Products & Equipment Heavy Equipment Paving Week Roads & Paving Technology
Vögele Dash 5 Road Pavers providing safer and healthier asphalt paving

In recent years, risk-awareness and safety standards in the asphalt paving sector have become increasingly important around the globe and, with this, the demands on road pavers. Depending on the country, construction contractors must ensure compliance with various regulations and workplace safety standards.

With a tighter focus on accident prevention and health protection in road construction, Vögele explains it has aligned the concept of its Dash 5 generation pavers even more strongly towards ensuring the health and safety of operators. This includes new functions such as setting up and starting the machine from the ground, an integrated lighting system and a revised ventilation system.

“A road paver is not just a machine that must function at the highest technological level, but is also, and above all, a workplace,” says Bastian Fleischer, product manager at Vögele. “Only when operators can work safely and ergonomically with a paver that simultaneously protects their health, is it possible to guarantee efficient, high-quality paving. Good working conditions reduce the risk of health issues and accidents. Regardless of any country-specific regulations, user-safety therefore always has utmost priority in all of our developments – and especially in the case of the Dash 5 generation machines.”

The control unit mounted on the paving screed enables users to start all the initial steps at the push of a button. Photo: Vögele

Vögele has developed the automated Paver Access Control (PAC) function to improve safety. The control unit positioned on the screed allows operators to start all the initial steps – such as switching on the lights, starting the diesel engine, booting the machine control system, raising and locking the weather canopy in place, and lowering the screed – to be performed from the ground at the push of a button. After work, the paver can be returned to the transport position in the same way. This makes setting up and shutting down the paver and loading it onto a low-loader for transportation easier and more convenient. In the dark, the operator switches on the lights to ensure optimum vision before climbing onto the paver. Functions like the automatic locking of the weather canopy make sure that the operator does not forget important steps when setting up the machine.

“PAC avoids errors due to carelessness or negligence, and the clear sequence of the initial steps guarantees absolute reliability,” explans Fleischer.

When working at night, in poor visibility, or in tunnels, sufficient lighting on and around the road paver is important for safety. The Dash 5 generation pavers have an integrated LED lighting system that illuminates the paver operator’s platform and all service points accessible from it. The illumination of the tow point rams and the freely-positionable floodlights guarantee a good view of all relevant areas. The new models can also be fitted with additional LED floodlights in fixed mounts on the roof extension. These evenly illuminate the entire working area up to four meters behind the screed and across a paving width of up to ten meters. After the end of the work, a timer function automatically switches off the lights after giving the operator sufficient time to safely leave the construction site.

Vögele notes Dash 5 Road Pavers provide more effective health protection and improve the sustainability profile of the road construction contractors. This is due to Vögele’s success in reducing both noise and CO₂ emissions while maintaining the same engine power output. The reason for this is the combination of revised drive system technology and the improved EcoPlus low-emissions package. As was the case in the previous generation, a variety of technical features contribute to lower fuel consumption and emissions. In the case of the Dash 5 generation, Vögele has optimized the function of the speed-controlled cooling fan to enable more precise calculation of the cooling fan speed and to increase it only as far as necessary for ensuring safe operation of the machine. This leads to lower noise and CO₂ emissions and significantly reduces fuel consumption.

Vögele states it is always looking to improve the ventilation system of its road pavers to ensure operators are more effectively protected against harmful aerosols during asphalt paving.

 “In the Dash 5 generation, we have significantly increased the extraction performance and have also optimized the exhaust air outlet,” explains Steffen Fickeisen, head of special machines at Vögele. “Its integration in the canopy of the paver instead of at the rear of the operator’s platform significantly reduces the exposure of the operator to harmful aerosols.

 “This is not only a standard feature of our latest machines, we also offer a retrofit package that enables users to have it installed on Dash 3 models,” says Fickeisen.