Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, part of the $19 billion Mahindra Group, recently announced expansion of its road construction equipment with the launch of another Motor Grader – the Mahindra RoadMaster G90. On the eve of bauma Conexpo 2018, Manish Arora, Business Head, Mahindra Construction Equipment, while emphasising on the importance of graders in road construction, tells us more on this latest addition to their product portfolio. Excerpts…
Which sectors drive the demand of motor graders?
Motor graders are extensively used in road construction and maintenance. The future demand of motor graders will come from extensive road and rail projects being allocated with extensive focus of the present day government on infrastructure. Typically, they are used for making smoother surfaces, fine grade, levelling soil and shifting small amounts of dirt.
What are the key advantages of motor graders?
Motor graders increase the construction ROI as a single machine can perform various tasks most cost-effectively compared to non-mechanized or suboptimal method. Further, motor graders take less time to complete any task, hence, more and more projects can be completed easily; reduce rework; save on the labour cost and do much more due to their versatility quotient.
How do you differentiate the applications of graders in highways and rural roads?
While conventional motor graders are used in highway projects, a small or mini motor grader within a range of 80-150 horsepower is usually used for most of the jobs in rural roads and small spaces. While the smaller graders are perfect for jobs that need to be completed in a tight spacing environment, larger motor graders can be used in broader spaces. Larger machines are known to use a direct drive or a torque converter drive transmission system while the smaller ones are hydrostatically driven. Graders, both the large and mini ones are an integral part of the road maintenance fleets across the country. Though small in size, the mini grader are power-packed and their size helps the machine to operate successfully in small spaces. They are cost effective and viable for the smaller projects with budget constraints.
Do you see a growth in the use of motor graders in rural road construction?
In a country like India, rural roads assume a lot of importance as nearly half of the Indian population still lives in rural areas. Since past few years, Government of India is increasingly focusing on rural India as one of the key drivers for the economy. Special emphasis was laid in the Budget on boosting rural road development. Optimally designed motor graders are suitable for rural road construction. These graders are compact and lightweight equipment and essentially an optimized version of the full sized graders. Like the larger graders, the mini graders form an important part of the road construction and maintenance equipment fleet.
What is the scope of design changes in motor graders for different applications?
Optimally designed motor graders come with simplistic design as compared to large motor graders. Generally, optimal
motor graders are made up of three axles similar to the conventional graders but has hydraulic cylinders to control blade movement instead of turn table. These graders are identified by their long adjustable blade which does most of the cutting work. The blade of the grader is not only restricted to cutting process but can also be used for spreading and levelling. They can be even used for finishing a slope as well.
One of the biggest advantages of the optimally designed graders is that they come with a variety of attachments that can be used for completing different kinds of tasks. These attachments increase the versatility of the equipment and help them to perform tasks at the jobsite. For example, the ripper attachment can be used to cut through challenging ground conditions such as hard, compact or frozen dirt or soil before grading and the dozer attachment helps with spreading.
What are the latest motor grader products and solutions from Mahindra?
Mahindra Construction Equipment offers its RoadMaster G90 and RoadMaster G75 range of motor grader. It is highly fuel-efficient, equipped with Mahindra DITEC engine, which brings fuel consumption down and results in more savings. The equipment highly reduces maintenance cost as it lowers lubricant refilling requirement with the extended service intervals. The RoadMaster G90 comes with the option of having additional fitments i.e., the ripper and dozer, and
RoadMaster G75 with dozer for added versatility. G75 is 180 per cent faster and can single-handedly do the work of 30 labourers. These graders provide a superior finish and saves 50 per cent on the time required to get the job done through manual processes and it saves at least 40 per cent of the costs.
What are the monitoring and control technologies associated with new generation motor graders?
The operator-friendly console of the RoadMaster comes with a DigiSense technology so that the owner can keep track of the machine’s location and fuel consumption amongst other things. The console sends the owner an sms when the machine is running low on fuller when there is something wrong with the machine and requires repair. This preempts the issues by raising warning which reduces the downtime of the machine and catch trouble in its initial stages.
How do you visualise the market scenario in the coming years?
Union Ministry for Road Transport has planned to increase the length of National Highways which will boost the prospects of motor graders in future. However, it is majorly the rural road construction segment that is expected to give a boost to the mini grader market in the country. In fact, the Union Budget has given its focus towards the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) to connect far- flung habitats. This is expected to surely give a boost to the mini grader market in the country.