NATTA Building Company has been trialling Trimble Earthworks UTS on one of its excavators for the first time at a project to construct a new building at BMW Group’s Oxford plant.
SITECH UK & Ireland installed the system onto Natta’s digger for use in an indoor environment, where the technology is said to have enabled precision grading to ‘single-digit-millimetre accuracy’.
The project – an upgrade of BMW Group’s production facilities – covered approximately 15,000m2, and the Type 1 sub-base had to be finished to a tolerance of +0/-10mm. To achieve this, SITECH installed a new MT900 target on the back of the excavator, upgraded the radio receiver to 2400 MHz, and connected the machine to the Trimble SPS930.
Edward Tinjala, engineer at Natta Building Company, said, “This project provided critical upgrades to BMW Group’s Oxford plant production facilities, and we needed to ensure we had the right technology on board to assist our team in completing the job to the highest level of accuracy. Operating in an indoor environment, where multiple trades were working nearby meant space was extremely limited and precision was an even greater concern than usual.
“The Trimble Earthworks UTS made the complex job achievable, ensuring high-precision positioning and real-time tracking. This not only sped up the process, but the reliable accuracy minimised the risk of rework.”
Customarily used on dozers, where the target receiver is positioned on the blade, it is less common to see Trimble Earthworks UTS on excavators, where the receiver is mounted at the rear of the machine.
Phil Matchett, technical sales consultant at SITECH UK & Ireland, added, “UTS relies on line-of-sight lasers as opposed to satellite signals and is therefore the ideal system to use on indoor projects such as this, where GNSS becomes unreliable. In this instance, Trimble UTS was integrated into the Trimble Earthworks machine control system to provide real-time feedback to operators, allowing for highly accurate earthmoving and grading.
“Having worked for SITECH for five years I have only ever seen a handful of customers use this technology on an excavator, and it is something not many machine owners/operators may be aware of that you can do – to great effect. Having the technology on board means a reduced need for manual checks, millimetre-accuracy, faster job completion, semi-automatic/automatic operation and compatibility across a multitude of heavy machines.
“For Natta Building Company the technology proved an asset, allowing operators to achieve required tolerances, efficiently and safely in a spatially restricted environment for their client BMW Group. The team at SITECH were able to provide comprehensive technology support throughout the project to ensure everything was running smoothly and we hope the success of the trial has gone on to prove how versatile Trimble technology can be.”
