James Fisher Prolec, a global leader in the design and development of innovative productivity and safety solutions, unveiled a suite of new additions to its extensive product portfolio on stands N9 and N10 at this year’s Plantworx exhibition. Which took place at the East of England Arena between 11-13 June, the live action construction event brings together more than 15,000 delegates from across the UK and Europe.
From site digitalisation and connected technologies, to next-generation smart machine control, each innovation is the direct result of significant investment from the James Fisher group. The company demonstrated how its solutions meet the unique demands of civil construction, smart motorways, inner city construction, utilities and dredging.
James Fisher Prolec PMX – Harnessing more than 30 years’ experience in safety solutions, PMX aims to redefine on-site safety when conducting operations in close proximity to the passing public. Combining two well-established technologies – excavator hazard mitigation and geolocation – PMX helps prevent plant equipment from striking pre-defined hazards and increases machine efficiency by up to 30% when compared with existing systems.
Virtual walls and ceilings are quickly and easily set-up by site managers, allowing operators to move safely within pre-defined work zones. Hazard maps only need to be established once and can deployed to any PMX-enhanced excavator to provide consistent, site-wide safety limits without the need for operators to repeatedly re-enter hazard locations.
Ideally suited for a wide range of high-risk sectors, including civil construction, highways and rail, PMX is the first system of its kind to receive accreditation from Network Rail for Any Line Open (ALO) projects. It was demonstrated on central reservations of the M1 and M6 All Lanes Running (ALR) smart motorway projects and has since been nominated for a Highways England Blue Star Innovation Award.
James Fisher Prolec TrackPilot™ – Combining rated capacity limiter (RCL) and movement limiting devices (MLD) technology into a robust, safety-critical solution, TrackPilot™ is a next-generation hazard mitigation solution for ALO on-track operations.
Developed in partnership with some of the world’s leading tier-one automotive suppliers, the technology has been specifically designed for excavator rail-road vehicles (RRVs). TrackPilot™ achieves ten times faster processing and functionality speeds than any other solution on the market, meeting both UK and EU compliance standards (IEC61508, SIL2, RIS1530 Issue 6 and EN15746). Reflecting the hallmark quality of automotive production, the technology sets new standards in quality, reliability and performance.
Designed from the ground up, the TrackPilot™ ECU [is this know enough just for the acronym just to be used?] is mounted directly in the engine bay, protecting it from damage or theft. Coupled with this, its on-board diagnostics (OBD) maintains necessary protection for all input sensors and output actuators. A modern, minimalistic graphical user interface has been developed for ease of use. As such, only information that is relevant to the job at hand is displayed to the operator.
James Fisher Prolec R2S – Adopting proven technology from James Fisher’s wider operations within high-assurance industries, R2S is an intelligent information hub that digitises the construction site during project planning phases. Aggregating mapped elements and tagging hazards, obstructions, site infrastructure and other safety-critical data (such as buried services and topography), insight is collated into a single, powerful platform.
Used in conjunction with James Fisher Prolec PMX, the solution can set safe working zones, demonstrate progress to remote teams and provide pin-point location accuracy of hazards and obstructions on site. Post construction phase, R2S can be integrated with other technologies, such as bridge monitoring solutions, to ensure asset integrity is effectively monitored.
Simon Everett, managing director of James Fisher Prolec said, “As the UK’s largest working construction event, Plantworx provided the perfect platform to launch our latest generation of safety-critical plant technologies. Representing a new chapter, each new solution has been designed and developed using cutting-edge technology, world-leading R&D and more than 30 years’ industry experience.”
Alongside launching its latest technologies, James Fisher Prolec also showcased a number of proven products from its extensive portfolio. These included the PCX and the PME range (comprising of the PME100, PME200, PME300, PME400, PME500 and PME700). With a refreshed new series of service solutions also introduced, including pay-per-use, remote fault diagnostics/support/assistance and e-commerce, James Fisher Prolec aimed to bring its portfolio to life – and demonstrated productivity improvements.
The team was also on hand to communicate its vision for the future. Combining artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality, IoT logistics, real-time big data and connected equipment, the company outlined its plans to create the fully-connected, digitalised construction site of tomorrow.