Follow-up report from Conexpo 2023

The Wirtgen Group and John Deere at CONEXPO 2023

We take a closer look at ecological and economic potentials

When Las Vegas calls, the entire industry comes. For the Wirtgen Group and John Deere, for many years represented separately at North America’s biggest construction trade show, this year’s event was something of a première: namely the first time the two companies shared a booth at CONEXPO.

On a total exhibition space of around 7,500 m² (almost 81,000 sq ft), visitors to the show were treated to an enormous range of innovative products and digital solutions – including world and CONEXPO premières and machines designed especially for the North American markets. The joint appearance at the show was dominated by the big issues that will shape the future of the construction industry – sustainability, digitalisation, automation and electrification, and the question of what solutions already exist and how the overall ecological and economic potentials of construction projects can be optimised from end-to-end by the use of smart Production Systems.

The Wirtgen Group and John Deere present their own dedicated Production Systems for applications in the industry sectors Roadbuilding, Site Development, Aggregates and Underground. Find out more about this in the video.

The ideal Production Systems for every application and construction sector

Perfectly coordinated Production Systems are an ideal basis for efficient and sustainable on-site operations

This concept was reflected by the booth, which was correspondingly subdivided into exhibition areas representing the four main categories: Roadbuilding, Site Development, Aggregates and Underground. At the booth, machines and equipment that interact in Production Systems were presented in true-to-life configurations that enabled visitors to gain a good impression of potential synergy effects. In addition, corresponding digital system solutions and assistance systems were on display in the Technology Pavilion.

Production Systems – the efficient end-to-end solution

A production system is an end-to-end solution that enables a customer to complete a (road) construction project efficiently and sustainably. This includes correctly-dimensioned machines – or combinations of machines – with perfectly tailored features and equipment options and the ideal applications and methods. In order to guarantee maximum efficiency and sustainability in construction projects, Production Systems also make use of appropriate, process-relevant assistance or automation systems. At the same time, digital documentation systems enable transparent tracking and analysis of all project-relevant information both during the project and after its completion.

Exhibition area: Roadbuilding

Premium Wirtgen products for cold milling, recycling, soil stabilisation and concrete paving stood side-by-side with user-friendly Vögele pavers and innovative Hamm rollers for the road construction sector.

Roadbuilding: Efficient and sustainable solutions for road construction and rehabilitation

Wirtgen is constantly expanding the range of applications covered by its cold milling machines

Wirtgen provided insights into its portfolio of cold milling machines for construction sites of all sizes: No matter whether a high-performance, rear-loading, half-metre-class milling machine, compact front loaders for working widths up to 1.3 m (4 ft 3 in), or two of the extremely versatile F series large milling machines – each and every one of them delivers maximum performance and highest productivity.

An overview of our range of cold milling machines can be found here .

Innovative cold milling technologies increase performance and productivity

Mill Assist machine control system

In automatic mode, the Mill Assist machine control system with the modes ‘ECO’, ‘Performance-optimised’ and ‘Milling pattern quality’ always selects the operating strategy with the ideal balance between performance and operating costs and responds dynamically to changing conditions. While the low speed range enables significant reductions in fuel consumption and minimises pick wear, the upper speed range enables the achievement of an optimal milling pattern, even in the case of higher area performance rates.

Learn more about the innovative Mill Assist machine control system here .

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Wirtgen Performance Tracker (WPT)

Wirtgen Performance Tracker (WPT) enables precise and reliable documentation of milling performance and provides the most important information to the machine operator in real-time. On completion of the milling project, the system generates a report containing all performance and consumption data – this ensures a high degree of transparency and reduces the time, effort and costs involved in finalising the project.

Find out more about Wirtgen Performance Tracker: here .

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Flexibility for inset and offset concrete paving processes

Wirtgen presented the new generation of slipform pavers with two particularly adaptable machines. The SP 15i enables flexible positioning of the slipform paving mould, which is an enormous advantage when producing monolithic profiles in the offset process. The SP 94i is a fully modular inset slipform paver in the 10-metre class.

All Wirtgen slipform pavers at a glance .

Follow-up report from Conexpo 2023

Wirtgen AutoPilot 2.0

The Wirtgen AutoPilot 2.0 system for stringless paving increases process efficiency and safety and is available for all offset pavers and placer/spreaders. The system provides machine control and remote control in one.

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Vögele pavers for all paving tasks

With a selection of products developed especially for the North American market and international paver models, Vögele showed a fascinating cross-section from the Mini, Compact, Universal and Highway classes. The Vögele range covers the entire spectrum of paving tasks in road construction – from paving narrow footpaths and cycleways in inner city settings, to urban and rural roads and the rehabilitation of motorways. By the way: All pavers and screeds are manufactured at the brand headquarters in Germany, are ideally matched to one another and are designed and constructed to deliver highest productivity, efficiency and precision. Find out more about the various paver models in our Press Release .

Hamm: Innovative machine technology and digital solutions for the asphalt paving sector

Hamm also presented a programme packed with highlights and innovative developments for the road construction industry, including completely battery-electric powered roller models from the globally successful HD CompactLine series, HX series pivot-steered tandem rollers, the HD+ 120i VIO-2 HF articulated tandem roller and a world première: the HP 100i articulated pneumatic-tyre roller – the ideal roller for applications such as chipseal and asphalt compaction on smaller construction sites. You can find more information about the various machines in our Press Release .

Production Systems in the road construction sector ‘Teamwork’ for increased efficiency.

What role can the efficient interaction of Wirtgen Group machines and technical solutions play in the realisation of road construction projects with maximum efficiency and sustainability? In the ‘Roadbuilding’ exhibition space, a concrete example enabled visitors to discover how Production Systems can increase the efficiency of road construction processes.

The combination of a W 380 CRi cold recycler, a SUPER 2000-3i Highway Class paver and the new HD+ 120i VIO-2 HF articulated tandem roller offers ultimate economic and ecological potential. As a rear loader with a mixing capacity of up to 800 t/h, the W 380 CRi is the ideal choice when it comes to the rehabilitation of wide roadways, and can be used for both cold in-place recycling (CIR) and full-depth reclamation (FDR) projects.

Exhibition area: Site Development/Earthworks and Rock Engineering

There was plenty to discover in this category, too: sustainable and resource-friendly machine solutions for cold recycling and soil stabilisation from Wirtgen, innovative technologies from Hamm for the earthworks and rock engineering sectors, as well as construction machines and equipment from John Deere.

Machines that do the groundwork: At this year’s CONEXPO Hamm and Wirtgen presented premium-machines for soil stabilisation and soil compaction.

Cold recycling and soil stabilisation play leading roles in the conservation of valuable resources

The WR 200 XLi and WR 250i recyclers with all-wheel drive impress with outstanding sustainability on the job and resource-friendly technologies. The WR-series recyclers benefit from digital system solutions such as the AutoTrac automatic steering system and WPT, which play an essential role in the conservation of resources during soil stabilisation.

The WR series recyclers can be used for both cold recycling and soil stabilisation. In view of their working width of 2.4 m and high milling and mixing performance, they are also ideal for use on challenging projects with high daily productivity requirements.

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Follow-up report from Conexpo 2023

The AutoTrac satellite-based steering system

The satellite-based AutoTrac steering system facilitates precise and efficient execution of each successive project step and steers the machine within tolerances measured in centimetres. This assures consistent utilisation of the machine’s ideal working width.

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North American première: HC series earthworks compactors

With the HC series, Hamm unites the advantages of all compactors with working weights of 11–25 t on a single platform. Although the entirely new HC series compactors are designed to deliver high compaction performance, they are simultaneously optimised to minimise CO₂ emissions. They also feature a range of new communication capabilities: All models of the HC series are "digital-ready", which means that they can be equipped with various interfaces and apps for the digital construction site, such as the Smart Doc system for digital site documentation Thanks to ECO Mode, all models also work predominantly in the economical partial-load range.

Exhibition area: Aggregates/Materials Processing

In the third exhibition area, the focus was on cost-efficient processing of natural stone and recycling materials.

Kleemann brought a broad selection from its extensive product portfolio to CONEXPO and presented five mobile crushing and screening plants and the SPECTIVE operating system. No less than three of the plants celebrated their première in North America at the show.

Follow-up report from Conexpo 2023

SPECTIVE operating concept with new functions

  • Intuitive touch panel control
  • Wireless remote control
  • Ideal synchronisation of components
  • Process information/reports to a smartphone
  • SPECTIVE CONNECT with new configuration tool for the selection of correct machine settings

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Intelligent line coupling

For automatic optimisation of the crushing process between crushing plants and to achieve maximum utilisation rates of the plant train, Kleemann plants can be simply linked with one another by intelligent line coupling. There is now an additional wireless option as an alternative to the safety-relevant cable coupling version. Wireless line coupling is easier to handle and makes the everyday work of the operator easier.

More information can be found in our Press Release

Exhibition area: Underground

Here’s where we go below the surface: John Deere offers a wide range of equipment for underground applications such as trenching, pipe laying, loading and placement of bedding materials and also filling and compaction. The new HTC trench roller from Hamm for compaction in trenches was one of the highlights of our show.

The “Underground” exhibition area was dominated by machines and equipment from John Deere. At the top right, the new trench roller from Hamm

Follow-up report from Conexpo 2023
Conexpo première for the Hamm HTC 15 trench roller for compaction in trenches

The new HTC 15 articulated trench roller from Hamm for compaction in trenches celebrated its trade show première at CONEXPO. Its two 82 cm-wide padfoot drums are ideal for compacting cohesive soils, and the machine is operated by infrared remote control. The advantage of this is that the machine stops working immediately when it is out of the line of sight, and that there is no interference with radio communication on the construction site

Photo: The HTC 15 has a low centre of gravity and, consequently, an extremely low tendency to tip or topple over.

The digital twin of CONEXPO 2023

If you didn’t manage to get to this year’s show, you still have the chance to take a virtual tour of our booth and learn all about our exhibits at the show. Join us on a guided tour of the outdoor and indoor areas of our booth at CONEXPO and see all the highlights for yourself.

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