Earlier this year at the World of Concrete, Somero Enterprise Inc.® introduced the Somero Floor Levelness System® which monitors Laser Screed® performance, operator performance, and reports alert percentages of possible issues during the screeding process.
Myron Hillock, Sales Director for Somero Enterprises Inc. says the company has been looking for ways to make things simple for the Laser Screed operator. “Between the diagnostics in our heads up display and the new visual Somero Floor Levelness System, operators may now receive live feedback during each screed pass to better improve floor quality on the fly while screeding a concrete floor.”
With this new system, the operator and the machine work better together, improving consistency and therefore have more opportunity for better Floor Levelness (FL) numbers. Achieving good numbers however, leads to more questions.
“If a poor FF/FL test occurs, perhaps the screed is assumed the cause. But when we dive in to examine FL problems days after a pour, it could be operator issues, mix design issues, finishing issues, and not related to the screed at all,” Hillock says. “So now what this tool gives us is the ability to evaluate in real time the operator and the screed performance and support that with a detailed report. We are now evaluating on a daily basis, how good the operator is doing and how well the machine is performing. If there are any deviances, they are going to appear.”
Matthew Kangas, Somero Floor Levelness System Engineer says the development of this system has taken a lot of what engineering has gathered over the years and created a system to make the machines better and brings that power to the operator.
“The system will tell the operator right away about what they can do to improve and what they can do to have their machine run better,” Kangas explains. “The system reports whether the screed ran different from the day before. If you have a new operator or an experienced operator, they can hone in on how to improve their FL numbers”.
One of the other aspects of this new system is while the specs on a floor project may not call for it, the expectation of higher and higher FL numbers is always out there from the owner, GC or the contractors themselves.
“Operators will always strive to get good numbers, as an industry, that expectation will always exist and this system will improve the quality of the floor being placed and it will make the contractor’s life easier with greater piece of mind,” Hillock says.
A Tool of the Trade
Contractors may not always take on projects that specify high FL numbers, however, a contractor does want to know how to achieve those numbers when it is needed.
“This tool is systematic and consistent so the operator knows what numbers they can achieve and it gives them confidence when they bid these jobs with specs for a higher FL number,” Kangas says. “Responding to the feedback allows the operator to achieve a higher quality floor.”
Training Tool
Installation of the device is simple. Once installed, the operator pushes a “record” button and the system will begin recording every screed pass during screeding. In doing so, every pass is giving feedback to the operator in real time. The system “scores” each pass independently on the left and right side on a scale of 0 to 500. During this time, nine parameters are being recorded. As the operator continues each pass, icons will display on the bottom of the screen to show the operator what he/she can improve.
For example, if the head of the screed came down too hard during a touchdown, the system will alert the operator of the event and give them the opportunity to immediately correct it before finishing the rest of the pass.
The Somero Floor Levelness System offers operators a visual alert on screen to make adjustments to the screed or redo the pass to improve the floor quality. There are four hot keys on each side of the screen that coincide to different icons. Located at the bottom of the screen are nine icons which represent nine different parameters the system is measuring with each pass of the screed.
If you look at the picture (page 16), it shows 431 on the top left and a 294 on the top right. These numbers represent the quality of the pass independently on the left and the right side of the screed head. As the screed pass continues, the number will fluctuate—500 is the best, zero is terrible.
The numbers underneath are a running total or summation of all the screed passes thus far. In this case, 429 on the left and 415 on the right.
“In this example, of all the passes that have been recorded so far on this day, the left hand side reported an average of 429 while the right side reported an average of 415,” Hillock says. “This indicates that the operator and both sides of the machine are performing well with some room for improvement. The icon alerts at the bottom would indicate the specific areas to improvement.”
“If the system is set up consistently each day, a contractor will put down a better floor,” Kangas explains. “The data collected will detect if the machine is stabilized properly and will allow the operator to fine tune how to run the machine.”
At any time, the operator may also push a summary button and see how many times there were alerts and instantly know what they need to work on as it relates to the operation of the machine.
For a more detailed analysis after the job, operators may download the data to a USB stick. The data is then sent to Somero Customer Support and a report is created. The report is analyzed and feedback is provided to the operator and contractor. According to Hillock, “The Advanced Report option will graphically chart relative location in relationship to the pour where each icon alerted. When you overlay this data with the testing agencies individual FF / FL run data, obvious similarities become glaringly apparent.”
“The report will tell the operator what they can do to improve their floor,” Kangas says. “It’s a very powerful tool.”
It’s important to note, the system is not measuring the FL of the floor, but instead, how well the operator performed and how well the machine performed to the laser beam.
“The way the system operates is it is evaluating how accurate we are to the laser beam,” Hillock notes. “If an operator takes due caution in setting up the laser at the beginning of the day and the contractor makes sure their laser transmitters are routinely calibrated for accuracy, this system can provide very valuable information to the contractor.”
Designed for all Operators
The Somero Floor Levelness System is designed to be useful to all types of operators. New operators may recently have completed their training or only accomplished a few actual pours so far, or they may have years of experience and seasoned operators.
“For the new operator this system will quickly identify their strengths and weak points, electronically. So rather than learning by trial and error, it will help a new operator get up to speed to be more proficient much quicker,” Hillock says. “The experienced operator on the other hand will be able to see things such as new technology or features he/she may not be taking advantage of correctly or show him/her things they may be doing improperly that they were not previously aware of.”
The system is available as an option for all Somero S-22E Laser Screed models.
Ed. Note: For more information, contact Somero Enterprises at www.somero.com or phone (239) 210-6519.
Somero Floor Levelness System® and Laser Screed® are registered trademarks of Somero Enterprise Inc.®
