An innovative laser levelling business has used premium positioning equipment available from C.R. Kennedy to help maximise its operations.
Since its establishment in 1982, Lawless Lasers has been servicing the agricultural and civil construction industries with Australian- designed and made tow-behind scoops and skid steer attachments.
Located near Shepparton in regional Victoria, the business specialises in manufacturing multiple different attachments designed in- house, allowing for agility and customisations to their standard offering.
Examples include retractable wheels on their box blade for a customer in Tasmania, and a custom paint job of their grader blade to match machine colours for a client in Tooradin South- East Melbourne.
And now the business has added another feather to its cap, by becoming a major supplier of attachments for tractors and skid steers used in the laser levelling and civil construction market.
Lawless Lasers Managing Director Brenton Lawless explained that specialised laser control involved the levelling of earth for farming and civil applications.
“The application requires the use of heavy attachments that are able to move and place dirt,” he said.
“To improve the precision, the attachments can be fitted with either 2D or 3D positioning tools that allow the user to precisely place material based upon height (2D) or from a 3D design model (3D application with either GPS or Total Station control).”
For the best in this form of sophisticated technology, Lawless Lasers looked no further than C.R. Kennedy, leaders in surveying and positioning solutions.
“Our business is focussed on the creation of attachments. We have collaborated with C.R. Kennedy to incorporate the 2D and 3D grade control systems due to the service, support and quality of the equipment that complements our attachments,” Brenton said.
“We sell the Leica Geosystems range of 2D solutions for grade control, including the MCP70 2D grader and dozer system, as well as its PowerBlade 2D electric mast system.
“We are also able to incorporate the 3D systems from Leica Geosystems with the attachments, allowing for the attachments to be used in any type of configuration.”
The 2D and 3D products add an element of control over the machine, allowing the operator to drive with the control system “talking” to the hydraulics, telling the system to open and close the valve so that the blade or bucket can move up and down as required with respect to the desired design height.
“The main difference between the two is that 3D systems can be used for more complex designs with the use of a pre-defined surface model created in CAD software,” Brenton said.
“The 2D system only uses the slope and height from a laser set up on site and doesn’t know its actual position on the site, just that it must go up or down based upon the laser beam that is being transmitted from a trailer mounted laser, such as the Leica Geosystems CLX700.”
Brenton said while Lawless Lasers had always had a strong relationship with C.R. Kennedy and the Leica Geosystems product, the relationship really blossomed after meeting with the company’s machine control manager for Victoria/Tasmania, Luke Fulton-Tindal.
“Luke came and sat with us about three years ago and devised a plan to work with us,” he said.
“Having grown up in the Goulburn Valley, Luke has a good understanding of the requirements around the area and was able to highlight several ways that we would be able to expand our business, and in particular, utilising the Leica Geosystems equipment to allow for a full package solution to be created.
“The relationship, professionalism and support we get from Luke and the team at C.R. Kennedy is far better than any other companies that we have dealt with in the past.
“The product is very reliable, and it complements our attachments nicely.”
Brenton said Lawless Lasers has access to “anything within the C.R. Kennedy machine control and laser portfolio”.
“We have even worked with them on some agri-drones such as the DJI T40,” he said.
“The alignment between the C.R. Kennedy and Leica Geosystems products is quite simple. The equipment is easily integrated into our valves and allows the machine system to take control of the valve as the system moves over a surface.
“There is both manual and automatic functionality. The operators can either control the blade themselves, or with the use of automatic mode, allow the system to control the valve and as such, create the finished surface as per the design or grade that has been set.”
Service and support are important considerations with Lawless Lasers, and is another reason for the business to partner with C.R. Kennedy.
“Not only are Leica Geosystems products high quality and reliable, if there are any issues, the team at C.R. Kennedy are great to deal with and respond very quickly to help resolve,” Brenton said.
“They have spent plenty of time with our development team discussing ideas and have also helped in making more streamlined decisions in our design, making our attachments easier to install and use for our customers.
“The care shown by them matches the values we have internally and makes for a very strong partnership between providers to give the end customers the best possible solution for their machines.”
For his part, Luke said the collaboration was a win-win arrangement for both parties.
“This distribution arrangement between Lawless Lasers and C.R. Kennedy ensures that Australian customers have access to cutting-edge laser-guided equipment, supported by C.R. Kennedy’s extensive experience and presence in the geospatial and construction equipment market,” Luke said.
