In August 2019 two employees from Asphalt Paving Services travelled to Germany for hands on Vögele Application Training.
Located in Ludwigshafen, Germany, Vögele manufacture leading edge asphalting road pavers and screeds. APS have a strong association with Vögele’s parent company, Wirtgen by having two Vögele pavers and three Hamm rollers as part of our fleet. Hamm also being a subsidiary company of Wirtgen.
The APS employees were joined by others in the asphalting industry from around Australia and New Zealand. This provided them with the opportunity to network, discuss techniques and operational ideas. The training was held at Vögele’s impressive headquarters and manufacturing plant which allowed APS staff to see and learn about technological advancements in road paving machine technology.
The group undertook five solid days of training where they immersed themselves in four different modules:
– Tractor
– Screeds
– Practical Paving
– Rolling Fundamentals
Each module in the course focused on a specific area and was hands on allowing them to learn such things how tampers and vibrators work. In other modules they learnt about the extremes of the screed and how HAMM rollers function.
Vögele are keen to build relationships not just with companies that purchase their equipment but also involve those who use similar machinery day in, day out, which is why the selected APS employees were involved the training.
“It was a fantastic opportunity to share knowledge with other asphalt workers and learn new ways of doing things.” – Louis Breen
The Vögele factory is one of the world’s state of the art manufacturing facilities for road pavers, so it was a treat for the group to spend their final day touring the plant.
“We learnt about paving and rolling and were able to operate several different pavers. We were able to test the rolling equipment supplied by the Vögele sister company HAMM” – Louis Breen
Returning home, our employees have been able to share their knowledge and experience with the rest of the team along with a few thousand photos. They and are keen to put their newly learned skills and knowledge into the practical application on future road paving projects.