Concrete Contractor connected with Bill Harman, vice president of product management, commercial and general construction at DEWALT.
Harman shared their insight into what has been ailing concrete contractors, what manufacturers are doing to ease those challenges, their outlook for the year, and more.
Q. What innovation are you most excited about?
Bill HarmanDEWALT
Beyond data center construction, this technology has the potential to support a wide range of large-scale, repeatable downward concrete drilling applications where speed, safety and precision are critical. This includes commercial and industrial environments such as warehouses, manufacturing facilities and other infrastructure related projects.
Benefits we’ve seen throughout the pilot program across 10 construction phases to-date include:
- Significant schedule acceleration of data center construction amidst a race for completion. The twelve robots currently being piloted added 21,000 hours of capacity to jobsites in only 120 days.
- The customer is recognizing significant savings on cost per hole. In one case, cost went from $65 per hole to $20 per hole after implementing the robot into the workflow.
- Drilling accuracy throughout the pilot program is 99.97 percent after drilling 100,000 holes.
I’m also really excited about the advancements we are making within our POWERSHIFT line with new products like our new harder hitting, lower vibration 1-1/8 in. Hex Demolition Hammer and the new 12 in. Cut-Off Saw that drives the highest power and performance in its class while delivering a 4-3/4 in. max depth of cut. These products would all be examples of the efficiencies concrete contractors are looking for.
Q. What’s the biggest difference between the battery powered light equipment and tools 5 years ago versus what we’re seeing in 2026?
The cordless market continues to advance in this space due to high-performance batteries like DEWALT’s 554WH POWERSHIFT batteries that are enabling heavy-duty applications to be completed with battery-operated tools rather than gas-powered tools.
Going from gas to cordless presents a huge opportunity. DEWALT’s latest POWERSHIFT equipment addresses several challenges for the concrete craftworker:
- Gas tools require consistent maintenance to run, much like any motor-powered equipment. Concrete tools can sit unused for days or weeks while crews wait for the next job — that downtime is not ideal for gas tools, which need to be periodically run to maintain their engines. Gas tools also need new filters and regular oil changes. Electric tools do not have the same maintenance requirements.
- The DEWALT POWERSHIFT line of tools is quieter than gas tools, creating a better environment for workers. Gas engines can emit noise up to 130 decibels and often are right next to the user’s ears. In observational research, when using POWERSHIFT tools we witnessed workers having conversations without needing to yell or shut down equipment to be heard. This is a major advantage not only for safety and improved orchestration of the pour, but as the construction industry works to close a skills gap. Less noise and improved communication creates a better learning environment for less seasoned tradespeople.
- Gas products also require full tanks. This means gasoline must be safely stored on the jobsite, and if gas runs out, work stops as users get more gas from storage, refill the machine and then store the can again. The 554WH batteries powering the DEWALT POWERSHIFT line reach a full charge in less than an hour and every tool comes with two batteries and a charger, so there is little to no downtime.
Q. Is there something not yet cordless that you wish was battery powered? What’s on your wish list?
There’s a lot on the wish list! What we’ve seen is that batteries and motor performance continue to advance and as such our products that were once at a max of a gas-like 5HP max performance, are now eclipsing the ability to go up to 11HP performance. That increase in power allows for the unlock of larger scale trowels, extractors, and early entry saws among other applications. I think the wish list has really expanded with the advent of higher power opportunities.
