Prevention or cure
Inadequately designed and/or poorly maintained car transporters and tipping trailers are presenting increasing and potentially serious risks to drivers and operators. And they're not alone: there also remain worries with lifts and escalators.
ProMOTEed
Changes have been made to the MOT, which have impacted on plant operators more than any other sector
Saving lives
In a unique collaboration, a mining equipment manufacturer worked with a charity to adapt its rock crusher technology for destroying elusive land mines in Zimbabwe
Moving engineers
Operations, plant and transport engineers with an eye to the future would do well to get to the Commercial Vehicle Show (CV 2007) at the NEC Birmingham, 24-26 April. The transport industry is adopting newer technologies and that has implications not only for transport engineers, but plant engineers and surveyors when it comes to maintenance, repair and safety.
SED Preview - The great outdoors
If you want to see construction plant and machinery demonstrated in as near as possible realistic working conditions, as opposed to simply static displays, Site Equipment Demonstration (SED) is the show for you. It has the largest assembly of plant, tools, equipment and accessories available in one place in the UK - making it the premier event for the industry.
Commercial Vehicle '08
What: Commercial Vehicle Show 2008 Where: NEC, Birmingham When: April 15-17 How: www.cvshow.com
CV Operator show
There are good reasons for plant engineers to get to this year's CV Operator Show - particularly if your responsibilities include mobile equipment. Brian Tinham explains.
Bright sparks
Skanska and Volvo Construction Equipment have been testing the viability of an ‘electric site’ at a quarry near Gothenburg, Sweden. The results are in...
Flying without wings
Mobile plant takes some stick in the armed forces. It's not just that it's required to do the job it was designed for - loading baggage, bombs or weapons on and off aircraft; transporting and lifting materials, equipment and people, both in peacekeeping and combat zones; and providing the backbone for demolition and reconstruction. It's also the fact that the forces' support vehicles have to be ready to work effectively, efficiently and safely any time, winter or summer, anywhere and in any conditions.
Good vibrations
Now that both noise and vibration are being seen as less acceptable - thanks to legislation limiting exposure (the Control of Noise (April 2006) and Control of Vibration (July 2005) at Work Regulations) - technology is emerging not only to protect operators better, but increasingly also to help engineers determine and, where possible, design out or at least tackle the causes.