Binder Machinery Company, based in South Plainfield, N.J., announced that Michael Finnegan has been named technical solutions expert.
Finnegan will be responsible for coordinating Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) machine control in all departments within Binder Machinery Company, including training customers, working with Komatsu’s Intelligent Machine Control (IMC) department, and the local Topcon dealer. Finnegan also will assist with service, sales and marketing, demonstrating the equipment for potential customers, and helping with job setup for customers using the Komatsu D61PXi-23 crawler dozer with the fully integrated Intelligent Machine Control system.
“Machine control has been around over 20 years,” said Finnegan. “As for the integrated machine, we are the first one out with it on the market. Up until now, there has been what you call a ’plug and play kit’ available from Komatsu. You could and still can buy a machine wired for Topcon and then through Binder Machinery Co. or the local Topcon dealer buy all of the GNSS components and install them on the machine. But now this machine is totally integrated. There is no antenna on the blade … its up on the cab now. There are sensors in the cylinders, the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) is protected under the cab, and the receiver is protected inside the cab. There is no daily setup. There are no cables, no climbing and no connections to be made. Machine control is now also fully automated from first cut to last cut due to complete machine integration. It’s the next level.”
Komatsu’s D61PXi-23 dozer with the Intelligent Machine Control first became available on the marketplace this past June.
Users of the Komatsu D61PXi-23 can expect significant cost savings, according to Finnegan.
“You save on surveying costs, because you are able to run all of your jobsites stakeless with minimal surveying needed,” he said. “You save on material costs, because you can start to influence the material depths in your favor: if you want leave it high or leave it low within spec. You will have fuel savings, machine wear savings, and labor savings. You don’t need to have a grade checker in front of the machine all of the time checking to make sure you hit the right grade and there are fewer passes needed with the machine to get down to the correct grade.”
Finnegan first began his career at Binder Machinery Company in 1998 as a field service technician. His promotion to technical solutions expert was a natural progression, he said.
“As a field service tech, the majority of what I did was on the more technical side of equipment, like electronics, computers, networking, electronic engine work,” he said. “I was also the union shop steward at Binder Machinery, and I had experience with management and working with people.”
To further prepare for his new role at Binder Machinery Company, Finnegan attended an extensive six-week training session at Komatsu’s facility in Cartersville, Ga.
About Intelligent Machine Control
While it has been possible for the standard bulldozer to perform high-precision finish grading after installing an add-on Machine Control kit, the D61EXi/PXi-23 can start with rough dozing and proceed to all subsequent processes, due to the world’s first fully automatic blade control. With Automatic Rough Dozing Blade Control, the operator only needs to operate the traction control lever as this bulldozer performs high-efficiency dozing and, as work progresses, the dozing mode automatically changes to Automatic Finish Grading Blade Control. As a result, this bulldozer offers seamless operation from rough dozing to finish grading at high levels of precision and productivity.
Machine Control components, such as a GNSS antenna, IMU+ (inertial measurement unit), stroke sensing cylinder and control box, are installed when the bulldozer is assembled at Komatsu’s plant, ensuring high reliability of the machine and achieving real-time high-precision measurement of ground location and height.
For more information, call 908/561-9000, or visit bindermachinery.com.
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