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Digger Man

Digger Man Blog

by Nick Drew  |  Wed 09 Oct 2013

Grading beams the latest Swedish idea to catch on in the UK

Many of the visitors who visited Plantworx earlier this year, would have witnessed a Steelwrist grading beam being demonstrated on the Volvo stand. And it got me thinking is this the way ahead for grading stone?

Grading beams the latest Swedish idea to catch on in the UK
As I have written many times before, the Swedes are light years ahead of us in terms of hydraulic excavator attachments and excavation techniques. But an ever growing band of UK owner operators and companies are getting the message on the benefits of using tiltrotator systems, and the edge it gives them over competitors who are still using “rigid” buckets. Now however, we are starting to see the rise in popularity of another Swedish attachment, which is much simpler in design, but when used in conjunction with a tiltrotator can offer outstanding results. An example of the grading beam was displayed by the award winning Swedish demonstration operator during Plantworx in May as seen here. Pat Bulcock of Steelwrist UK has recently sold his 20th grading beam to a UK customer, and reckons that interest in the concept is on the rise. It’s an interesting idea but I think to get the full benefit one would have to be using it under a tiltrotator to get the best out of it. The idea has certainly raised some debate on the various plant forums and Facebook pages of late, which raised my interest even further. In the UK we still have a long way to go to catch up with our Swedish friends, but a growing number of modern plant men & women are ready to embrace new ideas. In this video shot in Sweden a couple of years ago, we see an example of a grading beam in action on a Volvo wheeled excavator.
I would love to hear your feedback on the grading beam concept.  

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