While some grasped the Plantworx opportunity, others appeared alarmingly underprepared.

At the time of writing, Plantworx 2013 is a day old and the UK has a viable new construction and demolition equipment exhibition in its annual diary.   Sure there were gripes.  The organizers had employed the usual gate Nazis who, armed with a high vis’ vest and a walkie-talkie, went power crazy and tried their level best to ensure that no-one set foot inside.   And the person responsible for organizing the weather on the opening day needs to take a long, hard look at themselves.

But such minor criticisms seem churlish when set against the numerous positives from the exhibition.  The venue is central and easy to find for all but the congenitally lost; parking was easy and – astonishingly – free; and the show aisles are wide and spacious affording plenty of room to marvel at and admire the highly-polished and tyre-blackened kit on display.  Best of all, the organizers and the exhibitors managed to recreate the welcoming feel of a county fair that was all too sadly absent in the latter days of the terminally-bloated SED.

So you would have thought that the equipment manufacturers – those poor multinational companies that have spent the past five years fighting the twin terrors of rising steel prices and dwindling demand – would have grasped the opportunities afforded by Plantworx 2013 like a drowning man grasps at driftwood.   You would have thought that the stand and sales staff had slept with the new product spec sheets under their pillows for the past six months, that they had all been ordered to dust off their shiny suits and rather less shiny shoes and given a customer care refresher course before heading for the Stoneleigh Park show ground.

In far too many cases, however, this was clearly not the case.   In fact, even though the exhibition has been looming on the industry’s collective calendar for some two years now, it seemed to have taken a good many exhibitors completely by surprise.   And instead of greeting Plantworx as an opportunity to shake off the recessionary shackles, a good many treated it as an unwelcome intrusion into their expense account-funded beer, service station lunch and golf-centric social lives.

Before I tell you what I mean, let me explain that I toured the opening day of the show with a camera slung around my neck and a sandwich-board sized name tag that shouted PRESS.

Now compare and contrast these visitor experiences.  One of the first stands I visited was that of Volvo Construction Equipment GB which just happened to have on display the single most innovative piece of kit at this or any other show of recent years; the Step Safe Cab.   I was greeted by a smiling receptionist, passed smoothly to the marketing manager and, subsequently, to the product specialist who not only explained the system but gave me a complete guided tour in a manner as smooth and efficient as the company’s excavators.

Such welcoming engagement was not the sole preserve of the large manufacturers.  Nearby was the stand of Steelwrist, a one-trick pony of an importer offering nothing more earth-shattering than an excavator tilt rotator.  What could have been a flying visit, however, turned into a passionate explanation of the product’s feature and benefits, an iPad demonstration of just how the system works followed by a full working demonstration.  In 15 engaging and informative minutes, Steelwrist converted a career skeptic and gained a new fan.

Now compare that to my experience with several other unnamed but industry household name manufacturers.

One was displaying a new mini excavator so, as my job requires, I asked what was new about it.   Salesman #1 explained that this was the first time he had seen the product.  Not great but I gave him the benefit of the doubt as a lot of new machines arrived hot-foot from a Bauma launch just last month.   Salesman #2 agreed that the machine was new (the sign on the machine was probably his first clue) but explained that he hadn’t been briefed on it.  “Don’t worry,” he said cheerfully.  “I’ll fetch someone to help you.”

Almost 20 minutes later, that person had failed to materialize and salesmen #1 and #2 were in a conspiratorial huddle trying desperately to avoid eye contact like an overworked diner waitress.   I gave up and left.

I then went to check out a new wheel loader on another stand.   All was going swimmingly well until I asked a question about the technical specification of the machine.  The response?   “if you were going to ask questions, you should have phoned ahead.”

I am rarely at a loss for words but on this occasion I was utterly stumped.   Having now slept on it, I have a suggestion for the “professional” I had the misfortune to encounter.

“Have you considered a career as a gate Nazi?”

777 machine does canny job in the North East.

It’s a long way from home, but 777 Demolition’s Hitachi high reach excavator is doing a fine job for Thompsons of Prudhoe in the North east of England.

Chinese company offers crusher copies.

As a journalist, my job generally entails hour after hour on the phone, chasing leads, checking out the gossip and generally going out to find stuff to report upon.

Occasionally, however, the god of the scribes smiles benevolently and drops a story into my lap with no additional effort required.

So when I opened my email inbox this morning to find that I was being offered Metso crushers from a Chinese source, I rubbed my hands together, made a few phone calls and simply lit the blue touch paper.

The following is a transcription of the ad, and you will note that it says the company in question has obtained the technology but skirts around the small matter of whether it actually obtained the permission:

Shenyang Sanland has also obtained manufacturing technology to produce Jaw Crusher from Terex, Gyratory Crusher from American Fuller company, Ball Mills from Allis Chalmers, and HP Cone Crusher from Metso. Our Grizzly Feeders and Vibrating Screens product ranges are also manufactured with American AC company’s standard quality. Moreover, our belt conveyor product range is also manufactured with German Precismaca technology. In addition to these equipments, Sanland also produces Ball Mill, Bar Mill, Cement Grinding and other grinding equipments to suit the requirements of customers.

Two months of preparation leads to five seconds of textbook demolition.

On a day in which we brought you the potential pitfalls of explosive demolition, it is pleasing to report on an alternative method which, with sufficient planning and preparation, can get the job done smoothly and safely.

The following video was kindly sent to us by reader Michael Ramun of Exodus International from Youngstown, Ohio which caried out the impressive demolition of the old electric furnace at RG Steel Warren, Ohio.

Imploded Australian silo defies gravity and fails to fall.

Demolition experts have been left red-faced after a 4,000-ton building was left leaning to one side instead of toppling down as planned.

The team had set off 100 kg of explosives in a controlled explosion but they were not enough to destroy the silo in Redbank, southwest of Brisbane.

For around 40 minutes, the structure resembled the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy as it stood at an angle.

In the end, an excavator was used to push the building the rest of the way over.

Read more here.

17-year old dies after collapsing at digger giant school.

A 17-year-old student has died after falling unconscious at the JCB Academy in Staffordshire.

Emergency crews were called to the site in Rocester at about 11:00 BST on Friday.

The teenager was taken to the University Hospital of North Staffordshire but died shortly after arriving, police said. His death is not being treated as suspicious.

The £22m school opened to 170 engineering students in 2010.

The digger firm contributed 10% of the capital to set it up with the government providing 90%.

Read more here.

Hydrodemolition lead to water contamination.

A demolition company and two of its workers are facing charges they illegally dumped polluted water in upstate New York.

U.S. Attorney Richard Hartunian says 52-year-old Mark Pullyblank of Caledonia, 52-year-old William Clements of Victor and Crane-Hogan Structural Systems Inc. of Spencerport were charged in a nine-count indictment with violating the Clean Water Act.

Hartunian says Crane-Hogan removes concrete from buildings with high-pressure water that becomes contaminated with highly alkaline concrete waste.

Crane-Hogan and Pullyblank are accused of dumping waste from a project into the Susquehanna River. The company alone faces the same charge for another project. All three are accused of discharging waste from another site without a pretreatment permit at a sewage plant.

Read more here.

Silo topples as if pulled by invisible force.

At first glance, this silo appears to fall to the ground unaided. From the outset, it is listing quite badly and, judging by the wind noise on the camera, it’s also pretty breezy out there.

But the eagle-eyed among you may just spot the cab roof of what appears to be an excavator that has almost certainly pulled the structure to the ground. Either that, or someone has invented a silent and invisible new demolition process:

The UK’s new equipment exhibition should march to the beat of its own drum if it is to succeed.

Retrospection equips us all with rose-coloured spectacles. Even those that lived through the dark years of the Second World War are fond of describing the time as “the good old days”. And that, perhaps, is why many of us – myself included – look back with such sadness at what we now perceive as the untimely demise of the SED exhibition a few years ago.

But set aside the sentimentality and think back to what SED had really become. Sure, it was bigger, brasher than anyone could ever have imagined in its Hatfield and Whipsnade infancy. And yes, it was making cash by the shed-load, mostly for people with no affinity to the construction and demolition business the show was originally created to serve. But, in truth, it had become a commercial monster; a Bauma wannabe; an annual crucifixion of the finances of the exhibitors and the patience of visitors.

Towards the end of its life, SED had become like a Tesco superstore where you have to trawl past aisles filled with clothing, electronics and kitchenware merely to buy a loaf of bread. I for one had long since grown tired of mobile phone suppliers and local car dealers vying for elbow room among the real plant. I never missed a show in 20 years but there were times towards the end when would have gladly foregone the schlep to the featureless wastelands of Rockingham.

Plantworx now has the opportunity to turn back the clock to a time when the annual gathering of plant buyers and enthusiasts was led more by a desire to serve than by a desire to profit. And while I would not begrudge anyone from profiting from the hard work involved in putting on a show of this magnitude, I sincerely hope that they have learned the lessons of the past.

Certainly, based upon the pre-promotion of the exhibition and its engagement with exhibitors and visitors demonstrated so far, that is certainly the case. The organisers and the promotional team deserve great credit already.

So as I pack my UK exhibition bag – t-shirts, shorts, workwear kilt and sunglasses/sowester, wellies, umbrella and inflatable dinghy – I have some simple hopes for Plantworx.

• I hope that the sun shines, that visitors arrive in their droves, and that they leave feeling more positive about the UK economy
• I hope that the parking and lunch-time veggie burger costs less in a Warwickshire field than it does at a hotel in London
• And I hope that by this time next week we’re no longer talking about the new SED; we’re talking simply about Plantworx.

Demolition and dredging contractor accused of overstating revenues.

The Law Offices of Todd M. Garber announces that it is investigating potential claims against Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation concerning possible violations of federal securities laws. Great Lakes engages in marine construction, dredging, and commercial and industrial demolition primarily in the east, west and Gulf Coasts of the United States.

The investigation is related to allegations that between August 7, 2012 and March 14, 2013 the Company and certain of its executive officers issued false and misleading statements or failed to disclose: (1) that the Company was accounting pending change orders as revenue where client acceptance had yet to be finalized; (2) that, as such, the Company was improperly recognizing revenue for its demolition segment; (3) that the Company’s revenue was overstated; (4) that the Company’s financial results were not prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”); (5) that the Company lacked adequate internal and financial controls; and (6) as a result of the foregoing, that the Company’s financial statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

Read more here.