Non-conductive pipe rollers

LB&A, Inc. manufactures a hard-to-find polyurethane pipe roller that is used as a direct replacement for cast-iron or metal rollers. Non-Conductive Rollers are composed of a durable weather- and corrosion-resistant polyurethane resin that will not abrade a pipe’s coated surface. The rollers are ideal for use with pipe and conduit subject to continuous expansion and contraction, as well as for corrosive environments that prevent the use of metal pipe supports and rollers. The rollers are designed and formulated for exposed long-term installations, but can be engineered to meet special applications and requirements.

Joint sealant

Sealtight Gardox horizontal joint sealant from W.R. Meadows is a pourable, two-component, cold-applied compound for sealing joints in concrete. The sealant cures to a durable, rubber-like joint seal that offers a firm, smooth, non-tracking surface, retaining flexibility from -20 to over 200 degrees F. The product seals the joint against water infiltration, and is resistant to jet fuels and most common solvents and chemicals. Gardox is available in 1-gallon and 4-gallon units and a 5-gallon pail, and is recommended for sealing horizontal joints on highways, airport runways, bridges, and decks.

Grease/tar remover

GarrCo’s new Orange Peel cleaner is a super concentrated 100% active orange-oil-based cleaner. It is very effective at cleaning grease, oil, inks, and tar from most surfaces, and can also be used to remove asphalt from equipment and tools.

Squeeze pavement repair tubes

Quikrete’s new family of user-friendly squeeze repair tubes uses the established capabilities and characteristics of existing products to repair a variety of surfaces. The six 5.5-ounce repair tubes — Concrete Repair, Concrete Crack Seal, Blacktop Repair, Blacktop Crack Seal, Mortar Repair, and Stucco Repair — require minimal surface preparation. Application consists of shaking the tube well, cutting the tip at an angle, and hand-squeezing a bead no thicker than 0.375-inch deep into the crack. After application, the area can be tooled to even out surfaces and excess can be wiped off with a damp cloth.

Spray equipment

Perma-Tech now sells, services, and provides training for the Graco Reactor proportioning equipment and Fusion spray gun.

The Reactor E-XP is designed for accurate, easy delivery of polyurea and other fast-set coatings under consistent high temperature and pressure and features the remote mountable, Smart Mix control panel that can be positioned within 100 feet of the machine for on-site temperature and pressure monitoring. The Reactor E-Series 20 and 30 offer the same features in a system designed specifically for spraying foam, with a 200- or 300-foot hose, respectively. The Fusion air purge spray gun sprays polyurea, polyurethane, foam, adhesives, and caulks and is available with a flat or round tip.

Lease or purchase of the Reactor includes a full day of hands-on training with optional on-site support available. Each Reactor and Fusion also includes a CD that provides answers to the most frequently asked questions about the equipment, and technical support is available through a toll-free number.

High solids spray system

Plas-Pak Industries’ High Solids Spray system, a cartridge-based air dispensing system, is a low-cost method to reliably meter mix and spray apply reactive fast-curing compounds including polyurea, polyurethane, polyaspartic, and other high solids hybrid coating products. The patented HSS spray nozzle was designed to be used with Plas-Pak’s Ratio-Pak dual cartridges in ratios from 1:1 to 25:1 and capacities from 100 to 1,500 ml. The nozzle can also be used with various low-pressure cold-spray meter-mix coating and liner application equipment. The portable system is lightweight and easy to use, maintenance and clean-up are minimized, and all wet components are fully disposable.

Concrete dowel drill

E-Z Drill’s model 210B-2 SRA concrete dowel drill is a totally pneumatic drill system that can drill two holes simultaneously. It comes complete with a mobile system and patented tri-steering feature that makes it very easy for one person to operate and position. The drill requires approximately 200 cfm of air and can drill from 0.625- to 2.5-inch-diameter holes. The unit features oil injection, adjustable spacing, an adjustment for different depths of concrete slabs, the auto-align system for fast positioning, and an optional on-grade conversion kit. It will drill up to 18-inches deep and fits in a 4-foot patch, making it extremely versatile for both patching and straight-line drilling applications such as lane additions.

Rotary hammer

Dewalt’s new D-handle D25203K 1-inch SDS rotary hammer is engineered to last longer and hit harder (delivering 2.3 foot/pounds of impact energy), yet weighs only 6 pounds for better control when drilling and chipping in concrete, masonry, asphalt, and tile. The D25203K has three modes — hammerdrill, drill-only, and chipping mode. A single-mode rotary hammer, the D25201K, is offered for users who do not need the chipping function. The clutch is factory set on both models to reduce sudden high-torque reactions if the bit jams. For comfort and control, a rubber-coated handle reduces vibration. The 360-degree twist-lock side handle includes a quick-release mechanism to control the depth rod. Both models come with a heavy-duty kit box, side handle, and a one-year warranty.

Culvert band installation

The Culvert Band Installation Tool from RTR Fabricating was designed to save time and increase safety while installing corrugated culver bands. The tool is 20 by 7 by 6.5 inches, weighs 25 pounds, and is made entirely of steel. The CBIT can be used to install three- and two-hole culvert bands using a ratchet, impact wrench, or battery-operated drill with a socket adapter attached. In most cases, one person can work alone connecting bands, which saves man hours.

Aerodynamic fiberglass service body

Brand FX Body Company’s aerodynamically contoured service body for light-duty truck chassis is designed to fit single-and dual-rear-wheel vehicles with a 56-inch cab-to-real axle dimension. Available in 40- and 42-inch heights, the new body features larger compartment openings and concealed door gaskets. The larger openings furnish easier access to tools and equipment; the concealed gaskets improve sealing performance and provide an enhanced appearance and longer life from reduced exposure to ultraviolet light and the elements.

Light towers

Multiquip’s newest Night Hawk light towers are simple, cost-effective solutions to the immediate lighting needs of municipalities, government agencies, and contractors. The lightweight LT-12D and LT-12P weigh 1,550 pounds and feature four industry-standard metal halide floodlights, a 30-gallon polyethylene fuel tank that provides 64 hours of continuous run time, and a 30-foot-high mast that rotates 360 degrees and is stable in gusty winds. The generator on each tower boasts a continuous output of 6,000 watts and noise levels of 73 dBA at 23 feet. For ease of transportation, the towers come standard with forklift slots and 2-inch ball hitches. Eight units can be loaded on a standard flatbed truck.

Herbicide

DuPont’s Westar herbicide offers the convenience of a single dispersible granule product for mixing while providing two active ingredients for weed and grass control. The herbicide contains hexazinone and sulfometuron methyl and controls up to 60 grasses, broadleaf weeds, and vines. Westar recently received U.S. EPA registration for both bareground and forestry vegetation control and is available in handy 12-pound bottles for easy mixing.

Barrier grapples help realignment

North Little Rock, Arkansas-based Peterson Concrete Company, performs a high volume of forming and placement of concrete highway median barriers. For years, after the barriers had been cast-in-place at the Peterson Concrete yard, steel chains were used to lift and then transport these multi-ton, 10- and 20-foot-long barriers to individual sites.

According to Tracy Lakey, the chains were difficult to work with. “It would take forever to attach them to the barriers,” she says. Then barrier grapples came on the scene.

Once cast and cured, each barrier — weighing anywhere from 2 to 4 tons, dependent on their length — is lifted by means of a loader with fork attachments onto a tractor trailer and transported to a specific highway site. The scissor-shaped barrier grapples attach themselves to the highway barrier by means of four octopus-like carbide pads.

Once at the jobsite, the Peterson Concrete trucker maneuvers the trailer-mounted backhoe so that the grappling device can easily lower the barrier off the truck and into its required location.

“You would not believe that four carbide pads would hold that well. It’s amazing to watch,” Lakey says. “Click on one device and you firmly grasp the barrier. Click it again and the barrier is released.”

Peterson Concrete has seven barrier grapples. Several are rented to highway contractors on a regular basis. “We also use them here in our yard, on our tractor-trailer rigs, and in our shop,” Lakey says.” One regular highway contractor customer of ours has been using our barrier grapples for the past three or four years. “They are really the ideal way to maneuver and place highway barriers when you have to realign the lanes to accommodate construction detours,” she says.

Truck-mounted attenuator saves lives in Florida

Recently, a Safe-Stop truck-mounted attenuator from Energy Absorption Systems, a division of Quixote, performed above design spec to save the lives of a Florida work crew.

The attenuator was mounted on a paint truck that was shadowing a moving striping operation on U.S. Route 27 in Lake Placid. The moving work zone had the right lane closed, with traffic reduced to a single lane, when a semi-truck driver pulled his fully loaded rig out of the line of traffic and right into the path of the Traffic Control Products’ paint-striping crew. The semi slammed into the paint truck with such force that it pushed the flat bed frame 3 inches into the driver’s compartment.

The driver believes the attenuator took the brunt of the impact allowing him to steer the truck clear of his crew and onto a shoulder after impact.

The Safe-Stop System meets NCHRP 350 Test Level 3 criteria for protection at design impact speeds up to 62 miles per hour and is ideal for high-speed applications. The down-position length from the back of a truck is 13 feet, 2 inches.

Recycling systems

The ACE Group offers recycling systems — RAPwrangler RAP crushers, shaker/scalping decks, and conveyors. Shaker/scalping decks come in various sizes from 3 by 5 feet up to 4 by 10 feet. The RAPwrangler is designed to be powerful and easy to maintain. The unit is suitable for stationary, portable, drum, or batch plants and comes in several configurations. The 20-inch rotor spins at 127 rpm and is equipped with 312 replaceable tungsten-tipped milling teeth that shred football-sized chunks down to 1 inch at a rate of 250 tons per hour.

Concrete maturity and temperature profiling system

Nomadics Construction Labs has introduced a second generation concrete maturity and temperature profiling system that enables the safe acceleration of project workflow, while also enhancing quality control and quality assurance of concrete construction activities. The intelliRock II system uses embedded sensors to record early strength concrete data. This data is collected by a hand-held reader — organizing and tracking it in real-time during construction, as often as needed. New features include Nurse-Saul and Arrhenius+ maturity techniques, thousands of logged temperature/ maturity points, time-stamped time of start based on real-time clock, stored job-site ID and placement notes, and a data-lock function.

Electronic metal detector

Zircon’s electronic metal detector finds location and approximate depth of rebar and other metal objects through concrete at depths up to 6 inches. The HM-117A is fast and easy to use with hand forming grip combined with one-touch operation. The large LCD display indicates both location and depth of embedded metal objects. Location accuracy for rebar is approximately +/-1 inch, dependant on size and depth of the bar. The unit is powered by one 9-volt alkaline battery.

Flanged-port centrifugal pumps

Ace Pump Corporation’s new flanged pump ports eliminate the need for pipe thread sealer and prevent problems like cross-threaded fittings or fittings pointing in the wrong direction. The new FMC-150F and FMC-200F Series high-performance flanges mate with industry standard fittings for flexible, leak-proof sprayer component connections. Features include quick installation, easy disassembly for service or replacement, optimized flow passages for improved performance and efficiency, and reduced assembly time and labor costs.

Friction-evaluating dragsled

Massload Technologies has developed a new means of gathering and recording precise data that can be used to test the surface friction of roadways — a major safety concern. The Sample Accumulator for Friction Evaluation Dragsled weighs only 16 kilograms, is fully automated, can be used in any weather conditions, and requires as little as 18 inches of pull for accurate friction calculations due to the rapidity of electronic tension samples (up to 500 per second). The SAFE Dragsled is powered by a standard off-the-shelf PDA and uses an infrared signal.

Reprinted from the February 2004 Better Roads Magazine