Bomag showed off the future of road construction at their Innovation Days
With the Innovation Days 2019, Bomag hosted its fourth in-house exhibition at its parent plant in Boppard from 9 to 14 September. At the biennial event, the construction equipment manufacturer showed the complete product range from the small 58 kg tamper to the 58-ton refuse compactor to over 1,300 guests from around 60 countries.
In keeping with the slogan “Think further – Road Equipment and Solutions by Bomag”, the latest technologies, alternative drives, and future-oriented studies were presented at the company’s own demonstration centre. During the Innovation Days, Bomag continued the trend that visitors had already experienced at bauma: In addition to the tried-and-tested Bomag machines, the focus was on assistance systems and service solutions that will make the construction site of the future possible in the first place.
September at Bomag was dominated by the Innovation Days. The construction equipment manufacturer welcomed visitors to its fourth in-house exhibition in Boppard. At each of three events, the guests enjoyed a two-day program with machine presentations in the training and demo center as well as expert lectures on assistance systems and a wide variety of pioneering technologies. A factory tour was also included in the programme.
“The Bomag Innovation Days are an important event for us to present the latest developments in road construction to our customers. We are consistently continuing along the path we showcased at bauma 2019,” says Ralf Junker, President of Bomag, about the significance of the Innovation Days. “In our demo and training centre, we also get the chance to show our visitors the products we presented at bauma in greater detail and live in action. This allows us to demonstrate the entire construction cycle from stabilising and compacting to asphalting and repairing under real conditions. In addition to our machine displays, factory tours are an important part of the Innovation Days. This gives our customers an insight into our high level of vertical integration on site, and the opportunity to experience our quality awareness for themselves.”
Bomag technologies save resources and protect the environment
Visitors to bauma 2019 had the opportunity to experience the highlights of this year’s Bomag Innovation Days in advance and to see them live during the machine demonstrations at the Innovation Days. The focus was on future-oriented and sustainable technologies as well as future studies on autonomous construction site vehicles and alternative drive options such as hybrid, gas, or electric vehicles.
As a driver of innovation, Bomag also goes one step further when it comes to environmental protection than demanded by legal requirements, for example. The latest generation of Bomag machines already complies with the EU Stage V emissions standard, which comes into force in 2020.
With alternative drive concepts, technologies to reduce particulate matter, and digital assistance systems, Bomag contributes not only to implementing the concept of a sustainable construction site. Fuel-saving and resource-saving technologies also minimise costs and make construction projects more economical.
Construction site networking 4.0: Bomap and Asphalt Pro
Bomag has developed not just one but two digital tools for optimising construction site processes, which visitors were able to experience live at the Innovation Days: The Android app Bomap for continuous compaction control, and the Asphalt Pro software for planning and optimising building site processes.
Bomap is the solution for the digital earthworks and asphalt construction site with which work results can be documented locally in real time. Intuitively operable, it documents the passes on rollers from any manufacturer. With Bomag rollers, the app can record additional readings and thus create documentation for continuous compaction control (CCC). The Android app can be installed on any standard Android tablet or smartphone.
Asphalt Pro in turn covers the entire planning, analysis, and documentation process for road construction projects. During the planning phase already, the expected machine use and material requirements are determined precisely. This reduces downtimes and breaks in paving, and minimises storage costs. The high degree of transparency that Asphalt Pro can provide in combination with Bomag machines enables real-time monitoring of construction site progress.
Every paving parameter is not only available digitally during the construction phase but is also documented afterwards. With Bomag’s Joblink interface, the collected measurement data can also be conveniently used directly by third-party providers such as Trimble, Moba or Topcon.
Bomag service
With a digital ‘Service Communication Platform’, Bomag is making its maintenance and repair service even better and quicker for customers worldwide. With the ‘Remote Service Assistant’, service technicians can request direct support from experts in the back office. Whenever required, development engineers investigate the problem personally and find a solution live and directly on site.
This saves time, travel costs, and downtimes for construction machinery. In addition, the service case can be fully retraced and documented for all parties. The platform pools all files centrally and securely, including text, image and video files as well as chat history. The service case was simulated live during the machine demonstration at the Innovation Days.
The linked-up technician was able to inspect the construction machine directly via augmented reality glasses and provide immediate assistance to the machine operator. Visitors to the Innovation Days could see both the service technician in the back office and the view of the machine through augmented reality glasses on a projection screen.
Robomag – Bomag’s study on autonomous compaction
At this year’s bauma, visitors to the Bomag stand could experience the first autonomous Robomag construction machine live in action.
At the Bomag Innovation Days, the autonomous roller based on the Bomag BW 154 tandem roller was presented for the first time in combination with the entire product range. The fully autonomous Robomag tandem roller was developed by Bomag as a technology study together with the Technical University of Kaiserslautern. It employs technologies such as GPS, Lidar, and state-of-the-art position sensors.
With Robomag, Bomag is making its vision of a fully autonomous construction machine a reality. The tandem roller can be deployed completely independently in a defined working area. For loading or manual operation, the Robomag tandem roller can be operated simply by remote control. In addition to the fully automatic mode, the Robomag also has the option to follow manually entered movement patterns so the roller can perform its task autonomously even with special compaction jobs.
While the tandem roller travels autonomously, Bomag’s Asphalt Manager 2 takes care of the intelligent active control and monitoring of the compaction power. At the same time, Asphalt Manager 2 ensures that the compaction performance is comprehensively and transparently documented.
Alternative drive concepts
Apart from optimum performance, modern construction machinery has to meet a multitude of requirements. On inner-city building sites in particular, low emissions play an increasingly important role alongside performance and cost. Alternative drives can score particularly well here.
How Bomag is meeting this challenge was presented during the machine demonstration: no matter if it concerns gas, electric, or hybrid drives, Bomag has a solution for every construction site situation. With Bomag’s new BW 174 AP tandem roller, the diesel engine, hydraulic accumulator, and compaction system combine to form a highly efficient system solution. The hydraulic accumulator covers short-term peak loads, such as those that occur when the vibration is activated.
This makes it possible to use a more compact motor and operate it in its range of optimum efficiency. In this way, the hybrid solution protects the environment and saves costs: fuel consumption and CO² emissions are reduced by up to 20%. The use of low-emission or even zero-emission construction machinery is increasingly gaining ground, especially on inner-city construction sites.
Ion Dust Shield: Over 80% reduction in particulate matter on the construction site
Fine dust is becoming an even greater pollution for people and the environment. Bomag developed the Ion Dust Shield for cold milling machines to minimize the health risk for operators and local residents at construction sites. In contrast to the extraction system that has been obligatory since 2014, the fine particles generated during milling are clumped together to form harmless coarse dust instead of simply being diverted away from the operator’s cab and released unfiltered away from the workplace.
With the Ion Dust Shield, the construction equipment manufacturer relies on the aggregation of fine particles by ionization; the resulting coarse dust is no longer harmful to health and can be easily removed with the milled material.
The Ion Dust Shield results in a reduction in particulate matter of more than 80%, as confirmed by the Institute for Hazardous Substance Research (IGF), which earned it the Innovation Awards silver medal at bauma 2019 in Munich.
Visitors to the Bomag Innovation Days were able to see for themselves the simple operation and servicing of the Ion Dust Shield during the machine demonstration.
The focus is on dialogue with the customer
Jonathan Stringham, Vice President Strategy, Marketing & Digitisation, was also completely satisfied: “The fourth Bomag Innovation Days at our headquarters in Boppard were once again a resounding success. In comparison to the last Innovation Days in 2017, we experienced a further increase in visitor numbers. Unlike external trade fairs, an in-house exhibition offers us additional opportunities to present Bomag machines and technologies. As a result, our visitors not only have the opportunity to experience the entire portfolio under real conditions in our demo centre. The factory tour also provides them with a look behind the scenes and allows them to ask detailed questions of our experts about production processes and workflows. It is precisely these exchanges with customers that are part of Bomag’s corporate culture. Because through direct dialogue we can respond even better to customer needs and further develop our products.”
