We’ve never been a company to stand still. Every site we visit presents us with new challenges to overcome for the most effective proximity warning systems. This is what led us to develop BucketZone in 2014.
BucketZone is a hard-wearing antenna that can be installed on parts of the machine that are susceptible to damage such as near the working equipment of the machine – the bucket! It enables you to extend the range of the sensor and create a separate zone around the bucket. This is suited to machines such as excavators, loading shovels, and material handlers. Due to the geometry of these vehicles if you only had one zone to cover the whole machine the zone would be too large on the sides to gain the zone range needed around the bucket. This is also used for larger vehicles such as lorries and RORO trucks.
Gary Escott, Managing Director for SiteZone, who helped develop the BucketZone with Nigel Adams, Technical Director, commented:
“About 70% of our installations now include BucketZone as it gives you choice on how you set your machine zones. A bucket could be working several metres away from the main machine so it makes sense for it to have its own exclusion zone where people should not be nearby.”
What’s different about the new version?
This year we launched an updated version of this antenna. What’s new?
You now have the ability to switch the bucket on and off without an engineer. By installing an additional BucketZone switch (with a supervisor key) in the cab, a person of responsibility is able to turn it off if needed. This makes the system multi-functional and gives you the ability to self-service and switch the zones off when the machine is performing a different operation.
Gary went on to say,
“On some operations you may choose to only activate the zone around the bucket, something we’ve seen some of our customers on bulk earthworks do recently. This flexibility enables you to set your system specific to your site operations and the tasks the machine is performing. The addition of the BucketZone switch is useful if the machine changes mode of operation, for example from earth moving to drainage or lifting operations.”
With the new version, you can now also detect if it becomes disconnected or damaged. The antenna is linked to the Wi-Fi base station and tells you of the fault via the Operator Display Unit in the cab. This means you can be assured that your additional antenna is live and working when the system is switched on.
To find out more about BucketZone and the different configurations that can be setup with our proximity warning systems, get in touch.