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Looking back at 25 years of the TracStar As the world’s first self-propelled, self-contained, tracked fusion machine, the TracStar from McElroy is one of the top choices on jobsites fusing long pipelines. TracStar in 2021.
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cElroy was built on a history of innovation, creating products that have become the industry standard, through innovative design and productivityenhancing features. From the outset, McElroy has striven for excellence in customer satisfaction. After a successful line of rolling fusion machines, McElroy introduced a new concept in pipe fusion 25 years ago. Inspiration came from a desire to get fusion equipment in place easily and efficiently – whether that be in the middle of a field or a city street – and improve job site productivity. With a fusion machine on tracks, the machine can simply move to the work site. It would no longer be necessary to have to wait for additional equipment to move the machine or pipe into place. This concept spawned a new series of machines: the TracStar®. McElroy introduced the Tracstar® 500 in 1997 and it revolutionised the pipe fusion industry. The TracStar 500 was the world’s first self-propelled, self-contained, tracked fusion machine. This series of machines has grown over the past 25 years, expanding its capability, to fuse pipe sizes from 2-inch to 48-inch in diameter. In 2020, McElroy debuted a new TracStar machine. Identified as the iSeries, these new
machines - the TracStar 630i, TracStar 900i and TracStar1200i - offer integrated, softwarecontrolled options, from manual to fully automatic, to improve operator consistency, adherence to standards, and productivity. Numerous improvements have advanced the
level of technology available while simultaneously hardening that technology to make the entire fusion experience even more reliable. The TracStar iSeries features new emissions-compliant engines, a Controller Area Network (CAN) bus control system, along with numerous hydraulic, mechanical, and electrical upgrades. One of the most exciting improvements is in the FusionGuide Control System, which powers the iSeries machines. The software offers three different levels of operator interaction. In Level 1 manual control, the operator manually controls the carriage position and the times during the fusion process. At Level 2, the enhanced guided workflow manages machine pressures, carriage, heater actions, shift sequences and more. Level 3 offers a fully automatic process. At each level, the software guides the user through every step of the fusion process using a ruggedised tablet to ensure standards compliance and a successful fusion. Throughout the years, McElroy has listened to its customers and to industry to gather the necessary information to improve upon designs and meet contemporary market needs. McElroy’s TracStar in 1997.
To explore the new iSeries machines, visit www.mcelroy.com
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The Australian Pipeliner | March 2022
