Why a Road Maintenance Unit?

Road maintenance is a multitude of back breaking tasks. It covers things like pothole patching to cleaning up roads after an oil spill to cutting down shrubs that may have overgrown and now blocking the view of drivers. The list of work that appears under the title of road maintenance is endless. The word backbreaking in the first sentence is the major problem. It results in high staff turnover, high absenteeism, low motivation, high costs in workman's compensation and often overstaffing of the crews. The Flocon Unit minimises the back breaking content of the work and immediately reduces these human resource problems.

Moving on from human resource problems to productivity improvement. The same amount of men or perhaps fewer men producing two to three time the out put (See Customer Endorsement 1). A reduction of one man in the crew or an increase in productivity of two or three means that the unit will pay for itself easily within two years. Considering that most user have their Flocon Unit for normally six to twelve years, it is easy to justify and to look seriously at the purchase of a Flocon Road Maintenance Unit.

In addition to the above considerations, half the problem with doing a job is ensuring you have all the equipment to do the job. Considerable amount of time lost in organising and gathering equipment to carry out specific tasks. The philosophy behind the Multi-purpose Flocon Unit is a completely self-contained unit specifically designed for road maintenance. Everything you need (hopefully) is on the truck so it does not matter what the task is; it can be done quickly, efficiently with the minimum amount of organisation.

 

Should I have a multi-purpose unit or a unit dedicated to a task?

This question needs to look at culture of the organisation purchasing the road maintenance unit. Some organisations have already looked at their road maintenance and know the amount of time spent on various tasks in a year. Typical examples of this are as follows:

In a large country type council, it was found that there was a large amount of edge repairs and it was decided that there was so much work in this area that they could dedicate a unit and a couple of men to this task. Typical improvements in productivity of up to 5 times were seen. This improvement meant that edge repairs were now not a full year task and gave the crew time to take up another specialised area. This crew had two options available to them that suited the truck. These were the paving unit or the maintenance spray sealing unit.

Because the majority of the work was in the country, the council opted to take up the maintenance spray sealing unit. The edge repair and spray seal unit are two functions that can be easily combined into one unit using the Flocon road maintenance system.

This crew also looks after a few small towns with hot mix plants in them as well. It is expected that they will eventually purchase the paving unit. The Flocon Unit can easily be manufactured to carry out one; two or three specialised maintenance tasks saving a large investment in men, equipment and contractors.

The other type of council has a crew of people that are continuously looking at what else is there to be done when they are out doing a job. This type of crew will for example repair pot-holes on the one day and return the following day with an edge maintenance unit or a spray seal unit or a maintenance paving unit to complete all the tasks in that area that were noticed on the previous day. Typical change over time for an attachment is less than fifteen minutes making the multi-purpose unit a good solution for this type of a council.

 

What cab chassis should I select for my road maintenance unit?

One to two tonnes of material a day can be expected to be used with hot mix type patching and up to 3 tonnes of a day grit could be expected to be used with the blower type technology in an urban environment. If there are areas where the turning circle is a problem, consideration should be given to limiting the vehicle to 7000 kg to 12000 kg GVM.

Typical cab chassis for rural type environment would be 16000 kg GVM. 6 tonnes of grit a day could be expected to be used with the blower type technology in a rural environment. Consideration should be given to 24000 kg GVM cab chassis in rural areas where stockpile of material is of a considerable distance. This is only practical with dry type material.

Consideration must be given to ground speed when spreading attachments are used. The lower the ground speed the better will be the spreading characteristics. In the case of the maintenance-paving unit, it is essential that the ground speed is between two to three kilometres per hour at 1000 RPM engine speed in the lowest gear. It is possible to fit an auxiliary gearbox to do this if this is not achievable in a standard cab chassis.

Flocon can build a road maintenance unit to fit any cab chassis. The ideal cab chassis for a two to five tonne unit will have a cab to axle dimension of 2800 mm and units larger than that will have a cab to axle of 3200 mm. The cab chassis should have a manual transmission and air brakes. Cab chassis details are required at the time of quoting.

 

What type of conveyor system should I use on my road maintenance unit?

There are two conveyor systems used in the construction of the road maintenance unit. These are the chain conveyor system and the rubber belt system. The rubber belt system is used only with dry materials. If there is a need to use hot mix or cold mix or any such sticky products, the chain conveyor system should be used. The chain conveyor system is also suitable for all dry materials. The chain conveyor system should be used in all cases where a heated floor is required or installed.

 

Heated floor or no heated floor?

It is recommended that a heated floor is always used when the unit is required to be used with hot mix or cold mix. The heating helps to maintain the useability of the material.

Consideration should be given to a heated floor with the Flopatcher as it helps to dry the material in the storage bin.

 

Emulsion system operated by a pump or using compressed air?

Our experience with air pumping systems and low pressure pumping system is that the service requirements are identical. The emulsion system will block up if you put poor emulsion in the air operated system or in the system operated by a pump. The air-operated system is a lot more difficult to clean because of the size of the inspection cover.

Emulsion is a product that has a limited store life and also needs constant attention when stored. It is bitumen suspended in a fluid. Under certain conditions, the bitumen is designed to come out of the fluid. All the problems associated with the handling of bitumen are present once the fluid and the bitumen separate irrespective of an air operated pumping system or a low pressure pumping system.

We believe the matter of air pumping or mechanical pumping is a matter of personal preference. Flocon will build a unit with whatever emulsion pumping system the customer may require. If a customer selects an air pumping system, the truck brake compressor will not be used as the air source. We will supply a separate independent compressor for the road maintenance unit only

 

Live drive or no live drive?

There is a theory that live drive can overcome the problem of low speed required for spreading and regular clutch failure because the driver is continuously slipping the clutch in order to obtain a low ground speed. This is incorrect in both cases. If low ground speed is required the gear ratios must be looked at and an auxiliary gearbox fitted if required.

There are occasions where a live drive is an advantage. Typical of this is the Flopatcher used on edges. The truck can move slowly, stop and start with the hydraulic power continuously applied. If a live drive is to be fitted, it must be a factory original drive rather than an add on using fan belts. There are no circumstances in which Flocon would build a belt driven live drive.