Carlson Machine Control upgrades PDGrade Piling System which will reduce the amount of manual processes for piling applications. 

Carlson Machine Control has upgraded PDGrade™, a 3D GPS machine guidance system designed specifically for piling applications. PDGrade™, with its accuracy and ease-of-use, empowers piling contractors to work with higher efficiency, improving production while lowering cost and increasing safety.

The PDGrade™ Piling System v6.0 reduces manual processes for piling applications, notes Randy Noland, vice president for Carlson Machine Control.  “The traditional piling workflow is a manual process requiring staking, marking, and trial and error,” he says.

“With PDGrade™, piling contractors can benefit from high accuracy navigation, positioning and easy-to-use software that offers features such as navigation to pile, pile location, as-builts, and production reports. The system also increases safety, as it requires fewer people to be near the machines when erecting piles.”

Dieter von Mollendorf, Product Manager for Carlson machine guidance solutions at Aptella, Carlson’s exclusive Australian distributor, said the time savings alone provide a very fast return on investment on the PDGrade system.

“Even a small time saving across every pile will result in huge time and money savings at the end of the project,” Mr von Mollendorf said. “Before PDGrade, piling contractors’ only option to measure the accuracy of the piles was via flat plane lasers, which have to be moved constantly as the job progresses.”

“With PDGrade, operators and managers can ensure accurate spacing and positioning of each pile,” he added. “There is also the flexibility to drive piles to a required depth, or to a required height above ground, or to the natural terrain.”

Key benefits of PDGrade version 6.0 include the ability to:

• Load pile design grid by supported file types (csv, dxf, dwg, and more) or enter patterns in the field;
• Navigate to hole (machine heading);
• Position piles more efficiently and with high accuracy;
• Store as-built points easily, showing previously driven piles including their positional accuracy and azimuth;
• Benefit from a user interface designed specifically for piling and the simplest, piling-centric software available;
• Work with much larger pile designs with no degradation of speed thanks to performance enhancements;
• Produce sophisticated reports via built-in software functionality, without the need for telematics or back office software. Display the accuracy of driven piles and flag those that fall outside required tolerance levels, report on average pile time, piles left to drive and more.
• Get real-time piling status with support from the new LDx6 laser distance sensor for driving piles to elevation, surface or depth, without an external, traditional laser setup.

New optional LDx6 Laser Distance option for piling to an elevation, contour or pile depth-No Laser Setup!

“In addition to navigation and high accuracy RTK positioning to the designed pile location, PDGrade™ facilitates piling to an elevation, surface or depth,” adds Randy Noland. “These new features are achieved by offering scalable support for the LDx6 laser distance sensor.” The LDx6 kit mounts near the top of the feeder, offering real-time indication of piling progress. Most importantly, this eliminates the need for a laser transmitter setup and the associated limitations such as range, line of sight and the need to continually calibrate and move the laser to new locations. The LDx6 laser distance sensor offers higher piling production.” 

Easy to calibrate, easy to install
The basic configuration of PDGrade™ uses only two components, the CBx6 Control Box Console and the MC Pro Vx6. The installation has one-quarter the footprint of other systems with fewer points of failure. The system is supported by an industry-exclusive, three-year warranty. The rugged IP69K MCPro Vx6 provides GPS/GLONASS/BEIDOU L1/L2 high precision positioning and heading – up to 20Hz, along with dual axis slope. The CBx6 Control Box Console has a bright, sunlight readable display, IP67 rugged with the same 3-year warranty and big 10.4” touch screen. Connects with just one cable.

For more information about PD Grade™ and machine guidance solutions, visit www.aptella.com, email info@aptella.com, or call 1300 867 266.