WorldWide Drilling Resource®

30 MARCH 2020 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® Instructor has Construction in her DNA Adapted from Information by CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2020 When Dawson Vanderwiele walks into a heavy equipment operator training class at Baker Technical institute (BTi) in Baker City, Oregon, not many students suspect she’s actually the instructor. After all, construction is still a male-dominated industry and at 19, Dawson is younger than many of the students in the classroom. This doesn’t stop her from teaching what she knows well - how to operate heavy equipment. “A lot of times i have to prove that i know what i am doing, that i know what i am telling them, and what they need to be doing,” said Dawson. Her dedication comes from growing up around heavy equipment. Her father, uncle, and grandfather own Triple C Redi-mix in Baker City. Her father’s house stands on one end of the property, her grandfather’s house on the other, with the business in between. Before kindergarten, while most kids her age were being driven around in their parents’ car to fall asleep, Dawson said she spent her nap times in a backhoe. Her first memory of operating equipment was on her 10th birthday, when she hopped on an excavator to pile up some brush. Since then, she’s been operating the family’s equipment and truck fleet when needed in the business. Career training school BTi reached out to Dawson’s father Casey to teach a new heavy equipment operator training pro- gram. The program provides instruction on operating heavy equipment in the field at their land lab and in a state-of-the-art learning environment with CAT ® simulators. The curriculum from Caterpillar and the National Center for Construction Education and Research incorporates hands-on, simulated jobsite training. Classes are offered to adults and high school students through- out the region, in a building attached to the local high school. When the commitment turned out to be more than a few hours a month, Casey suggested his daughter (a junior in high school at the time) take on the role. in 2017, she became the youngest and first female to be trained as a Caterpillar simulator instructor. “Equipment was part of her DNA,” commented BTi President Doug Dalton, who hired Dawson. “She showed maturity beyond her years and really took to the concept of how we were teaching the program.” Now a sophomore at Blue mountain Community College in Pendleton, Oregon, Dawson continues to work in the BTi mobile training center. The unit allows the school to bring equipment operator training to various community organizations, schools, and industry locations. Casey offered encouragement: “if you have a little bit of pride and care, you can go to the end of the world as an operator.” C&G New CFA Rig by Soilmec Adapted from Information by Soilmec S.p.A. Soilmec became a landmark for continuous flight auger (CFA) machines in 1987, when they introduced the first Cm-48 rig in Cesena, italy. Today, Soilmec is proud to announce the launch of the next generation of dedicated CFA rigs - the new SF-55. The best engineering practices and technological innovations came together in this new machine, with increased performance, safety, simplicity, and reliability. improved cylinder lifting capacity is due to a larger lever arm with a higher con- nection to the mast, to increase rig and mast stability. Thanks to the improved lifting capacity of the new hydraulic cylinders, it is now possible to add about six additional feet to the mast extension to reach around 88 feet in depth. Auto Drilling CFA is the automated drilling system developed by Soilmec. DmS defines the correct mix of parameters and checks to ensure greater efficiency in terms of digging performance. The SF-55 comes equipped with the new DmS 4.0, a multilanguage, adjustable 12-inch touch screen to manage the drilling rig, monitor alarms, and set and store technology parameters in real time. The system: • Allows the operator to detect the corkscrew effect. • Allows the operator to detect excessive overexcavation and overflighting. • Optimizes the level of auger filling. • Optimizes the drilling process. • Allows the operator to become controller of the automated functions. • Reduces stress and fatigue to the operator. Another innovative addition to the SF-55 is the patent-pending sleeve extension warning system to avoid incorrect oper- ations during the coupling procedure, giving the operator visualization of the correct locking position of the sleeve extension. The new hydraulic and electrical system offers more efficiency and more space for easier maintenance. Plus its Stage V Cummins diesel engine is fitted with auto low idle control for fuel savings during the inactive stages, for a reduction of operating costs with noise reduction. C&G C O N S T R U C T I O N D I S C U S S I O N