Every now and then, one of our customers will approach us with a unique challenge that requires a bit of creative problem solving to overcome. Recently, a Houston-based company called Southern Crushed Concrete, Inc. came to us with just such a challenge.
This company tears up paved concrete and hauls it to one of its local recycling plants, where it can be crushed and reused as base material. The customer was doing its demo work with a standard ESCO XDP bucket on a 30 ton class excavator. Unfortunately, repeated pounding on concrete surfaces was causing the lifting eye on the back of the bucket to wear out. The company’s equipment manager – Mr. David Hooker was looking for another possible solution other than using a hydraulic hammer to tear up the concrete.
With Mr. Hooker’s experience and suggestions we collaborated with the engineers at ESCO’s bucket division in Covington, Kentucky to develop a customized bucket that could crush concrete without destroying itself in the process. ESCO replaced the standard lifting eye with a heavy-duty spike that’s better-suited for demolition work. ESCO also installed ESCO’s Kwik-Wing® Shrouds into the sides of the bucket and added wear shoes to the corners. They also added support to the back of the bucket with additional wear strips. The end result is a powerful, durable bucket that perfectly meets the needs of our customer. Now, they are retrofitting their old buckets with the Kwik-Wing® Shroud System and ordering new buckets that include the spike.
Self-driving vehicles might still seem like pretty futuristic pieces of technology, but within a few short years they could become commonplace—even on construction sites. This year, Florida’s transportation department launched a pilot program that uses autonomous trucks to make highway construction sites safer.
