Trimble Fast-Forwards Future Tech for Construction Industry

Trimble, perhaps best known for global positioning systems (GPS) are actually a market leader in unique positioning and analytical products which aim to help businesses grow. Focusing heavily on the construction, agriculture, transport and logistics industries, Trimble have recently announced several exciting new innovations to their portfolio.

For over 35 years now, Trimble have operated in the GPS market. Their solutions are much more diverse than your simple run-of-the-mill navigation system, however. Trimble recently announced a partnering with Illinois-based Railhead Corporation to bring real-time remote diagnostics to the locomotive industry.

“Positioning-centric information is changing the way people, businesses and governments work throughout the world. By applying Trimble’s advanced positioning solutions, productivity increases and safety improvements are being realised.”

Trimble’s R2M system was release in Europe almost 10 years ago, and is now set to hit the North American market. Integrating with Raihead’s onboard video systems, Trimble innovation allows integration of on-board monitoring systems and data, which assist with fault detection and asset maintenance. Knowing where assets are located at all times, and being able to remotely monitor the health of its systems means huge potential for cost-saving and safety improvements for the locomotive industry.

“We are very excited to partner with Trimble,” said Joe Donnan, president of Railhead Corporation. “The addition of the Trimble R2M solution to the Railhead portfolio gives us the ability to leverage Trimble’s years of experience in Europe together with our advanced LDVR capability and advanced interface modules to provide U.S. rail operators with a competitive and proven asset management solution.”

Another recent development by Trimble is their on-highway telematics, created in partnership with Caterpillar, for the construction industry. Caterpillars existing CAT Connect solutions integrate with Trimble’s real-time fleet monitoring capabilities, once again making asset management that much easier and effective.

The construction industry can now enjoy another innovation in technology, from Trimble’s next-gen machine control systems for excavators. This space-aged technology allows operators to use simple Android software to automate components such as booms and buckets, achieve high accuracy and also monitor efficiency.

Finally, (as if they haven’t been busy enough) Trimble has announced its 2017 ‘Tekla’ software, for structural engineering, fabrication and construction industries. Tekla Structures 2017, Tekla Structural Designer 2017 and Tekla Tedds 2017 all help to streamline analytics and automation in their respective industries.

“In these new Tekla versions, we focus on improving communication and modelling methods because these are directly tied to the productivity of core tasks within large workgroups and projects. The software provides a variety of completely new tools for users to expand their scope of work and collaborate with project stakeholders to ensure that the entire team is on the same page.” said Jari Heino, general manager of Trimble’s Structures Division.

With a portfolio of more than 1100 patents, Trimble are clearly pioneering technological innovation and automation across a number of heavy industries worldwide.  Their products are available in over 150 countries, and they have staff based in 35 countries currently. Their strategic acquisitions and partnerships allow them to bring their innovations to a wider market, and if their current spate of announcements is anything to go by, they show no sign of slowing down.