by themselves.

In this way you can still ensure an inflow of funds even if the entire construction business is on a downhill.

Becoming An Operator Can Turn Out As a Lucrative Career Option

We have just experienced the most extreme financial setback in the country and it seems that the economic condition of the country is falling back on track. Though it is taking its own sweet time but we can see a gradual upward movement in the graph that suggests things are getting back to normal. The period of recession was known as the dark days as there were large scale of unemployment throughout the country and people who were employed were living with fear of losing their jobs without getting any prior intimation. Well, this particular period was perhaps the most apprehensive time as far as jobs security is concerned.

In the midst of this destructible phase where people were losing jobs, the job of the operator was perhaps the only stuff that held its nerves till the end. People who were looking ahead to make a career as an operator of heavy equipment were thronging in for admissions in renowned technical institutes where they can gain good knowledge to operate heavy equipments and by the time they are done with their course and come out with flying colors, the recession would get over and they may expect good job opportunities waiting for them.

The job of an operator can unarguably turn out as the most lucrative career option in the present market condition. Construction industry is once again booming and people are buying apartments without any apprehension of economic fallout. The construction companies require competent operators who have sound knowledge of the equipment they would be operating. As a matter of fact, a competent operator is expected to know the in and outs of functioning the equipment and apart from this, they are also expected to know a little about changing parts of the machine, taking care of the equipment once you’re done with your work and things that will help to lengthen the life of the machine.

Once you join an institute, you’re first given the theoretical knowledge about different kinds of heavy equipment. You’ll get to see the different parts of the machine in the form of diagrams and will have to learn it from there. Once you clear the initial stage of your studies, you’ll then be given a bit of practical training where you will be taken to sites to see the real men working. This is where you will get a hang of what you would be dealing with in the future. It indeed excites many of the aspirants to see real men and machines working together. Such site visits will be organised on an usual basis so that you start learning things practically and are not entitled to know things as they are in the books.

You probably have to spend another 2 years gaining practical training after which you would be placed by your institution (Many institutions provides free placement to their students). The company that hires you place you under an experienced operator so that you learn more from him and become a capable and skilled operator.

Finding the Right Heavy Equipment Mechanic for the Job. Not Just a Parts Changer

When you are into a big construction business, you need to have heavy equipment of all types which can get the job done for you. These machines are expected to work round the clock and gets very little time to rest. Machines are perhaps quite similar to humans in this case and yes they too need some rest after the day’s long and tiring work. However, we on the other hand do not realize this and without allowing it to take its break continue with the arduous work. This is certainly taking a toll on the overall health of the equipment and very soon it may just give up to work.

Undoubtedly, the construction industry is the most demanding industry where not only humans but also machines are expected to work constantly. The company works on strict deadlines and in order to maintain the goodwill it has earned over the years, they do not like to compromise on those deadlines. But in this process, they are forgetting one very important point which is to maintain the machine by giving proper servicing. Since the equipment doesn’t get proper servicing, it becomes prone to chronic breakdowns which ultimately affect the project.

In such a situation, the most viable option is to get the equipment hooked with an able and competent mechanic who knows his work well and is sufficiently experienced to understand the issues in the machine and get it up and running. Nevertheless, it is not a simple task to get a good mechanic. All that you get are parts changer. Parts changer are perhaps good in changing the parts of the machine with a new one but may not be able to fix something for which you may not need the old stuff to be replaced in the first place. They can identify the problem but are no good in giving out solutions. Most likely, they will ask you change the parts and get rid of the problem.

As a matter of fact, parts of heavy equipments are as expensive as the machine itself is. You need to shell out a good sum of money if any important part of the machine is affected. Most of the times, you have the option to fix the affected part rather than getting it replaced which is probably more sensible and effective. In such a scenario, you need a good mechanic who can check and let you know what has gone wrong with the equipment and what he can do to get it fixed. A number of times, an able mechanic come out with ways and methods to fix the defective part. The last thing that’s there in his mind is to replace the faulty part with a new one. With his experience of years, he manages to set it right thus saving a good deal of money for you.

These mechanics are highly paid but are equally effective and are worth for every mint you pay to them.

Implications of hydraulic systems on heavy equipment

Heavy equipment are much needed operators from all aspects, from construction to excavation it is involved inextricably. All of these equipments are designed to accomplish the heavy laborious tasks with ease in contrast to the manual labor. In order to design such heavy equipments to work with a great efficiency, hydraulic systems are the best possible way which not only provide speed or efficiency but also allow the specific operator a fine precise movement. Instead of fluid or oil supplements, these ascribe of hydraulic principle is much more acceptable because of no compression under pressure via pump exerted by that of the fluid or oil.

Introduction to Hydraulic systems:

The word ‘Hydraulic’ generally refers to power produced by shifting and moving liquids. Modern hydraulics is defined as the use of confined liquid to transmit power, disseminate force and produce motion.

Key components of hydraulic system for heavy equipments:

¨      Fluid: it can be any kind of liquid but specially compounded petroleum oil is used preferably to lubricate and protect the system from corrosion.

¨      Reservoir: it is the storehouse of fluid

¨      Hydraulic pump: this particular section converts mechanical energy into hydraulic energy by forcing hydraulic fluid.

¨      Fluid lines: transfer the fluid thoroughly to and from the pump through the system.

¨      Actuator: this sector usually take the form of hydraulic cylinders and used on agricultural, construction and industrial equipment.

Hydraulic hoses in heavy equipments:

Hydraulic applications call for hydraulic hose of different constructions and capabilities. At present the engineers have bid goodbye to the antique hydraulic systems of early decade and introduced Hydraulic hoses for the heavy equipments, with a minimal space and weight requirements to produce high power output. Eventually, these contemporary systems have the potential to protect the metal pipe and tube conductors from rusting along with the capability to withstand the constant pulsating and the ability to absorb the shock and vibration. So the hydraulic hoses are widely used now-a-days means of power transmission in the heavy equipments.

Benefits on heavy equipments:

There are numerous distinct advantages of this application of Pascal’s law on the heavy equipments. Here we have discussed a few of them.

¨      Hydraulic systems are much more precisely used in their acceleration as it has the capability to gain an abrupt momentum and the capacity to manipulate higher torques with a relative ease.

¨      The heavy equipments running on hydraulic systems are much easier to maneuver as it facilitates the mechanism to change the direction with collaboration to an electric system.

¨      This particular system multiplies flexibility to the heavy equipments in order to accelerate, decelerate, forward and reverse the heavy operators with ease.

¨      Hydraulic system provides a greater output from a significantly lower input as it comes up with a high operating accessibility with a low RPM diesel engine

¨      Fuel consumption is notably inferior to the exemplary performance of the system.

¨      Moreover, the inflammability of the hydraulic system ensures enormous safety.

In addition to all these, there are manifold implications of this hydraulic systems like easy maintenance, lightweight are there on the heavy equipments furnishing the operators more effective.

Want To Know How Efficient Is Operator Of Your Heavy Equipment – Check His Own Cabin

In today’s competitive market, it is very hard to get a construction project and the one who gives you the project first analyse if you would be able to complete it or not. They judge you on various parameters like how long you have been running the business and the number of projects you have completed. How many projects you have in your hand and will you able to complete one more project on time if at all you currently have numerous in hand. They also check if you have all the heavy equipments in place that is required for the completion of the project and also the right person who can work on those equipments. Only if you have everything in place, you are able to bag the project or else there are many wolves in the wild that are waiting to snatch your share away from you.

Out of the many requirements stated above, almost all of them can be acquired with the help of money. However, there is probably one thing that requires your skill to understand a person well before you hire him and that is hiring heavy equipment operator. You may spend good chunk of money to buy the most advanced heavy equipment but you need skills to pick an able operator. One must have the eye to judge who would be the person who can do his job well. An operator’s job is no longer limited to just doing this work and once the job is done, just leave the machine there and go back home. His job is far more than what we all think.

It is all about treating the construction equipment as his equipment. An able operator would treat the equipment as his equipment and would park it at the place meant for it to stay. Moreover, he would like the things inside his cabin to be organised so that whenever he needs something, he should get it in a blink of an eye. Operators who keep their cabin messed up in no way can be good employees. They may be very good in their work but what good it is of when they struggle to find things that is kept in a messy cabin and particularly when they need them the most. That actually depicts the character of the individual. It also shows the person as a lazy bone who knows his work and also has the ability to do it quite efficiently but does not has the will to do it. Such operators can be a concern for the project and ultimately for the organisation.

In order to make the operators more responsible in life, there should be few rules put up on them. Firstly, they should be given the overall responsibility of the machine and in no way should any breakdown hamper the progress of the project which if happens would be seriously dealt with. A list of do’s and don’ts must be put up on their cabin which will define the way they should keep things inside. If they experience any fault in the machine then that should be dealt in the same day and if it’s something outside their knowledge, it should be immediately informed to the next supervisor who can take charge of things.

These practices will only make the operator better in his work and will refine him into altogether a new employee.

Hydraulic Hammers – A Must in the Construction and Mining Industry

If you think the construction industry is all about breaking old establishments and building a new one in its place, then you are partially correct. Though it is not all about just breaking whatever old you see around you and replace it with a new building but it’s about many other things which we don’t see. For instance, for constructing a hotel in an open plot, you do not need to break any old settlement. However, you can’t distance the subject of breaking things from this industry and therefore when we talk about breaking establishments, we are indeed talking about good strong hammers that can break off the old stuff without denting itself.
Just like one particular medicine can’t cure all the ailments, in the same manner one type of hammer can’t be used for all the breaking purposes. There are different series of hammers that are used for different work based on the type of work it has to do. Here we would be discussing about hydraulic hammers and different series of hydraulic hammers used for various purposes.
Light weighted hammers:- You need these light weighted hammers on small construction sites where you have things which are not very huge and strong and can be perished at few strokes from a light weighted hammer. Alternatively, it is used on machines which are considerably smaller than the ones we see on huge construction sites. These machines are used at sites which have problems with space and can’t allow access to big machines.
Medium weighted hammers:- Then we have medium weighted hammers which are used in mid-sized projects. They are comparatively stronger than the light weighted hammers and hence has the potential to break down stuffs which are quite strong. They however have to limit themselves in demolishing huge structures. These hammers are also known for consuming less fuel and are highly productive.
Heavy weighted hammers:- These are considered as the most powerful hydraulic hammers which are used by big construction houses. If we talk about big construction companies, they prefer to keep all sets of hammers as they may require either of them at any point in time. However, it is the heavy weighted hammers which are used extensively by them. These hammers are required in projects which are mighty big and need hammers which has more power and can work for longer duration. It’s important to note that heavy weighted hammers are available in huge range of series and that each type of hammer is used for its own specific kind of work. Therefore, the kind of hammer one chooses entirely depends on the kind of project he would be requiring them at.
After having understood about the different kinds of hammers, let us change our focus on buying them. It’s often advisable to buy used hammer rather than spending money on brand new which would also cost more to you. You can buy them online on any online selling site. There you can get in touch with the seller and may seek a better deal.

Get Rich by Moving In the Construction Industry

Becoming rich is perhaps we all dream of but only a fraction of us do make it to the top. It’s not that others may not have the skill to do the work but probably they are associated with the industry that doesn’t offer growth that quickly. Therefore, it’s possible that they have to spend more time in their respective domain and wait to make it big. Ideally, it makes much more sense to get linked with something which can give you what you want much quickly. In a nutshell, if success is what you are looking for, step into the construction industry.

Realty business is perhaps one of the high profits earning business and men working in this industry have more to get than to lose. For every bit of their work, they get compensated and may be this is what keeps them happy and motivates them to do better. For a beginner who has just entered into the construction industry with the dream of making it big in this domain needs to understand few things before he keeps his foot on the accelerator. For the industry to give you what you want you need to give few things to this sector and that would be your undivided attention, high level of dedication and devotion towards your work. In return you can expect all the resources that can make you become rich.

Following are the points which one should consider before he steps in this sector.

Work harder to accomplish to goals:-  Nothing can be a substitute for hard work. You need to remember that and keep working hard unless you accomplish your goals. More importantly, you need to set your goals and in order to achieve them; you should have a strategy in place. Moving in no direction is pointless. Therefore, setting goal is important and having a strategy in place becomes all the more important for you to achieve them. You may even have to skip your Sunday holidays and have to come to office. Well, that’s the price you supposedly pay to see your business standing in a consolidated position.

Take help/guidance from mentors:-  It is very important that you take help from your well-wishers. Their guidance can help you in avoiding serious mistakes. Make a learned man as your mentor and take advices from him. They may also help you with places from where you can pick up heavy equipments or their parts at a discounted price. Thus the role of a mentor in your life can be really helpful.

Human resources:-  Out of all the resources needed in a successful completion of a construction project, human resources is unarguably the most important of them. You need to ensure that you have the best men with you who are experienced and are considered as fine workers. Right from heavy equipment operators to stone masons, you need all to know their work well and get the work done within the stipulated time frame.

There is no shortcut to become rich. However, construction industry offers people an opportunity to earn money quickly than any other industry.

John Deere – The Future of Heavy Equipment

A company’s future is heavily depended on few important factors such as the quality production of consumable goods, advertise the product throughout the city and if possible throughout the country if only they have the capability to cater nationally and last but not the least to provide excellent after sales service.

 In order words, a company should have very good customer service so that clients can call them up in case they experience any sort of difficulty with the product they have bought. These few things are a pre-requisite of any company to hold on for long but when it comes to heavy equipment, the producers need to be all the more cautious in all the above given parameters.

Other than that, they also need to give due importance to innovation as that is the key in today’s highly dynamic world. As long as you are creative with your stuffs, you can manage to have a hold in the market or else you may start finding things slipping away from your hands.

 There are very few companies who have managed to hold their positions after being formed years ago. Many companies due to poor managerial skills and by neglecting the needs of their customers have just got vanished in the dust of time but very few managed to stay and grow and out of these few companies, we have John Deere as an exemplary example. Companies like John Deere don’t have to worry about their future because they remain quite focus on their present and try to work things which in itself take care of the future.

John Deere is one of the companies which have worked hard to give quality equipments to its clients nationally as well as globally and has the potential to scale to new heights in the future.

To make things short, there are few things which can decide the future of a company and it seems that John Deere very much possess all the qualities required to stay for long. To name few of the qualities are as follows:-

Focus on your client’s requirements:-  We all know that Customer is the king and we can’t dare play around with the king’s needs. John Deere has taken every possible step to ensure that their customers get what they want. Their engineers work on the survey they receive from a good lot of folks and based on the survey and some independent research, they work on producing equipments that eventually becomes the role model for other heavy equipment companies.

Creativity:-  John Deere’s engineers are quite creative and always pay heed to designing something that makes their client say “Wow, this is exactly what I was looking for”. Creativity is an art and it seems that guys working with John Deere have mastered this art.

Customer’s feedback:-  We have seen all big companies have a column which says “Customer’s Feedback”. Well, this segment is very vital for the smooth running of a company. They should welcome customer’s feedback and should be reverted stating the degree of work being done on their feedback. For example, a customer writes a complaint and is probably very disgusted with the service. This should be handled quite strategically and assurances should be given that his complaints would be met by the proper department who would be competent enough to handle this situation.

What Heavy Equipments Are Needed For Road Construction

Construction of roads is an ardent task for both the government and the one who has taken the job. Companies given the job to construct roads need to have all sorts of heavy equipments available with them as heavy equipment has its own significance in road construction and without them it’s pretty unimaginable to even move a stone from one place to the other. We need a bulldozer to level the land or an excavator to excavate the land, remove the waste mud from the place and then level the land. Then we may also require a loader to take off the snow from the land or if it used to construct a road in mid of a forest, then it can be used to carry the logs and ferry it from once place to the other. Therefore, each machine has its own significance in this purpose and the absence of any of the machine can severely impact the entire project.

The construction company needs to have a thorough knowledge on how things work in this domain. Any previous experience in constructing roads will always work as an added advantage to them. We would be discussing in brief about the role than heavy equipments play towards the construction of roads in US.

Hydraulic excavators:-  These are used to excavate earth and remove the unwanted mud from the face of the earth and dump it in a truck. It’s not only used to excavate earth but also used to remove huge blocks of stone, logs lying on the ground and things which are unwanted and needs to be dumped. With the help of the shovel, it takes up the stuff from the earth and put it in the truck which then ferries them in the dump yard.

Bulldozers:-  Bulldozers are ideally used to level the land. They have those heavy rollers in their front which is used to crush every particle that’s in its way and mixes it with the layer of the earth. Bulldozers are seen in many road construction sites rolling the tar on the road and make the surface smooth as ever.

Loaders:-  This is another important heavy equipment which is widely used during construction of roads. Especially places which have the surface covered with snow, the loaders are extensively used to load the snow in the bucket and ferry it to the truck. Many construction companies are using hydraulic loaders which give them high power, more efficiency and low fuel consumption.

Articulated trucks:-  When we talk about construction of roads, articulated trucks plays a significant role in getting the work done quickly. The heavy equipments take off the unwanted materials. However, that is loaded on the truck which eventually ferries the stuff to the dump yard or which is on the same job site. Without these trucks, life would have been very difficult for the construction companies and thus considered as important equipment.

Companies that manufacture heavy equipments are Caterpillar, John Deere, Hitachi, Volvo etc. Roads bridge the gap between 2 cities and are very imperative as far as the growth of the nation is considered.