Wirtgen: Cold Milling Machines, Asphalt Pavers & Compaction Equipment

With its innovative and cost-effective road building and rehabilitation machines, the Wirtgen Group has emerged as an undisputed market leader, offering customers tech-rich and value-for-money products.

Ramesh Palagiri MD & CEO, Wirtgen India

Please tell us about Wirtgen’s latest introductions in the construction equipment market.

The Wirtgen Group has been continuously innovating new products which offer better efficiency in terms of fuel consumption; this helps in sustainable development and less carbon emissions, lower life cycle costs and better productivity. All our road technology brands – Wirtgen, Vögele and Hamm - are not only global market leaders but also innovation leaders.

Cold Milling and Cold Recycling

We have introduced the Cold Milling and Cold Recycling technologies that have been reasonably well accepted in the market. Soil stabilization is also becoming very popular and all these technologies result in saving resources, faster construction, and cost economical solutions. The Cement Treated Base or Sub-Base (CTB or CTSB) not only reduces aggregate requirement, but also ensures stronger foundation, and reduces layers. The cold recycling reuses 100% of asphalt pavement material and the only addition is bitumen of 2-3% which rehabilitates the asphalt pavement to its original properties.

Concrete Paving

For concrete paving, our Wirtgen Slipform Pavers now offer dual-layer concrete paving, where a single machine is used for dual layer concrete paving. The bottom and the top layer concrete are paved in a synchronized operation. It is additionally ensured that both the top and bottom layers are paved “wet-in-wet” regardless of weather or site conditions. This can be done with a single paver or with two pavers where it is necessary to distribute the operating weight to two separate machines.

Asphalt Paving

For asphalt paving, we offer the Vögele In Line Paving where the binder and surface courses are paved "hot on hot" in a single pass, greatly accelerating activities on a job site. Plus, it is not necessary to completely close the road as the three machines - a paver for the binder course, a paver for the surface course, and a material feeder – work in line, one behind the other, leaving one lane open to traffic. This is an ideal solution for rehabilitation of heavily travelled roads. The process is both economical and highly eco-friendly. The layer thickness can be reduced in "hot on hot" paving, thus lowering consumption of the costly surface course mix.

Please elaborate on some of the key features of Vögele and Hamm products.

The Wirtgen Group has always served its customers with technologically in-tensive machines, that include the Hamm Soil Compactors and Tandem Rollers. Our compactors come with ICT-based technologies and features.

Vögele offers an innovative and economical solution for the road construction sector with the non-contacting Road Scan temperature measurement system. The scanning and documentation of the freshly paved asphalt‘s temperature is already specified in tenders in several markets, and we plan to implement it in other markets as well.

Hamm Compactors are equipped with isolated operator platform mounted on shock absorbers so that the vibrations are reduced . The operator platform is of anti-skid material to ensure operator safety. The sliding seat console for operators and excellent drum edge visibility are some of the striking features that make the machines easier to operate.

Hamm Soil Compactors have a patented design of three point articulation joint which connects the front and rear end of the compactor and enables superior directional stability, provides driver safety and comfort on difficult terrains, which enhances operator efficiency.