Using material feeders boosts the paving quality. Decoupling the paver and feed lorry improves job site logistics, prevents sudden jolts to the screed during docking and actively counteracts segregation. For these reasons, material feeders are being specified for an increasing number of construction projects in many countries. With the two material feeder models in their PowerFeeder series, VÖGELE are spearheading technological advancement in this machine segment.
With its proportionally controlled pivoting conveyor, the MT 3000-2i Offset PowerFeeder in particular offers flexibility to paving teams – and opens up completely new applications to construction companies. This was demonstrated by a job on the A 81 Black Forest motorway in which an MT 3000-2i Offset PowerFeeder fed a SUPER 800-3i Mini Class paver from the side. By these means, it was possible to fill a cavity between two safety barriers on the median strip of the motorway continuously – and therefore efficiently. At the motorway job site in the Black Forest, the innovative PowerFeeder brought yet another added bonus into play with its pivoting conveyor: the technology is so robust that it cannot only handle asphalt, but also water-bound base course material or – as on the A 81 – mineral aggregate.
Feeding the paver from the side boosts efficiency
It was an unusual sight on the motorway job site: the largest and smallest VÖGELE machines joined forces to work as a team. This yielded a number of advantages: since the paver was supplied with material from the side, it was possible to safely maintain the flow of traffic. The alternative – filling the cavity with an excavator or wheeled loader – requires an additional slewing and manœuvring area, lorries have to tip the material onto the traffic lane and work cannot proceed uninterrupted. “Working on a motorway has seldom been so relaxed. Traffic simply passed us by without affecting the construction work at all. The lorries with the mineral aggregate simply merge in front of the VÖGELE material feeder and transfer the material with no further ado,” enthused Ralf Wagner, Foreman at J. Friedrich Storz Verkehrswegebau GmbH & Co. KG, describing his experience working with the MT 3000-2i Offset PowerFeeder. Additional compaction was also unnecessary when placing the mineral aggregate with the SUPER 800-3i and the AB 220 TV Extending Screed. As a result, the new concrete safety barriers, which form a 7km-long structural separation of the traffic lanes, were quickly and safely filled.