Topcon Expands Compact Solutions with 2D-MC Automatic Grade Control Solution for Compact Track Loaders
Topcon Positioning Systems has introduced 2D-MC, an automatic grade control solution for compact track loaders. Now available in North America, 2D-MC is a low-cost 2D machine control system that is designed to be installed directly onto select grading attachments. Connecting directly to the machine’s controls and a wireless display, the solution works along with familiar rotary laser technology to provide simplified operational visibility, with all the information needed to hit target grade with greater precision and in less time.
Designed for slope work, sidewalk grading, road base and drain rock replacement, parking lots, sports fields, landscaping, flat pads, indoor work, concrete site prep and more, 2D-MC is an automatic grade control solution designed to adapt to different grading attachments for compact equipment, leveraging the performance of machine control technology with the accuracy of laser positioning.
Now that the benefits of machine control are available for compact equipment, these systems can provide the operational gains that help contractors get more work done in less time, allowing them to bid on more and/or larger jobs.”
Familiar jobsite technology
The 2D-MC system utilizes laser receivers to work with rotary lasers. If a user is familiar with rotary lasers, no additional tooling or training is needed to determine the correct grade for the grading attachment.
The system may be customized by using either a dual laser receiver setup for elevation at both edges of the blade, or a single laser receiver with a highly accurate dual-axis tilt sensor for elevation and slope determination. The 2D-MC system fits right in with many of the tools already implemented, and the ability to use the software on Android devices like a CT8X2 tablet gives the customer the advantages of utilizing an interface with which they are comfortable.
Simple software
Developed from Topcon’s 3D-MC software platform, 2D-MC has a simplified purpose-built app that maintains a similar visual user interface, offering convenience and familiarity when customers add higher-end 3D-MC technology to their fleet.
The app has a simple user interface with a straightforward “progressive” grade arrow indication. This provides the operator with an easy-to-see “work completed” and “work remaining” visual. With adjustable increment/decrement elevation control right from the machine’s joystick, set/match elevations/slopes, valve adjustment capabilities, automatic updates and simple menus, an operator can get up and running on the system in very little time.
Click here to view a 2D-MC testimonial video. For more information on Topcon’s compact solutions portfolio, visit topconpositioning.com.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.