NATIONAL Construction Exhibition (NCE) being held in Sydney's Olympic Park from November 8-11, will have several features never before seen at an Australian construction show.

John Gorton, industrial exhibitions director with NCE 2005 organisers Reed Exhibitions, believes that the show will set a new benchmark for Australian construction industry exhibitions.

"In establishing the National Construction Exhibition, our intention has always been to aim for an international-standard show, of equivalent quality to a ConExpo or a bauma," he sys.

"While NCE 2005 will not be of a comparable size to those giant international shows, our aim is to deliver that level of quality, excitement and exhibitor and visitor satisfaction.

"We have been delighted to see that many of our exhibitors have responded to this - indicating there is a demand for a true international-standard exhibition - by planning high quality, sophisticated and entertaining stands that will attract visitors," says Gorton.

"We currently have about 150 confirmed exhibitors, representing the cream of Australian construction equipment suppliers, and we have sold just about all available space.

"And combining the exhibition with the strong support of industry associations such as the Civil Contractors Federation (CCF) - which is holding its annual National Conference in Sydney at the same time, with NCE 2005 as a central element of its activities - will further help us attract the right mix of visitors and industry participants."

Toolbox sessions

Toolbox sessions will be run on three days of the conference, covering various equipment management and maintenance issues.

On the Wednesday (November 9), the sessions will be hosted by the Institute of Quarrying's NSW division, while on the Thursday, they will be hosted by CCF.

Subjects to be covered in the Toolbox sessions include:

• Managing coolants, lubricants and fuel hazards (separate sessions)
• Maintenance of transmissions, final drives and hydraulic systems
• Maintenance of engines and turbochargers
• Ground-engaging tool management
• Fleet management
• Tyre management
• Oil and wear analysis
• Machine control systems.

These sessions will be presented by speakers with expertise in their subjects, delivering useable, practical advice, rather than promoting specific company products and services.

Subjects will be the same over the two days, and all sessions are open free of charge to all exhibition visitors - although there will be priority seating for CCF and IQA members.

Careers Day

A major element of the exhibition will be Careers Day on the Tuesday (November 8), when students (secondary and tertiary), parents and careers advisors will be invited to visit the show and learn about job and career opportunities in the construction industry.

In what is a unique development for any Australian construction exhibition, young people are being targeted as part of a move by the construction and construction materials industry to showcase itself not only to those who are already a part of it, but also the wider community - as part of a strategy to deal with the emerging skills crisis in the industry.

The Beacon Foundation, which has pioneered the "No Dole" concept in schools around Australia, is playing a key role in the Careers Day. Students and careers advisors from Beacon Schools throughout Australia are being targeted, with expectations that significant numbers will visit the exhibition.

An important element of NCE 2005 has been the establishment of an NCE Careers Fund, which is administered by Reed Exhibitions, CMEIG, IQA and CCF, to promote long-term careers opportunities in the industry.

This is funding a "Careers Kickstart" brochure promoting career opportunities in the construction and construction materials industry, which is being distributed to schools in NSW and throughout Australia. In addition, a careers hotline has been set up to handle calls from young people inquiring about careers in the industry.

"In the past couple of weeks, we have had a terrific response from schools and careers advisors seeking more information from us - so we are anticipating strong participation from young people in the Careers Day," says Gorton.

Exhibitors are also playing their part, with many planning to staff their stands on Careers Day with trainees, apprentices and other young people, as well as human resources and training staff.

EXHIBITOR HIGHLIGHTS

Some of the highlights from exhibitors at NCE2005 will include:

3DX Australia's display (Stand 1016) will include its Geo-Office design software, which can work in with products such as its Geo-Rog system to control equipment such as profilers, pavers, graders, dozers and excavators. Geo-Office also includes conformance elements for checking road and other surfaces conform to specifications.

Case Construction Equipment (Stand 210) will use NCE to launch a completely new product line - which it won't be revealing until the show opens. It will also be showing its "concept machines", which were on display at Conexpo-Con/Agg earlier this year. These will include an innovative crawler backhoe/loader, and a "concept" excavator and compact dump truck - previewing where Case believes design trends for these machines will go over the next few years.

Ammann Australia (Stand 0205) is the recently formed company which distributes the Ammann range of compaction equipment in Australia. Part of compaction equipment hire specialist Conplant, Ammann Australia will use NCE 2005 to launch a number of new compaction products on the Australian market.

BT Equipment (Stand 316/ OS 6-7) will be using the show to unveil a number of new products, including the Australian launch of the recently released Mustang telescopic handler range, new Bomag Series 4 rollers and plate compactors, plus BT's new Sumitomo SH80-3 8t minimum swing radius excavator, as well as three new Yanmar mini excavators, the VIO 55-5, the VIO 45-5 and the SV08-1.

Ditch Witch (Stand 2518) will be using NCE 2005 to launch its new SK350 skidsteer, a 14.9 kW machine engineered to work longer without refueling, run more compact utility attachments, and provide greater overall power and efficiency. Also on display will be the XT850 toolcarrier, a cross between Ditch Witch's SK (mini skid steer) and MX (mini excavator) series.

Hewlett Equipment (Stand OS 8) will be releasing the new Thomas T320 compact track loader, featuring a new design track system for reduced maintenance and running costs. Power comes from a 65 kW engine, pushing the 1465 kg lift capacity machine along at speeds of up to 19.8 km/h.

Hitachi Construction Machinery Australia (Stand 123) will include a comprehensive display of its John Deere and Hitachi product lines, including its latest Hitachi Zaxis compact and standard size excavators and AH500 articulated dump truck, plus its Deere 300 Series skidsteers and wheel loaders. Marketing manager Dean Mesh said the company was also planning to bring a bit of showmanship and flair to its stand at NCE. "We are looking forward to providing an opportunity for our customers (and others) to get up close and personal with a broad cross-section of our inventory. We trust that owners and operators will benefit from a show of this calibre."

Korean Pavilion: Seven Korean companies, lead by construction industry body KOCEMA, and offering a range of equipment and components, have joined forces to participate in a "Korean pavilion" to promote their products.

Liugong Australia (Stand 2807) will be one of the largest exhibitors, marking its entry into the Australian market as a full-line distributor of earthmoving and construction equipment. Products on display will include excavators from 6 - 25t, wheel loaders from 2 - 4m³ bucket capacity, vibratory rollers to 14t and 14 - 18t graders. Managing director Denis Robson said while the company had exhibited at small-scale state exhibitions over the past 12 months, NCE would demonstrate it intended to be a major force in the Australian market. "We will have a range of new products that will surprise visitors to our stand, and we will be recognised as a strong new competitor in the industry," he said.

Melroad Equipment (Stand 310), distributor of Kobelco excavators, will be displaying Kobelco's short-radius mini excavators, including the 900 kg SK09SR and the 1300 kg SK13SR. Both models have retractable undercarriage. All SR models have swing booms, blade, rubber or steel tracks and breaker/auger piping.

New Holland (Stand 227) will use NCE to unveil its entry into a new market segment. Details of this new line will be kept under wraps until the show. New Holland will use NCE to promote its revamped range of equipment, resulting from a major repositioning of its product line globally over the past few months. This will be the first opportunity for Australian contractors to see the entire revamped product line.

Trimble Australia (Stand 2812) will be displaying a number of new products, including the Trimble Site Positioning System, designed to provide contractors with a state-of-the-art construction positioning solution, its GCS family of grade control systems, a laser augmentation for GPS-based 3D grade control systems and its S6 total station, a cable-free surveying instrument.

Source: www.infolink.com.au

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