Peter Windley, Team Coordinator Waste Operations, Shoalhaven City Council waste services was looking to improve machine efficiency, maximise air space and extend the landfill life of the West Nowra landfill site.

In particular, Mr Windley wanted to use GNSS technology on the site’s landfill compactor. To achieve these goals, Position Partners worked with Shoalhaven City Council to implement the Carlson LandfillGrade machine guidance system.

“Overall reduction of landfilling is certainly an organisational goal for Shoalhaven City Council Waste Operations,” he said. “Maximising air space within our current landfills is a major factor in our strategic planning and, when used in conjunction with effective resource recovery activities, will ensure we prolong the landfill lifespan.”

“We conducted a trial of the Carlson LandfillGrade system in partnership with Position Partners,” Mr Windley added. “The system was fitted to our existing landfill compactor at the West Nowra landfill site. The results have been extraordinary.”

Why did Shoalhaven City Council choose the Carlson LandfillGrade machine guidance system?

The West Nowra landfill site required a technology solution that would complement the sites’ current strategy and allow Mr Windley’s team to be agile in its recycling and waste operations and continue to provide residents with state-of-the-art waste management services.

Following the trial with Position Partners, the team at West Nowra landfill site kept the Carlson LandfillGrade installed on their Tana E520 landfill compacter and now have plans to include a rover unit on the site in 2019. Mr Windley has found that the Tana E520 landfill compacter and the Carlson LandfillGrade from Position Partners work together seamlessly.

“It is a natural fit and we have seen some excellent results in air space savings and significant reductions in filling and compaction costs,” Windley said.

Benefits of implementing the Carlson LandfillGrade machine guidance system

Prior to implementing the Carlson LandfillGrade from Position Partners, the West Nowra team struggled to ensure consistent landfilling practice with inconsistent filling and considerable reworking a common problem.

“This was very time consuming and inconsistent filling was very common, requiring considerable reworking at times,” he said. “Supervisory staff had to hold tip face, regular meetings multiple times per week and at shift changes just to ensure consistent landfilling practice.”

“These issues are now a thing of the past, our compaction rates have increased, cell filling is exact, we use significantly less cover material and have seen considerable reduction in fuel usage,” he added

Mr Windley found that the Carlson LandfillGrade from Position Partners was the best fit for the Shoalhaven City Council landfill site for a wide range of reasons, including:

• Improvements in airspace utilisation and maximised compaction to reach optimum density in less time;
• The ability to measure waste volume and density daily;
• The ability to import weighbridge data for accurate daily density calculations;
• Minimise daily cover use in accurately measuring cover material;
• Track waste compaction (deflection and pass counts) in real-time;
• Determine slope and grade management;
• Assist operators to eliminate overfill for outer design slopes and need for rectification;
• GPS locate and record hazardous waste within landfill cell;
• Record actual material placement;
• The ability to locate and track avoidance zones such as gas wells and hazardous material placement;
• To provide connectivity of machines and office;
• Remote monitoring of machines and work completed;
• Provide historical playback for machines and material placement;
• Easily generate airspace, daily density and volume reports.

 “The reporting and monitoring features of this system are excellent,” he said. “The 3D replay feature is great for operator tool box talks and issues relating to multiple operators and continuity on a filling face over seven days have been eliminated entirely. They just follow the design on the screen.”

The importance of service and support during purchasing and implementation

One of the major factors that Mr Windley took into consideration when choosing to implement Carlson LandfillGrade machine guidance technology was the service and support offered by Position Partners.

“Dieter, from the landfill and mining section of Position Partners, has been excellent, he has conducted training sessions for our team and provided a thorough level of support,” he said.

“The improvements to our disposal cell areas and filling activities are substantial. Operators have been able to fill according to the exact design, with reduced machine passes and use minimal cover. Saving time, cost and maximising air space utilisation,” he added.

“Every landfill operator should consider this technology to maximise landfill life and reduce costs.”

About Shoalhaven City Council

Shoalhaven City Council waste services is responsible for recycling, resource recovery and waste disposal activities for a local government area of approximately 5,000km² and 100,000 residents. Shoalhaven City Council is committed to finding the most effective ways to reduce, reuse and recycle for its communities and offer its residents contemporary facilities and leading technologies to reduce waste in the environment.

Peter Windley, Team Coordinator Waste Operations with Shoalhaven City Council, leads a team of 56 staff that manage daily operations at Shoalhaven City Council’s 10 recycling and waste facilities including two landfills, transfer stations at each site, a pre-booked garden organics and bulky goods collection service, 10 Community Recycling Centres (CRC’s), seven buy-back recycling shops and three former landfills.

Cameron Waters, Business Manager – Geospatial Systems, Position Partners

The construction industry has the lowest productivity and the most amount of rework. So, while the manufacturing, mining and farming industries are all increasing productivity, the construction industry is doing the opposite.

So, let’s talk solutions

Technology and automation are no longer the future of infrastructure: they are the present. It’s not often that a solution comes along that can improve a workflow so dramatically that it improves all critical performance factors: safety, productivity and quality, not by 5-10% but by 500-1,000%.

During the construction of a road there are several line marking tasks that are traditionally done by a surveyor. With the change to a digital construction model the role of the surveyor is changing and a repeatable task, like line marking, is perfectly suited to automation, allowing the surveyor to concentrate on more project critical tasks.

The Tiny Surveyor not only automates the task of line marking but will produce a higher quality result with consistent repeatability, all at a rate that’s up to 10 times faster than conventional surveying.

No Facebook updates, lunch breaks or sick days for this workaholic

Don’t believe the hype…it’s very easy to make a claim in today’s fast pace world but we can, and we do. In a recent trial we pitted an experienced surveyor against our little hero, the Tiny Surveyor.

The surveyor got away faster as the Tiny Surveyor needs some time to position itself with the alignment but once it got running, it had caught the surveyor within 15m. After the Tiny Surveyor had completed 200m with line marking every 1m, the surveyor had only completed 40m with a dot every 5m.

Don’t believe it? Check out the video showing how the Tiny Surveyor is going to change the world of line marking forever!

Unlike a person, the more work that needs doing the more productive the Tiny Surveyor is

The safety improvements the Tiny Surveyor solution can offer can’t be overstated. By removing the surveyor from the road, you remove all risk to life, simple! The surveyor can load the design files and once validated anyone can be trained to task the Tiny Surveyor with line marking activities and action mobile traffic management, if required, rather than road closures.

The quality of the line marking is another huge factor for the contractors laying curbs and lane marking. With a greater frequency of lines there is no need for any interpretation of the alignment or arcs, so the final finish is exactly what was designed.

The team behind the Tiny Surveyor, TinyMobileRobots, specialize in high-precision, reliable robots to support the way our customers work. They are dedicated to creating simple, user-friendly robots of the highest quality.

We turn technology into meaningful solutions

Position Partners has been working closely with TinyMobileRobots over the last 12 months to ensure all aspects of the workflows are optimised for its construction market. With all certifications and workflows complete the Tiny Surveyor is now ready to get to work! Contact your local Position Partners office today to learn more about optimizing productivity on your project.

Source: Cameron Waters, Business Manager – Geospatial Systems, Position Partners

 

Our Brisbane team has outgrown the Acacia Ridge office, so we’re excited to announce a bigger and better branch that will cater for all your sales, support, rental and service needs.

Please take note of the address, which will be our new home from Monday 10th December and drop in soon for a coffee:

1075 Beaudesert Road, Archerfield (entry via Kerry Road).
For parking, follow the one way system around to the front of the building.

According to Safe Work Australia, the mining industry has seen a 51% increase in the number of serious claims for disease and injury between 2000-01 and 2013-14. Proximity detection and collision awareness systems are the kind of safe guards that mine operators can implement to reduce accidents, keep track of machine movements and mitigate risk across the site.

Proximity detection systems can increase safety on site by alerting machine operators, drivers of light vehicles and individuals on foot to their proximity to other workers on site via small devices fitted to the machine or worn on clothing.  Collision awareness technology alerts operators to collisions, either with other machines or assets such as coal valves, stacker and reclaimers on stockpiles when they enter an avoidance zone.

Since the technology’s inception, proximity detection and collision awareness solutions have become both more sophisticated and easier to use. Historically some systems have been known to ‘over alarm’ or be very complex to install and manage, becoming a hinderance to productivity. This ‘boy who cried wolf’ situation can lead to more dangerous conditions on site with machine operators and workers not treating alarms with the same seriousness due to the high number of false alarms.

The way to reduce these false alarms and increase urgency and reaction to alarms is to improve accuracy. Some systems, such as those by Blue Electronics, have features that increase accuracy and greatly reduce false alarms. Blue Electronics has improved the technology around its collision avoidance systems with the use of SBAS and Bluetooth low energy technology, a failsafe method that covers you if GPS drops out.

According to Position Partners, Blue Electronics’ solution provider for Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia, the systems offer a highly modular and user-friendly solution. “The devices can be installed in a matter of minutes on any machine, heavy or light, so they can be swapped between plant,” said Andrew Granger, Position Partners Business Development Manager for Mining.

“A relative accuracy of +/- 1 metre is achievable with no special infrastructure,” he added. “However for applications requiring higher accuracy such as stockpiles and rehabilitation, operators can upgrade the system by adding a base station or our AllDayRTK network and achieve accuracies of +/- 25mm. These systems are extremely reliable and easy to deploy, they are a great option for all mine sites, large or small.”