EARTHMOVING & EXCAVATION
REVOLUTIONARY CAB FOCUS OF DOZER DESIGN
LiuGong Dressta’s new TD-16N dozer is the result of a seven-year design process focused on improving operator visibility and safety By Lee Toop, Editor
“As the operator interface has changed and safety requirements have rightly improved, the cab has become the most important aspect in designing any new product.” Gary Major, director of industrial design, LiuGong Dressta
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HEAVY EQUIPMENT GUIDE
>> MAY 2020
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onstruction equipment is often designed for power and strength, ensuring the machine can handle the rigours of its task on the jobsite – digging, pushing, lifting and so forth. At the centre of that machine, however, is the one key part that makes all of that happen: the operator. With today’s labour challenges driven by an aging workforce and other factors, manufacturers are giving contractors tools to help attract good equipment operators, and cab design has become an area that many companies have focused on. The more comfortable and safe a cab is, the more likely it is that operators will stick around to use that machine for its owner. One feature that is often a challenge for designers is visibility. Construction equipment is hardly streamlined or aerodynamic; the bulk from counterweights, big engines and other aspects that make it possible for a machine to do its job are difficult to design around. At the same time, making it easier to see the area around the machine immediately improves safety for the operator and everyone on the ground.
Operator’s needs are the design starting point
When track dozer specialist Dressta set out to design the newest machine in its range, the TD-16N, the cab was, in many ways, job one. The team behind this new dozer wanted to revolutionize the operator’s ability to see the jobsite around them. “In the past, and I’m including my 32 years in construction equipment, the cab enclosure had been little more than a means of keeping the operator dry in the rain and cool in the sun – it was basically a shelter,” described Gary Major, director of industrial design with LiuGong Dressta. “As the operator interface has changed and safety requirements have rightly improved, the cab has become the most important aspect in designing any new product.” Older machine designs didn’t take the operator’s needs into consideration, noted Edward Wagner, LiuGong executive director of new technology. “You don’t have to look too far back in time to find heavy construction equipment was designed to optimize the machine for simplicity and low cost with little to no regard for the actual operator. Anyone who has spent a 12hour day running a machine with an
open cab, or no cab at all, can understand this – the old machine would literally beat up the operators,” Wagner said. “Finally, owners began to realize there was a cost advantage to having the operator stay comfortable and productive throughout the day.” Even with that in mind, many machines are still designed based on the needs of the machine layout and without a lot of thought given to how that design affects the operator. “We flipped this with the design of the TD-16N, as we literally started with the operator and their needs, and built the machine around them,” Wagner noted. Dressta determined that it was time to consider updates to its dozer line, and approached the TD-16N as a starting point for that process, Wagner said. “The legacy machines needed enough updates that it actually was a simpler and faster route to make a clean sheet design for this large hydrostatic dozer.” Major said the ground-up approach to the new machine meant the design team had a lot of freedom to meet their goals. “The TD-16N is a ground-up new concept, propelled by one primary goal – to build a bulldozer with unrivalled
