Cat puts excavators into face-off
Cat puts grade control system to the test
The system allows the depth of trench to be excavated to be specified, meaning that a manual check of the depth is not required
Caterpillar has tested the performance of its machine control system with a face-off between two 323E hydraulic excavators.
Taking place in Malaga, south of Spain earlier this year at the Caterpillar research facility, it feature one conventional 323E and one fitted with the factory integrated Cat Grade Control system.
The system allows the depth of trench to be excavated to be specified, meaning that a manual check of the depth is not required. The grade control system allows the operator to receive guidance directly in the cab on his standard HD display by following visual and audio indications.
During the test, which was to dig a number of shallow ditches and then fill with sub-base, after only a few minutes the machine using the conventional method had already stopped several times to wait for the grade checker to come and measure, while the 323E equipped with Cat Grade Control continued working at full pace.
The machine using the conventional method finishes the first square when the machine equipped with Cat Grade Control starts digging the trench with a 10 percent slope, not following the natural curve of the area.
While the grade checker spends most of the time standing around, waiting, the in-cab guidance lets the operator know exactly what slope needs to be pulled.
The machine equipped with Cat Grade Control finishes the last square as the machine using the conventional method is starting to dig the trench with 10 percent slope. The grade checker must give constant feedback to ensure proper slope, resulting in machine idle time.
After one hour 17 minutes, the first machine completes the work, the 323E equipped with CatGrade Control. Twenty-six minutes later the other machine is finished. The measured result was a 35% productivity increase by use of the Cat Grade Control system increased productivity by 35 percent compared to the conventional method, as well as improving safety since the depth checker was not needed.
