QinetiQ, a company more commonly associated with remotely-controlled equipment used to diffuse bombs and explosives, has developed a kit that can be installed in about 15 minutes on any of 17 models of Bobcat skid-steer, all-wheel steer, or compact track loaders that are equipped with the Selectable Joystick Controls (SJC) option.

This temporarily turns the loader into a remotely operated “robot” capable of using more than 37 Bobcat-approved attachments.

Click here for further details.

US magazine Construction Equipment reports that Bobcat is transferring all North American machinery production to its original manufacturing facility in Gwinner, North Dakota, a move that will result in discontinuing production at Bobcat’s Bismarck plant by the end of 2009.

Click here for the full story.

UK demolition contractor Syd Bishop & Sons, famous for its “watch it come down” tagline, recently celebrated its 80th anniversary. As part of the celebrations, this vehicle (which had lain unused in the company’s yard for some 15 years) was restored.

We would never suggest that you, our loyal readers, are predictable. But there are two things guaranteed to be popular here on Demolition News: video of demolition gone bad; and video and photos of big machines.

Thankfully, unless our news sources have betrayed us, there’s currently no new footage of demolition gone awry so instead here’s some more details on the Rusch Triple 34-25 that is currently undergoing assembly and testing in Norway before it starts work eating decommissioned oil rigs for breakfast.

In addition, Rusch’ Ruud Schreijer has very kindly provided us with a diagram showing the working range of the latest beast to roll out of his company’s gates.

Genesis' Dan Jacobson checks over the modified attachment

Getting ready to eat oil rigs

Working Range Diagram

When your best-known machine has a working height of 90 metres, anything else is going to look pretty small by comparison. But don’t be fooled. The machine in the photo (left) might only reach a lowly 34 metres, but it can wield a 25 tonne too at that height (and no, there isn’t a decimal point missing there. It really DOES say 25 tonnes!)

Picture the scene. You are the marketing manager of an Italian equipment manufacturer that is just a few months away from launching a pair of new but as yet unnamed compact crushers. It is your job to think of an appropriate name that will convey power, durability, productivity, environmental benefits and green credentials.

Tough, isn’t it?

Which is probably why Guidetti chose instead to emphasise the “Italianness” of its new offering in the increasingly crowded track-mounted compact crusher market by calling them the Caesar 1 and Caesar 2. (Sorry, but since my name is Mark Anthony, I do feel honour-bound to give them just a slight stabbing).

Full specification details are available on the Guidetti website, but we can tell you that the Caesar 1 weighs in at 3.2 tonnes and offers a crusher throughput of 20 tonnes/hour while the larger 6.7 tonne Caesar 2 is said to produce 50 tonnes/hour.

You can see both new machines in action below:

Genesis has unveiled the GDR-200, a new processing attachment designed for excavators in the 20 tonne operating weight class.

The GDR-200 delivers 104 tonnes of crushing force at the tip, an 813 mm jaw depth, a jaw opening of 890 mm, and a quick seven second cycle time. Genesis says this is the largest jaw they’ve ever offered on a tool for a 20-tonne class machine.

About 25 years ago, I was told by a senior officer from within the Kent police force that one of the biggest challenges facing them when trying to recover stolen equipment was the fact that they couldn’t identify machine types. The term JCB can cover a multitude of equipment types, very few of them actually rolling off a Uttoxeter production line; and a digger can be anything from a half tonne machine you can tow behind you family car to a mining shovel that could accommodate said car in its bucket.

This is not the kind of thing the police have to deal with every day so, even a quarter of a century on, I am still happy to make allowances on this basis. But what excuse can there possibly be when one of the UK’s leading construction magazines perpetuates this ignorance?

In this article, which ironically is on the subject of plant theft, we have references to:

• A Volvo dumper truck (surely an articulated dumptruck)

• A JCB 3CX excavator (er, that’s a backhoe loader)

• And a JCB digger (that could be just about anything)

There would be outcry if, instead of using the proper name and nomenclature, Jeremy Clarkson described Ferrari’s latest offering a “a red car”. And how would you get on if you popped into your local mobile phone shop and asked for “a Nokia”.

Surely we should expect a little more accuracy and attention detail from a supposed industry magazine.

In light of the ongoing discussions regarding the inexperience ultra-high demolition excavator utilisation of some US contractors, and the willingness of others to use undersized machines, the outcome of this (quite old) video should become apparent about 21 seconds after it starts, even though it takes almost three minutes to reach its inevitable denouement.

What started out as a simple, almost rhetorical question has proved to be the most eagerly followed and contentious in Demolition News’ 12 month history.

Towards the end of last week, we innocently asked “why don’t Americans GET high reach demolition excavators”. There was an initial (and ongoing) flurry of comments here on Demolition News (click here to read the story and then hit the word comments in blue at the foot of the article to follow the trail of feedback) but, since then, the conversation has gone global.

First, the story turned up on the blog of Construction Equipment, the world’s largest construction equipment magazine. This was followed by another trail of comment and counter comment on the Heavy Equipment Forum, and then by yet more toing and froing on the Demolition Forum.

And the argument and debate is not over yet.

So please, if you have a spare few minutes and can offer feedback based upon your own company’s use of a high reach machine, please visit any of these discussion forums and share your thoughts.