Capital equipment manufacturer Bell Equipment has started on phase two of its expansion of compaction and road building manufacturing com- pany Bomag’s product range into the Bell group.

Bell has been marketing the range of equipment since the company took over from construction equipment supplier Babcock as the sole South African agent of Germany-based Bomag, in 2009, Bell GM of Bomag marketing Izak van Niekerk tells Engineering News.

The first phase was the marketing of the current Bomag equipment offerings, which range from light equipment and soil machines, including refuse compactors, to asphalt machines.

Phase two includes targeting, besides other sectors, the road maintenance and road construction industry with the introduction of Bomag’s latest series of paving equipment.

“The road construction and maintenance sector has seen a steady increase in projects over the past year and Bell believes the outlook will remain positive throughout the next year,” says Van Niekerk.

The Bomag pavers use the latest manufacturing technology and quality controls, and will comprise the 300 t/h BF 300 and the 600 t/h BF 600 paver. A larger 800 t/h paver is also available; however, Bomag will focus on marketing the two smaller, more popular units.

He says that the pavers feature efficient extendable screeds with electric heating, vibration and tamping for achieving up to 93 % precompaction.

Meanwhile, Bomag has also introduced a number of stabiliser recycling machines, including a 20 t recycler and the latest 25 t MPH 125 recycler. The bigger model has a 2,5-m-wide rotor with a cutting depth of up to 600 mm, and includes the latest in foam bitumen technology.

Bell has also sold its first and largest 50 t BC 972 RB refuse compactor in South Africa.

“While the first of the paving and other recycling units have already been sold in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique, it is part of Bell’s expansion plan to ensure that the company’s employees are thoroughly trained and equipped to handle the machines’ technical, application and after-sales support for its cus- tomers,” he says.

Towards the second half of this year, a demonstration team will tour South Africa to showcase the latest paving and recy- cling equipment at customers’ job sites. The support team will be extensively trained on the new equipment before Bell distri- butes the equipment in the market.

Bell is also establishing a dedicated Bomag light equipment support team to expand the market share of the Bomag range of light compaction equipment, says Bell business development manager for Bomag Craig Hill.

Bomag has developed a range of intelli- gent compactors, with variocontrol and asphalt management, which automatically adjusts the amplitude according to the stiffness of the material to ensure uniform compaction through all the layers.

“Coupled with the latest Bomag-developed compaction measuring systems with global positioning system, all compaction results are recorded and can be downloaded onto a computer for further analysis.”

Further, the technology can highlight possible problem areas and the contractor can then focus on that specific area instead of redoing the entire section of road, he concludes.

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