Boom Designs Extend Backhoe Performance

Customers always demand more performance out of their backhoe-loaders, particularly on the back end. “In North America, the backhoe end of the machine is used about 70% of the time the machine is operating, so it’s always been an area of focus for our product teams,” says Kevin Hershberger, BHL marketing, Caterpillar.

Several criteria define backhoe performance. “Consider performance specs such as digging depth, forward reach and lift height for truck loading, lift capacity and breakout forces,” says George MacIntyre, global product marketing manager, Case Construction Equipment. “Other important characteristics include machine stability while roading, boom height for transport/working in confined spaces, overall machine dimensions and visibility.”

Other considerations include how much trench you can dig without repositioning the machine, and whether you can see past the boom in the trench or as it’s swinging up and over the side of a truck. “The biggest complaint from the field is the size of the boom, as operators have to look past them into the trench or over them when loading a truck,” says Jim Blower, JCB. The JCB boom is narrow in width and depth to address this issue.

Then there is the issue of strength vs. weight. “The boom has to be able to withstand all of the digging and lifting forces while being as light as possible to get the best performance,” says Blower.

“Strength is a very important attribute when designing the boom,” agrees Jamie Wright, product manager, Terex Construction Americas. “Terex uses an 8mm-thick steel tubular design with its booms, which adds considerable strength and durability to the product. Forged steel at each pivot point reduces wear on pins and bushings.”

A box-style boom design, such as found on Volvo backhoe-loaders, can combine both rigidity and light weight. “The boom is basically a box section with a forging on the bottom and the same forging on the top. It is enclosed,” explains Marcello Bargellini, backhoe product specialist, Volvo Construction Equipment.

Keeping hydraulic lines safe is another priority on any good backhoe design. For instance, many manufacturers route hydraulic lines inside the boom so they are protected, and pay special attention to areas where plumbing has to be exposed. “To the extent that is possible, we always try to use tubes (vs. hoses) for longer life,” says Bargellini.

“Neat routing of hydraulic hoses increases visibility and reduces hose damage,” says Wright. “Visibility to both the loader and backhoe is important for overall efficient operation. A well-dimensioned boom and boom placement give the operator an excellent view into the trench at any position.”

Visibility was one of the focal points in development of Case’s N Series backhoes. “Engineering put great emphasis on making sure that any modifications to the boom design to improve performance would not interfere with the operator’s line of sight to the backhoe’s work area,” says MacIntyre. “Case engineering mapped the line-of-site visibility with new boom design concepts to better understand the impact to visibility with any potential changes to the boom design.”

Cascade Makes a Move: Up 2.9%

One of today's stocks on the move is Cascade (NYSE:CASC), up 2.9% to $46.76. The S&P is currently trading fractionally lower to 1,219 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is trading fractionally higher to 11,879.

Cascade Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets materials handling equipment and related technologies. The Company's products include custom hydraulic cylinders, lift truck attachments, hose reels, sideshifters, and forks. Cascade operates around the world.

Cascade has overhead space with shares priced $46.76, or 15.0% below the average consensus analyst price target of $55.00. The stock should find initial support at its 200-day moving average (MA) of $43.03 and further support at its 50-day MA of $42.05.

Over the past year, Cascade has traded in a range of $31.30 to $55.67 and is now at $46.76, 49% above that low. Over the past week, the 200-day moving average (MA) has gone down 0.2% while the 50-day MA has advanced 2.8%.

Love or hate fracking, most New Jerseyans share in lower natural gas bills

Shale gas hydraulic fracturing, colloquially called fracking, is scorned by environmental activists, but there’s no denying New Jersey natural gas customers have enjoyed the fruits of the technology.

Public Service Electric & Gas cut bills this winter by around five percent, lifting total cuts in the last two years to 35 percent. New Jersey Natural Gas, South Jersey Gas and Elizabethtown Gas Company have done likewise.

"The shale reserves in the Marcellus, in our backyard, are huge," said Kathleen Ellis, chief operating officer of New Jersey Natural Gas. "There is no arguing that the price of gas, because of increased supply, is good for our customers."

An analysis by the AARP Public Policy Institute of heating costs for seniors found natural gas customers will average $542 to heat their homes this winter, compared with $2,675 for those using fuel oil.

Those using electric heat should average around $468. That’s because while oil prices rose in recent years, electrical prices are tied to gas because of gas-fired power plants.

State officials aren’t shy about giving credit to shale gas either: when the Board of Public Utilities announced rate cuts this summer, it pointed to a new supply line—and to shale gas produced in nearby states such as Pennsylvania.

"The development of Marcellus shale has allowed New Jersey utilities to tap into natural gas reserves locally, resulting in lower delivery costs and savings for New Jersey ratepayers," said the BPU statement.

"There’s been a downward pressure on price due to greater levels of production. It’s basically a supply and demand thing," explained Amy Sweeney, a natural gas expert for the federal Energy Information Administration.

Sweeney said shale gas production flowed faster than the government reports tracking it, the most recent of which covers 2009.

"Back then it was 13 percent of supply," Sweeney said. "It very well could have doubled by now. That’s the sense that we’re getting from industry sources."

The federal government projects that by 2035, 47 percent of gas produced in the U.S. will come from shale sources.

That increased production is especially beneficial to New Jersey residents because the state has one of the highest concentrations of natural gas users in the country, according to the BPU.

The bottom line: 76 percent of New Jersey homes heat with gas, compared with 12 percent using fuel oil and kerosene and 11 percent that use electricity, according to Census Bureau data.

Hose reels from JSG Industrial Systems

Hose reels from JSG Industrial Systems are designed to offer quality, strength, durability and serviceability. 

JSG’s hose reels are designed to handle hoses from 1/4" to 2" to cater for most market requirements. Hose reels can also be supplied without aluminium parts for underground coal mining applications. 

Hose reels are available in manual, spring, air or hydraulic rewind configurations to meet material dispensing, ergonomic, environmental, OH&S and storage requirements.   

OH&S is a major issue for companies with hoses lying around shop floors or hanging from ceilings creating risk of injury to workers. JSG’s hose reels are designed to safely rewind and store hoses away from hazardous locations on service vehicles, machinery or shop floors to facilitate a safer working environment. 

Commonly dispensed products when using hose reels include air, water, oil and grease. While hoses are selected based on duty cycle, mode of retraction, product to be dispensed, hose capacity, pressure rating and flow rate, hose reel selection depends upon the intended use.

Hydraulic machinery

Hydraulic machines are machinery and tools that use liquid fluid power to do simple work. Heavy equipment is a common example.

In this type of machine, hydraulic fluid is transmitted throughout the machine to various hydraulic motors and hydraulic cylinders and which becomes pressurised according to the resistance present. The fluid is controlled directly or automatically by control valves and distributed through hoses and tubes.

The popularity of hydraulic machinery is due to the very large amount of power that can be transferred through small tubes and flexible hoses, and the high power density and wide array of actuators that can make use of this power.

Hydraulic machinery is operated by the use of hydraulics, where a liquid is the powering medium.

A fundamental feature of hydraulic systems is the ability to apply force or torque multiplication in an easy way, independent of the distance between the input and output, without the need for mechanical gears or levers, either by altering the effective areas in two connected cylinders or the effective displacement (cc/rev) between a pump and motor. In normal cases, hydraulic ratios are combined with a mechanical force or torque ratio for optimum machine designs such as boom movements and trackdrives for an excavator.

If a hydraulic rotary pump with the displacement 10 cc/rev is connected to a hydraulic rotary motor with 100 cc/rev, the shaft torque required to drive the pump is 10 times less than the torque available at the motor shaft, but the shaft speed (rev/min) for the motor is 10 times less than the pump shaft speed. This combination is actually the same type of force multiplication as the cylinder example (1) just that the linear force in this case is a rotary force, defined as torque.

For the hydraulic fluid to do work, it must flow to the actuator and or motors, then return to a reservoir. The fluid is then filtered and re-pumped. The path taken by hydraulic fluid is called a hydraulic circuit of which there are several types. Open center circuits use pumps which supply a continuous flow. The flow is returned to tank through the control valve's open center; that is, when the control valve is centered, it provides an open return path to tank and the fluid is not pumped to a high pressure. Otherwise, if the control valve is actuated it routes fluid to and from an actuator and tank. The fluid's pressure will rise to meet any resistance, since the pump has a constant output. If the pressure rises too high, fluid returns to tank through a pressure relief valve. Multiple control valves may be stacked in series [1]. This type of circuit can use inexpensive, constant displacement pumps.

Closed center circuits supply full pressure to the control valves, whether any valves are actuated or not. The pumps vary their flow rate, pumping very little hydraulic fluid until the operator actuates a valve. The valve's spool therefore doesn't need an open center return path to tank. Multiple valves can be connected in a parallel arrangement and system pressure is equal for all valves.

Growing number of film, TV productions shooting in Jefferson Parish

A new building is going up on Huey P. Long Avenue in Gretna -- but it's not permanent. Rather, it's part of a set for a new movie and one of the tell-tale signs of the growing number of film and television productions taking place in Jefferson Parish.

"We continuously get to work, and we love it," said Jefferson Parish resident Valerie Ryan, who works as a location manager for local productions.

Right now, Ryan is working on a new TV cop show called "Common Law."

"They love our people," she said. "They love the food -- of course, who wouldn't like the food here? But they really like being down here."

What they also like are the incentives. Along with the 30 percent filming tax credit provided by the state, Jefferson Parish is also offering an additional 3 percent cash rebate -- the only parish in the state to do so.

"It definitely gives Jefferson Parish an advantage," said Jennifer Van Vrancken, Jefferson Parish's Film Liaison.

That rebate translates into big bucks. This year alone, the parish issued eight film incentive rebate checks, totaling $347,739.

However, those eight productions spent a combined total of $15,398,396 in Jefferson Parish. It's not just the three percent rebate that productions find attractive here-- it's also what they call the "visual diversity" of Jefferson Parish.

"We have beaches in Grand Isle, swamps in Lafitte, beautiful homes in Old Metairie," said Van Vrancken, "but it's the bottom line, the dollars that we offer them back, for being here."

Those dollars are helping the Elmwood area of Jefferson Parish become a production hub.

"It was the place to be for production. We moved into a building that's owned by another production company, called Moxie Media, so we're kind of brother/sister companies," said Will Morrow of Full Motion Productions. "It seems every time I go down a different street, I'm seeing a production company pop up."

Those productions dollars are spreading to other businesses, including a 15 percent increase in business for Stan Benoit. He owns "Hose Guys," a hydraulic hose company, which works on pyrotechnics for movies in Jefferson Parish.

"Who would think that a hydraulic hose company would have that much to offer to a movie set or a movie studio, in filming movies? It really surprised me," Benoit said.

There were 24 film productions in Jefferson Parish this year -- up from approximately 14 the year before.

MORGAN v. WORKERS' COMPENSATION APPEAL BOARD

Kinder Morgan petitions for review of an adjudication of the Workers' Compensation Appeal Board (Board) granting benefits to William Flanagan . In doing so, the Board affirmed the decision of the Workers' Compensation Judge (WCJ) that Claimant's stroke was triggered by the physical exertion of cleaning up a chemical spill at work and, thus, work-related. Employer argues that the Board erred in awarding benefits because Claimant did not give it timely notice that the stroke was work-related.

Claimant filed a claim petition on October 4, 2008, alleging that he suffered a stroke caused by over-exertion while in the course of his job with Employer. Employer filed a timely answer denying the allegations and contending that Claimant did not advise Employer that his stroke was work-related within days of the work injury, as required by Section 311 of the Workers' Compensation Act , 77 P.S. 631.1 The matter was assigned to a WCJ.

Claimant testified before the WCJ that he worked as an Assistant Terminal Manager at Employer's facility, which handles transfers of chemicals transported by ship. On October 4, 2008, Claimant inspected a disabled crane at the facility, getting down on his hands and knees to take pictures of a damaged hydraulic hose and fitting. Then, after walking up a 750 foot catwalk, he noticed a spill of the chemical known as urea. Claimant began cleaning up the spill by shoveling the urea onto two belts, a process Claimant described as akin to breaking ice on a driveway. As Claimant was pushing and shoveling the urea he felt a strange sensation in his face and became dizzy. By the time he returned to his office, approximately 30 minutes later, he was sweating and still dizzy. Claimant's secretary called 911, and he was taken to the hospital. There it was determined that he had suffered a stroke, and he was hospitalized for several weeks.

Because of his stroke, Claimant had difficulty communicating verbally with doctors and other staff. He communicated mainly by nodding or shaking his head. Claimant's direct supervisor, James Shine, visited him in the hospital. Claimant testified that when Shine asked Claimant what happened, he told Shine that he was shoveling urea when "something happened" and he suddenly had a "weird feeling." Reproduced Record at 16a .

Claimant testified that he continues to suffer the effects of his stroke, including a dropped right foot, which renders him unable to perform his previous job. Claimant stated that he broke his right arm when he fell in his daughter's back yard after his right foot failed him.