As some areas of the construction industry have slowed during the pandemic, contractors are shifting into other segments, such as roadbuilding, to try to keep revenues coming in.

Manufacturers of concrete slipform pavers say they have witnessed such market shifts, as well as increased competition for jobs. Bidding has become more aggressive for projects, contractors are seeking productivity advantages, and others are entering concrete paving to boost business, they say.

To help contractors weather the economic slowdown and stay competitive, representatives from Wirtgen, Power Pavers, Guntert & Zimmerman and HEM Paving offered their views to Equipment World of the current market, and some recommendations for those interested in starting concrete slipform paving operations or those wanting to become more productive.

We also provide specs of all the concrete slipform pavers on the market.

The upgrades on the new 484-horsepower Cat 374 excavator focus on the things that matter in demanding conditions: high loading production, a 20% reduction in maintenance costs, and a beefed-up boom, stick and frame designed to deliver twice the durability of the previous 374F.

In fact, Cat says the 374 can now load up to 33 Cat 772 trucks per hour working at 100% jobsite efficiency. (This assumes a 6.5-cubic-yard bucket working in 1.6-cubic-meter material density.)

Using a new dedicated hydrostatic swing circuit, the 374 can regenerate swing brake energy and independently manage cylinder oil flow, Cat says. This circuit has a dedicated bi-directional swing pump, swing motors, charge pump and charge accumulator. The swing pump supplies oil to the swing motor; the charge pump and accumulator prevent cavitation (air bubbles) and overheating.

All of this gives the machine the ability to multitask with ease, Cat says.

A hundred years ago, the word “robot” appeared in a play by the Czech writer Karel Čapek, which tells the story of workers in artificial factories created to serve people. Now, in a metanarrative twist, AI has written the play itself.

“It’s kind of a futuristic little prince,” explains playwright David Kosnyak, who oversaw the script. As in the classic French children’s book, the 60-minute production tells the story of the journey of a character (this time a robot). He goes out into the world to learn about society, human emotions, and even death. The play itself is called “AI: When a Robot Writes a Play.”

The script was created by the widely available artificial intelligence (AI) system GPT-2. Created by Elon Musk’s OpenAI, this “robot” is a computer model designed to generate text by filtering out the vast storage of information available on the Internet.

Until now, this technology has been used to write fake news stories, stories and poems. The play is the first theatrical production of GPT-2, the group says.

The Vivo company, on the eve of the presentation of the Vivo S9 smartphone, has revealed the main feature of the novelty on the Weibo social network.

The Chinese manufacturer has confirmed that the device will boast a new 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 1100 processor, which was announced at the end of January. The chip has four Cortex-A78 cores at 2.6 GHz, four Cortex-A55 cores at 2.0 GHz, as well as a Mali G77 MC9 video accelerator and an integrated 5G modem.

Recall that the device is also credited with a 6.4-inch AMOLED screen with a small cutout for a 44 MP dual front camera. Also, the novelty will receive 12 GB of RAM, built-in UFS 3.1 storage and Android 11 operating system with OriginOS branded shell out of the box. The Vivo S9 should be presented in China on March 3.

Today, the Realme brand hosted the Camera Innovation Event, which, you guessed it, was dedicated to the photography capabilities of the manufacturer’s smartphones. The protagonist is the Realme 8 Pro, which will be the company’s first model with a 108-megapixel camera.