31 Aug 2009
Introducing … the CCF Plant Specs Classification system
The Civil Contractors Federation has announced a new way of classifying plant and equipment that better meets the needs of the end-user.
The new system will be included in the annual Plant Specs in January which is published by The Civil Contractors Federation and Informa Australia in the Earth Mover &Civil Contractor.
For more than 20 years Plant Specs has been unchallenged as the publication which provides the only complete guide to earthmoving, construction and mass excavation equipment used by the Australian civil contracting industry.
For some time the CCF has been keen to develop an equipment specifications classification system that is owned, managed and controlled by the Federation for the benefit of its Members and the industry generally.
For the past number of years EMCC Plant Specs has used the ERG Classification system.
This system was originally developed to provide manufacturers and distributors of construction equipment with statistics of equipment sales.
While this data is relevant, the CCF believes the classification system should focus more on the needs of the end user.
As a result, CCF and its publishing partners, Informa Australia, have responded to comments from end users and the industry as a whole and we have now developed our own classification system.
The CCF Plant Specs Classification System will be included in EMCC Plant Specs from the 2010 edition, which will be published by January 2010.
About the CCF Plant Specs Classification System
The CCF Plant Specs Classification System takes a fundamentally different approach to other systems. It has been designed with four key attributes:
- To best meet the needs of end users -- whether contractors, plant hirers, customers or others -- of earthmoving equipment
- To be easily understood and applied
- To reflect common industry practice when specifying, ordering or selecting equipment, so that classification criteria ensure that machines are matched as well as possible to an end-user's needs
- To be flexible, so that classes can be easily "fine-tuned" as required, while minimising the chances of confusion as class criteria are adjusted to meet changing needs and equipment design parameters.
CCF Plant Specs Classification System key principles
Each set of CCF Classifications has been designed around a common set of principles, to ensure they are easily understood and applied -- while still ensuring maximum flexibility.
Equipment is classed according to the most appropriate criteria. These include:
- Operating weight: Excavators, dozers, graders, rollers
- Operating capacity: Wheel loaders, crawler loaders, skidsteers
- Payload capacity: Dump trucks, scrapers
- Dig depth: Backhoes
Each type of equipment was initially classed using a consistent range of measurement increments, as follows:
- 1 <unit of measurement> increments up to 5
- 2.5 <units of measurement> increments, 5-15
- 5 <units of measurement> increments, 15-40
- 10 <units of measurement> increments, 40-100
Larger increments apply for larger equipment items (e.g. mining excavators, trucks, etc)
Some fine-tuning has since taken place to ensure that classes and equipment sizes or capacities were more logically grouped.
In the future, these criteria will be further fine-tuned as end-user requirements and industry feedback dictates, to ensure products are most appropriately grouped together, to ensure true "like with like" comparisons.
Class nomenclature is consistent and easy to understand, so that end users always know what size of machine a class describes.
Thus, rather than "Class 1", "Class 2", "Class 3," etc, we have opted for class names that actually relate to the size or capacity of a machine.
A CCF Class 20 Excavator is in the 20 tonne range (20-25 tonnes), a CCF Class 35 Articulated Dump truck is in the 35 tonnes payload range (35-40 tonnes) and a CCF Class 6 Wheel loader is in the 6000 kg operating capacity range (6000-8000 kg).
As classes are fine-tuned, the class names will reflect the actual numerical values used, ensuring end-users can easily determine from the class name what size machines are being described.
Click here to view all the types of equipment covered by the CCF Plant Specs Classification System.
We are actively seeking comment and feedback, with a view to incorporating suggestions for improvement in EMCC Plant Specs’ 2010 edition. The cut-off for this feedback is the end of September, 2009.