DEAR CUSTOMERS, DEAR STAFF AND FRIENDS,

The worldwide demand for construction machinery has declined drastically over the past 24 months. In some segments, demand has even dropped to around half of the usual levels. In light of this, many manufacturers have been forced to implement dramatic layoffs, pro-ject suspensions and budget cuts in order to limit their losses.

And nor has the Wirtgen Group emerged entirely un-scathed, registering the fi rst decline in its business vol-ume after 12 years of continuous growth. With total sales in 2009 of EUR 1.180 billion, we are roughly 21% below the previous year’s level. Nevertheless, we can be thor-oughly satisfi ed with this result considering the limited options available to us on the markets.

Our way out of the crisisAs a sound and fi nancially strong family enterprise, we shall not waver from our path as we make our way through this crisis. Our focus is clearly set on longer term concerns, and not on short-term quarterly results. This is why we are channelling all our strength and creativity into pushing ahead with the development of our corpo-rate group – now of all times. We intend to grasp every opportunity to emerge from this crisis a stronger company.

The strategies and their implementation are clear. And our countercyclical approach is geared towards a long-term personnel policy, for instance, featuring compre-hensive training options and a variety of apprenticeship and advanced training measures in our headquarters and subsidiaries. Our sizeable investments are just an-other such example, going well beyond the mere preser-vation of material assets and increasing both the cost-

effi ciency of our factories and the performance of our sales organization. What‘s more, our consistent strategy of innovation safeguards our position as leader in the specialized technologies.

The Wirtgen Group has outstanding opportunities. In the „Road Technologies“ business segment, we have creat-ed a solid foundation with Wirtgen, Vögele and Hamm and developed long-term growth potential. Through the integration of Kleemann, we have created additional growth possibilities for the future in the „Mineral Tech-nologies“ business segment. This outlook is a tremen-dous driving force that motivates all of us to join forces in overcoming this crisis.

Our gratitude goes out to customers and staff The confi dence that our customers place in us, especial-ly now in this economically tense climate, is overwhelm-ing. We wish to thank our customers and truly appreci-ate their decision. They will profi t from our innovative products and receive outstanding support from our team.

We also wish to thank the staff in our companies, who accompany us on our journey with unwavering loyalty and unfl agging efforts. Dear staff, we will all share in a successful future thanks to your commitment.

Our warmest wishes,

HIGHLIGHTS

Kick off in Göppingen: brand new Kleemann headquarters gears up for demand from new markets

News from the Cloudbreak mine in Western Australia: 4200 SM‘s debut an all-round success

New boon to racing season: new Formula 1 circuit in Abu Dhabi goes live thanks to Vögele and Hamm

THE NEWSPAPER FOR CUSTOMERS, STAFF AND FRIENDS OF THE WIRTGEN GROUP | N o . 3 8 / D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 9

ROAD AND MINERAL TECHNOLOGIES

IN THIS ISSUE

FORUM

05

10

11

02 In motion: Wirtgen special machines and GTA

03 Right on schedule: creat-ing the Vögele paver world

04 Hamm spare parts centre soon proves its worth

05 All systems go! Kleemann plant enters operation

06 Wirtgen America „Learning Center“: one year on

07 Gaining ground Down Under: Wirtgen Australia

08 Wirtgen India set to launch own local production

09 Interpreter for Wirtgen Group machines: WIDIAG

10 Vögele and Hamm: new circuit for Formula 1

11 4200 SM in Australia: top performer through and through

12 Children in Need: focus on Mahayahay Project

Jürgen WirtgenStefan Wirtgen

2

BEHIND THE SCENES

FIT FOR THE FUTURE: PLANT FOR SPECIAL-PURPOSE WIRTGEN MACHINES WITH PAINTING FACILITY

MARKET CONFIRMS FLEXIBILITY OF NEW CONCEPT The plant for Wirtgen GmbH‘s spe-

cial-purpose machines has now been in operation for just under a year, with the plant‘s painting facility being put into operation in the middle of the year. So now it‘s time to take stock. The up-swing in new orders for large ma-chines provided the impetus in 2007 for the construction of a dedicated production facility for customized special-purpose machines. The goal was to unite all processing stages un-der one roof, in order to achieve a stream lined manufacturing concept with greater productivity and effi ciency.

According to Plant Manager Norbert Dinspel, this is exactly what has been achieved: „The envisaged concept has proven to be a resounding success. We can build every type of special-pur-pose machine in virtually all areas of the plant. The market dynamics in 2009 have already shown that the produc-tion focus in the fi rst half of the year was clearly on slipform pavers, before shifting to surface miners in the second half of the year. Another successful process is the rotation of personnel through all of the work stations. It‘s like working in a big family and it also max-imizes our fl exibility and minimizes re-sponse times. This year, full use was made both of our space and manpow-er capacities!“

Painting facility for special-purpose machines The new painting facility for special-purpose machines at the Windhagen headquarters marks the second major project of this kind realized by Walde-mar Bukal and Johann Kroheck, Project Managers for the Plant Management of Wirtgen. In 2006, they realized the con-tinuous painting facility for the fi nal as-sembly plant at the Hambitz site, in which more than 38,000 parts are now powder-coated for the standard series machines. However, quantity alone is not enough: while the fi rst continuous painting facility can transport a maxi-mum of 800 kg on its conveyor, the new

painting facility for large parts at Reder-scheider Kreuz can manage suspend-ed weights of up to 20, or even 30 t!

No lightweights Johann Kroheck describes the chal-lenges: „We‘re very proud of the fact that we have one of the world‘s most effi cient systems for heavy loads in our industry, capable of transporting and coating suspended weights of up to 30 t. During regular operation, the large part painting facility with dual-track suspen-sion system handles parts weighing up to 20 t with maximum dimensions of 3 m in width, 3 m in height and 9 m in length. However, we can also manage

special-purpose parts weighing as much as 30 t. One of the longest parts that we coat here in addition to the 17 m conveyor frame of the 4200 SM is the chassis of the 4200 SM, which is 3 m high, 4.40 m wide and almost 13 m long. It‘s also the heaviest part that we coat, weighing 38 t. Of course, this has to be coated statically in the painting booth as it‘s too heavy to suspend.“

Leap in quality, benefi ts for the environment Nine formulas are currently available in the large part painting facility, e.g. for chassis in one, two or a maximum of three colours. Some EUR 5 million

were invested in the impressive facility. However, the investment pays off in many respects – an opinion also shared by Project Manager Kroheck: „The powder-coating process puts us in a far better position in terms of surface quality. Powder-coating is extremely robust and far harder-wearing on a job site than a wet paintjob. That‘s particu-larly important in the case of our spe-cial-purpose machines.“ Over 90 per-cent of the parts that pass through the large part painting facility are powder-coated. The process itself is highly eco-friendly, as Waldemar Bukal ex-plains: „We designed the facility in such a way that we more than fulfi l the EU directives. This makes the facility highly sustainable. What‘s more, we‘ve dispensed completely with pre-treating the large parts with liquid chemicals and only use a blasting system to clean the parts. This does away with chemi-cals, as well as the associated waste-water. The decision to switch to pow-der-coating is wholly in the interests of the environment, as it means we can dispense with solvents entirely.“

Pleasant working environment, balanced energy consumptionAnd the environment is not the only benefi ciary - the workforce gains, too. This is just one of the things that Foreman Janusz Kahlert appreciates about the new workplaces: „This is a completely new working situation for everyone. Of course, the working con-ditions mean we now have far cleaner and brighter workplaces. That increas-es the quality of the workplaces for everyone in the large part painting facil-ity.“ As far as the cost-effectiveness of the facility is concerned, an additional factor comes into play. Waldemar Bukal explains: „We save a lot of ener-gy by working with heat recovery in the blasting facility, the painting booths and the ovens. This means that we feed the exhaust air via a secondary fi l-ter and a thermal wheel into other are-as of the facility, to heat them in winter, for instance.“

PUBLISHER‘S DETAILSFORUM – THE NEWSPAPER FOR CUSTOMERS, STAFF AND FRIENDS OF THE WIRTGEN GROUP

PUBLISHED BY:Wirtgen Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH · Reinhard-Wirtgen-Straße 2 · D-53578 Windhagen E-Mail: forum@wirtgen.de · Internet: www.wirtgen-group.comOFFICIAL REGISTRATION: Commercial Register Montabaur HRB 10492VAT No.: DE 149 525 751 Board of management: Jürgen Wirtgen, Stefan Wirtgen, Rainer Otto

RESPONSIBLE FOR CONTENT:Claudia Fernus · Tel.: +49 2645-131 744 · Fax: +49 2645-131 499E-Mail: presse@wirtgen.de

EDITORIAL STAFF:Claudia Fernus, Michaela Adams, Annabell Noll

All rights reserved. Reproduction only with written permission by the editorial staff. This applies especially to duplication via copying or CD-ROM and storage in electronic databases.

LAYOUT: Andrea Schiffer

TRANSLATION: Übersetzungsbüro Ulrike Krämer, Erpelinterteam Übersetzungsbüro, Grünwald

PRINT: Gebrüder Kopp, Köln

Final assembly is not the only extremely effi cient feature of the production plant for special-purpose machines: there‘s also the central warehouse for order picking parts, a dedicated electrical installa-tion facility for all special-purpose machines under the same roof and a capacious fi nishing area. All specialist departments are connected and integrated via short routes.

The large part painting facility is particularly eco-friendly, exceeding the pertinent EU directives. It also provides Wirtgen GmbH with a very high level of surface quality.

Some ten employees operate the large part painting facility. The 4200 SM chassis was also coated here. This special work piece can only be transported within the facility on trailers pulled by a tractor.

Using the lifting and lowering station, the staff can position their work pieces in the painting booth to ensure maximum ergonomics.

3

BEHIND THE SCENES

CONSTRUCTION OF NEW HEADQUARTERS IN FULL FLOW

CREATING THE VÖGELE PAVER WORLD The countdown continues inexo-

rably: since the earth works were completed, Vögele’s building site has ra pidly grown to new dimensions, day after day. The headquarters is now clearly taking shape. The concrete foundations and the buil-ding work – the steel construction for the production halls and the concreting work for the central administration and training centre – are well under way. And the roof seals will be almost com-plete by the end of the year, too. The installation of the building services sys-tems has also commenced simultane-ously, including such works as heating, air-conditioning, ventilation and electri-cal installation, among others.

Little wonder that the site manage-ment team, headed by P. Heßler, Ch. Niehaus and H.-G. Bernard, has its hands full inviting tenders for the vari-ous works, coordinating construction teams and ensuring compliance with the contractually agreed performances. As Peter Heßler confi rms, “a day on the site is long, not uncommonly from 7 am to 9 pm I start with a tour of the new factory, followed by planning talks with the site management team, archi-tects, building contractors and con-struction teams. These talks often take up the whole day. Then we have to re-view and approve the drawings and ensure that the contractors’ installa-tion schedules are properly coordinat-ed. And a site of this size is naturally prone to unforeseeable developments – just think of the weather, for example.”

More competitive with optimized processesThe world’s most modern paver pro-duction plant is being built in Ludwigs-hafen. A highly fl exible layout and opti-mally coordinated logistics and manu-facturing processes are characteristic of the new factory. They form the basis for high-quality Vögele pavers, stable work fl ows and – last but not least – further increases in productivity. But what exactly does that mean?

Building a new factory is an opportuni-ty to scrutinize and improve existing processes. A large team known as the steering committee has been giving its dedicated attention to these topics. The core team is made up of the Board of Management and the heads of the main departments in the operational di-visions. Other experts, including master mechanics and technologists, etc. are invited to join the group depending on the topic under consideration. In this way, logistic processes have been op-timized in line with the value-added and fl ow of materials. Raw materials, for example, will be delivered directly in future, bought-in parts delivered locally to various areas of the plant near the point where they are actually needed. This will eliminate unnecessary trans-ports and reduce the need for interim storage facilities and repacking. Planning was essentially based on the ODD principle – One Drop Delivery – meaning that things should only be handled once. Every single production process was scrutinized, such as the assembly line for screeds: in the Mannheim plant, screeds are lifted from one cycle to the next by a hall crane in the fi nal assembly hall. This time-consuming process has a further disadvantage in that the crane cannot simultaneously be used for assembly work. Since the number of cycles in the new factory has been increased from 5 to 9, a means had to be found of improving the screeds’ progress. As a result, the worktops on which the screeds are assembled will be ad-

Construction of the new Vögele plant is proceeding in leaps and bounds: latest aerial photograph of the new plant in Ludwigshafen in October 2009.

Everything under control: the site management team with H.-Georg Bernard, Site Manager for Dittrich planning offi ce; Peter Heßler, Senior Site Manager for the Wirtgen Group; and Christoph Niehaus, Project Manager for Vögele.

Angelika Wolfsberger (left) and Susanne Bürgy (right), members of the shipping department “We are delighted that our department will have its own area with the latest shipping technology in future. A mobile ramp, truck loading station and rail siding directly along-side the offi ce – that will make our work so very much easier!”

Philippe Dupré, 2nd year trainee in industrial mechanics“Vögele’s trainees fare best. We will have twice as much space in the new factory as in Mannheim. The equipment in our training workshop will be much more modern, with better welding positions and a new milling machine, for example.”

Gaspare Mangiavillano, mechatronic, repair workshop“The new factory is growing at incredible speed. I can follow it directly on my touch-screen. This is where the webcam is most i nteresting.”

EMPLOYEES LOOK FORWARD TO THE NEW PLANT

FACTS AND FIGURES• Investment volume: EUR 100 million • Outdoor site area: 370,000 m2

• Covered hall area: 66,700 m2

• Canopy roofs: 6,800 m2

• Total gross fl oor areas: – Training: 2,890 m2

– Central administration: 7,890 m2

An exciting job: Production Manager Franz Welsch is responsible for coor-dinating everything associated with the move to the new plant.

vanced on rails in future. One techni-cally complex requirement is that the worktops are to be raised by lifting ta-bles at each workstation, yielding a time saving of almost two hours per screed. And that is just one of many examples! Project Manager Niehaus summed it up succinctly: “Vögele owes its decisive step forwards to the count-less small improvements made in all ar-eas of the new plant, and not to grand slogans.”

Timing the moveWork in Ludwigshafen is progressing in leaps and bounds, and the time for the move is rapidly approaching. The team headed by Production Manager Franz Welsch is currently working on the tim-ing. An appropriate order must be found for all departments, for process-es must stay together. Every single ma-chine is being considered and posi-tioned at the new site. The move will start in late July and should be com-

pleted by early October 2010. “Pro-duction will stop for not more than four weeks, but this downtime will be com-pensated by working ahead in the fi rst half of 2010,” says Welsch.

Employees go with the new plantIn our fi rst FORUM report on construc-tion of the new plant, Dr. Pawlik, Vögele Board Member, said that “one of the most important factors behind the de-cision as to where our new plant was to be built was its proximity to the present site. We want all our employees to come with us to the new plant.” Words that are taken literally at Vögele.

The “Go West project”, as it is known, began with a staff celebration in June 2008. Since then, the employees have regularly been informed of all the most important events relating to the new plant. In addition, they can watch the progress made via webcam on the Wirtgen Group Intranet.

4

BEHIND THE SCENES

SATISFIED CUSTOMERS, HIGH AVAILABILITY, SHORT DELIVERY TIMES

ONE YEAR ON - HAMM SPARE PARTS CENTRE Around 22,000 deliveries with a

combined weight of some 3,000 tonnes are dispatched from the Hamm spare parts centre in Tirschenreuth each year. With intelligent logistics and smart stock-keeping, the 26-man team ensures that 95% of all orders are already handed over to the forwarding agencies on the date of ordering. The new spare parts centre was inau-gurated in autumn 2008. Today, it stores a total of 18,000 different parts on a to-tal area of 2,300 m2. The three central vertical storage aisles represent the cream of logistics technology, with combined storage capacity for 7,500 parts. Everything else is stored in the surrounding high-bay storage racks.

Dynamic storage speeds up order pickingThe special highlight is that storage here is dynamic. In other words, the parts are not sorted according to ma-chine type or assembly. Instead, their storage position changes according to their turnover rate. This means that fre-quently needed items are stored cen-trally, while parts that are ordered less frequently are stored higher up and fur-ther away from the packing point. In line with this system, items are already listed on the packing lists in the order of the optimum route, which increases the speed of order-picking immensely.

Optimum security of supply guaranteed A system of this kind is a fundamental prerequisite for rapid delivery. Alongside

a high supply security for customers, this was one of the key goals when plan-ning the new spare parts centre. „The old warehouse had become very cram-ped and we had to share our stocks with production. Today, we operate with a separate logistics chain and can deli-ver to the customer at top speed thanks to the high availability and rapid order-picking,“ explains Bernhard Hoferer, Head of Customer Services at Hamm. Before the new spare parts centre was built, the team defi ned its specifi c requi-re ments and subsequently took an ac-tive role in the planning. The result is an intelligent overall concept perfectly tai-lored to Hamm‘s needs. Hamm achieves such excellent parts availability by em-ploying a highly advanced system that automatically updates the stock level when a part is removed. Furthermore,

delivery times and average consump-tion levels are documented for every part. This information enables the spare parts requirements planners to detect in good time when a critical minimum level has been reached for a certain item, allowing them to promptly procure new stock and thus avoid bottlenecks.

Up-to-date inventories can be accessed worldwide The new system also benefi ts the sub-sidiaries and authorized dealerships: they can access the inventories online and track every spare part order on its way to a customer via a tracking sys-tem. To ensure that questions can be clarifi ed internally both quickly and sim-ply, the requirements planners, parts sellers and in-house offi ce staff work in

an offi ce directly next to the packing points. This spatial arrangement is no coincidence: „We‘re very satisfi ed with the new working environment and can deliver even more quickly – it‘s great!“ exclaims Spare Parts Salesman and Deputy Head of the Warehouse Team, Oskar Dietz, happily. Machine: year of construction 1965 – Spare part delivery: todayThe speed with which the logistics team delivers items for machines in the current programme is not the only im-pressive aspect. Thanks to the high level of availability, even parts for ma-chines built from as far back as 1965 can be delivered to the job site by the very next day, much to the pleasure and amazement of the customer!

Bernhard Hoferer, Head of the Service and Spare Parts Department: „It‘s our goal to ensure that each customer recei-ves its spare parts as quickly as possible. We therefore consider a high level of parts availability to be extremely impor-tant, instead of focussing on cutting costs through optimized inventories.

Currently, 95% of all orders received by 4 pm are dispatched on the same day. These shipments can be delivered via overnight service by 7 am the next day in Germany, or by lunchtime in Paris, Rome or Warsaw – and also directly to the job site, of course.“

An intelligent software programme for the vertical aisles ensures that those parts that are ordered most frequently are available very quickly. The 9-m high racks provide space-optimized and UV-protected storage.

A fourth, separate vertical lift stores documentation and operating instructions, among other things. Before any machine is shipped out, Gudrun Schwarz sorts out the requisite documents in one of the 22 available languages.

Every packet is weighed prior to shipping and recorded with a scanner. The system automati-cally produces the shipping label in German or English, depending on the country of destination.

The glass panels for the cabin are fi tted with special edge guards before being packed in sturdy, well-padded cardboard shipping bo-xes. Hamm almost exclusively uses recyclable materials for packaging, dispensing with the use of Styrofoam, for instance.

Warehouseman R. Zimmert with the new forklift truck with camera on the stacking fork. Via a mo-nitor, he can read the labelling on the lattice box, which simplifi es the locating of specifi c items.

Covering 2,300 m2, the hall provides ample space for handling all processes under one roof. All spare parts activities are concentrated at a central position, ensuring short routes.

ity of 30 tonnes and around 2,000 m2 of floor space. “The system is from the same company that previously con-structed the large part painting facility for Wirtgen GmbH. For instance, the transport crossbeams at Wirtgen and Kleemann are virtually identical,” says Helge Borsody, Head of the Steel Engi-neering Department, describing the fa-cility. Switching over from wet spray painting to powder-coating not only marks a major step towards boosting surface quality, but also has far less of an environmental impact. “Our system far exceeds the requirements of the EU en-vironmental guidelines,” asserts Borsody.

Sales organization ensures increasing demand The development of additional markets will progress in the coming years through the ongoing integration of Kleemann in the sales structures of the Wirtgen Group. “The four Wirtgen Group subsidiaries in Germany will also start selling Kleemann products from 1 January 2010. Wirtgen Augsburg, Wirtgen Hamburg, Wirtgen Windhagen and Wirtgen Zwickau will then replace our German dealers, allowing us to reach a larger customer base in the German market,” explains Markus Wörner, General Sales Manager at Kleemann GmbH.

At the same time, the sale of Kleemann products will start in Italy, Turkey and South America via the Wirtgen Group sales network. “The new facility pro-vides us with the production capacities necessary to cater to the additional de-mand from newly developed markets,” says Wörner enthusiastically.

The location of facilities in Germany, coupled with the wealth of know-how of the Kleemann workforce, is an invar-iable factor that will continue to ensure the high quality and fast availability of Kleemann machines in the future – our customers can count on that.

5

BEHIND THE SCENES

KLEEMANN STARTS SERIES PRODUCTION FOR MOBILE CRUSHERS AND SCREENS

SUCCESSFUL RELOCATION OF WORKS IN GÖPPINGEN Upheld by 4,000 tonnes of steel,

20,000 tonnes of concrete and the energy of 266 motivated Kleemann employees, an exemplary facility for the series production of mobile crush-ers and screens has been erected in east Göppingen. The Wirtgen Group is committed to consistently optimiz-ing its headquarters and does not shy away from investments of this order of magnitude, even in a diffi cult eco-nomic climate.

Everything under a single roof Kleemann’s new manufacturing facility covers 26,000 m2 and has been per-fectly designed to cater to the gigantic dimensions of its crushers and screens.

“Our total site covers 125,000 m2. Be-cause of the size of our plants, we’ve naturally also planned suffi cient out-door storage areas. The 3,200 m2 ad-ministration building has 42 generously dimensioned offi ces and eight confer-ence rooms, as well as a training cent-er and a cafeteria each 240 m2 in size,” says Berthold Grießhaber, Production Manager at Kleemann GmbH, with a certain amount of pride. Grießhaber and his team of eight external architects, construction engineers and specialist planners, as well as seven in-house representatives of the specialist depart-ments, required just one year to con-solidate the three production facilities under a single roof – and they even pulled off the feat without jeopardizing ongoing production. “A key priority was of course to keep to the delivery deadlines for our customers,” notes Grießhaber.

Enhanced product quality, higher annual production volume

“The efforts of the past year have really paid off in full. By consolidating the en-tire production operations at one loca-tion, we’ve taken a crucial step towards optimization of the processes and ma-terial flows,” explains Assembly Ma-nager Michael German. “The short dis-tances from pre-production to fi nal as-sembly make the assembly process far more effi cient,” says German, reporting on his fi rst production experiences in the new headquarters in Stauferpark Industrial Area. The mobile crushers

and screens are built on four assembly lines in a fl ow assembly process. “This allows us to signifi cantly reduce the throughput time and thus easily triple our annual plant production volume,” states German. The assembly lines are fl exible and can be adapted to the indi-vidual product lines depending on the order situation. “An assembly line that was producing our Mobiscreen series screens one week can be used to pro-duce impact crushers from our Mobirex series the next,” adds German.

Large main warehouse, effi cient spare parts shipping Materials provisioning for fi nal assem-bly and customer supply with spare parts are handled by the large 2,600 m2 central warehouse. There are two stor-age zones, in which some 10,000 items are stocked. “On average, 200 items with a total weight of eight tonnes are handled here each day,” explains the central warehouse manager, Martin Zemmel. “We really benefi ted from the know-how of the other Wirtgen Group headquarters when building our new facility. We basically picked all of the best ideas,” adds Grießhaber with a grin.

Energy-saving powder-coating of large parts Another example of the successful use of synergistic effects between the main Wirtgen Group works is the new paint-ing facility for large parts. This is one of the largest such facilities in Germany with a tremendous load-bearing capac-

The new works and the administration building: Including the expansive outdoor areas, the entire com-plex covers 125,000 m2.

THE NEW HEADQUARTERS –A LONG-TERM INVESTMENT

Markus Wörner, Sales Manager“We’re well set up for the future with the new works. We can now cater to the growing market demand with the increased production capacity and by bringing our sales and customer service tools up to the Wirtgen Group level. What’s more, we can raise the bar even higher in product quality through process innovations, such as the new large parts painting facility.”

Achim Kerler, Fitter in fi nal assembly“It’s a totally different kind of work. All the tools are new and we all have new work stations. Compared to before, the work is far more varied and much more enjoyable. We rotate through each assembly station in the fl ow assembly proc-ess. This gives us the chance to receive far more diversifi ed training, although we can also specialize in specifi c production stages.”

Michael German, Assembly Manager“I think the biggest advantage is the implementation of the fl ow assembly process for our mobile crushers and screens. All tools and materials are positioned direct-ly adjacent to the respective work station. This provides perfect conditions for ef-fi cient production, as well as the best possible workplace conditions for our staff. The exhaust gas extraction system more than meets the latest health and safety directives, and the central circular pipeline for diesel and hydraulic oil means that the machines can be fi lled extremely quickly and safely with a pressure of 200 bar. Those are just two examples. It’s wonderful to see the effect the new produc-tion process is having on our staff and the resultant dynamism this is producing. And we’re already fi ne-tuning the processes.”

Berthold Grießhaber, Production Manager “The successful start of production at the new works was only possible because everyone involved pulled together. Therefore, I’d like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude – the teamwork between our personnel and those of the external service companies was truly exceptional. The result is a highly ad-vanced facility that raises our production to a whole new level in terms of both quantity and quality.”

Dr. Gerhard Schumacher, Managing Director “The new facility is a long-term investment in Göppingen. Thanks to the close vicinity to the old production facilities, we’ve been able to retain our entire work-force and the collective know-how we’ve developed over the years. Coupled with optimized, state-of-the-art production processes, we’re now perfectly positioned to professionally cater to the growing demand from new markets.”

The fi rst runs through the fl ow assembly process already clearly demonstrate that a 40 per cent increase in productivity is easily achieved.

6

WIRTGEN GROUP CUSTOMER SERVICE

REINHARD WIRTGEN LEARNING CENTER: A ROLE MODEL FOR THE WIRTGEN GROUP

WIRTGEN AMERICA: TRAINING THE DEALER NETWORK The Wirtgen Group offers market-

leading technologies for road con-struction and the mining and process-ing of mineral raw materials. And the highly advanced products „Made in Germany“ are not only high-perform-ance – they are also extremely cost-effi cient when operated and confi g-ured correctly.

„Ensuring that customers can exploit the full potential of their innovative machines, especially the operating cost-cutting aspects, requires quali-fi ed training of the operator and the requisite expertise in servicing and maintenance,“ explains Jan Schmidt, Vice President Product Support at Wirtgen America.

Wirtgen America has been offering the-oretical and practical training pro-grammes for more than 17 years now.

„We didn‘t have the space for live dem-onstrations in the past, which unfortu-nately limited the advice we were able to give on applications. We were also unable to cope with the growing de-mand,“ says Schmidt. Therefore, the new Reinhard Wirtgen Learning Center was inaugurated on January 12, 2009.

„Around 1,200 participants have made use of our new training offer so far. In-deed, some have even attended several courses already,“ says Schmidt happily on the huge success of the center.

Demonstrating the road construction cycle The outdoor demonstration area alone covers 20,000 m2 – ample space to eas-ily demonstrate the complete road con-

struction cycle with machines from the Wirtgen Group. A Wirtgen KMA 220 pro-duces cold mix that is then installed with a Vögele paver and subsequently com-pacted using Hamm technologies. A Wirtgen cold milling machine then mills away the pavement and the whole road construction process can start anew.

„Of course, we also have enough space to demonstrate mineral processing or recycling with mobile crushers from Kleemann,“ adds Paul McLaren, Klee-mann Service Manager at Wirtgen Ame-rica. „We can replicate the challenges that face our customers in the fi eld one-to-one and demonstrate how each ap-plication can be solved most effectively,“ says Joe Hussey, Trainer at Wirtgen America, describing the benefi ts of the Wirtgen Group‘s largest outdoor area for machine demonstrations. Simulating workshop service The service technicians of Wirtgen America‘s dealers learn how to profes-sionally repair Wirtgen Group machines in four fully equipped service bays. They not only benefi t from the vast wealth of experience of the Wirtgen America ser-vice crew, but also learn through practi-cal experience, for instance fi nding out why it is so important to use the right tool for the job. „We used to try to oper-ate next to the normal workshop opera-tions, but that was very diffi cult. It was often too loud and we couldn‘t always be certain which machines were in the workshop at any given time. The physi-cal separation of the real workshop and the simulation workshop not only makes

us independent, but also means we can plan and implement our courses far more effectively. This represents a whole new quality of workshop training,“ Hussey assures.

Learning center: world of experience In addition to the outdoor demonstration area and workshop, the learning center also boasts two multimedia equipped lecture rooms, each with a capacity for 50 persons, as well as two laboratory rooms, likewise each with a capacity for 50 persons. Here, a cold recycling proc-ess with foamed bitumen can be simu-lated on a 1:1 laboratory scale with a WLB 10 S, for example. There is also a large showroom in which product high-lights are displayed and explained to the customers, much like in a car show-room. In fact, the huge showroom can accommodate a 10-foot Vision paver from Vögele, the W 2200 - also known as the „Big Beast“ – from Wirtgen and a new Hamm HD+ tandem roller all at the same time. Offi ces for the service staff, a cafeteria for 80 guests and a merchan-dise shop round off the world of experi-ence that is the learning center.

Operation product support„When I joined Wirtgen America back in 1986, our product range only included Wirtgen milling machines and hot recy-clers. Now we have soil stabilizers, cold recyclers and surface miners, as well as Vögele pavers with the matching screeds and a huge range of Hamm rollers. We also recently added Wirtgen slipform pavers and the complete range of Klee-

mann crushers and screens,“ explains Schmidt. Correspondingly, product sup-port is becoming complex, considering that the number of Wirtgen Group ma-chines on the market is constantly grow-ing. „Our central warehouse now covers 5,100 m2. We process 250 spare parts orders there every day, sometimes even 380 on peak days,“ says Schmidt in summary. Today, the shipping of spare parts would be inconceivable without the assistance of computer-based sys-tems. „In addition to implementing SAP, we‘ve also implemented Parts and More NET, which gives us an intelligent, on-line-based spare parts order system. But it‘s not just our authorized dealers who can now order parts 24 hours a day. The real highlight of Parts and More NET is that registered customers can also place orders themselves. The requests are processed by the local authorized dealer, who decides whether to fi ll the order from his own stock, or whether to have the order dispatched from our cen-tral warehouse in Nashville. The system is currently fully available for Wirtgen, Vögele and Hamm spare parts. Klee-mann products will be integrated short-ly,“ explains Schmidt.

Key success factor: dealer networkThe dealer network of Wirtgen America covers the vast continent strategically: 34 dealers with around 200 subsidiar-ies sell products from Wirtgen, Vögele, Hamm and Kleemann in 50 US states and nine Canadian provinces. „Our dealerships are able to supply custom-ers with spare parts and provide fi rst-class customer service at such a high level of quality because we continuous-ly provide them with the latest techni-cal information. We‘re greatly assisted in this by the excellent product infor-mation systems of the Wirtgen Group, WIDOS and WITRAIN, as well as our Parts and More NET. Another major factor is our learning center, where the dealers‘ service managers fi ne-tune their skills,“ says Schmidt.

www

Fully developed training pro-gramme: Wirtgen America is offering 35 courses for 2010. Applicants can register directly on-line: www.wirtgenamerica.com

Covering 20,000 m2, the outdoor demonstration area is large enough to demonstrate all facets of the Wirtgen Group product portfolio at the same time. A key focus is on providing targeted appli-cations advice – the undisputed core competence of the Wirtgen Group.

The Reinhard Wirtgen Learning Center in Nash-ville, Tennessee, opened its doors on 12 January 2009. Since then, the new complex has been run by Tony Kennedy, Steve Howard, Jennifer Vaughn and Joe Hussey (from left to right).

The Reinhard Wirtgen Learning Center is not only unique in the Wirtgen Group on account of its impressive dimensions – the facilities and organization of the new learning center also set high standards.

The training courses are geared directly to customers, service technicians of the Wirtgen America dealers and Wirtgen America‘s own service crew. „An excellent facility, perfectly equipped for training and application consulta-tion,“ and „The best training course I‘ve ever at-tended. I‘ll defi nitely register my entire service crew for training here,“ are just two examples of the wealth of positive feedback received from participants.

7

THE WIRTGEN GROUP IN AUSTRALIA

WIRTGEN AUSTRALIA: NEW SUBSIDIARY INAUGURATED NEAR SYDNEY

MARKET LAUNCH OF VÖGELE VISION PAVERS It was a full house at Wirtgen Aus-

tralia on 10 August. Some 150 custo-mers from Australia and New Zealand attended the offi cial opening ceremo-ny for the new building of the Wirtgen Group sales and service company in Penrith on the outskirts of Sydney.

The new subsidiary was completed in just nine months, ready for the team to move from its former address in Blacktown just a few kilometres away.

Of course, the opening ceremony would not have been complete without an ex-hibition of the market-specifi c products. The focus was on the new CompactLine from Hamm, small and large milling machines from Wirtgen and the innova-tive Vision pavers from Vögele, which are just now being launched onto the Australian market. The exhibition was rounded off by an MC 120 Z mobile crusher from Kleemann.

The new sales and service centre fully caters to the growth experienced by Wirtgen Australia in recent years. Inte-gration of the Kleemann brand in the product line-up, the increase in surface mining activities and new products such as the Vision pavers meant that Wirtgen Australia required greater capa cities in all areas. The management therefore decided to purchase a 12,500-m2 plot of land on which the new facility now stands, providing over 2,000 m2 of fl oor space for sales, the workshop, washing

bay, spare parts warehouse and training facilities. Thought was also given to fu-ture growth and an additional 4,000 m2 plot is available for this purpose.

Four strong brands united under one umbrellaThe Wirtgen Group has already been present on the market for more than twenty years and thus has a highly ex-perienced sales and service team. Wirtgen Australia was founded in 1986. In the early days, the subsidiary acted as a service provider and even operat-ed cold milling machines on job sites itself. This continued until the technolo-gies gained market acceptance and the subsidiary was able to switch to direct sales and providing customer service for the machines. Today, Wirtgen Aus-tra lia offers the entire range of road construction and rehabilitation prod-ucts from Wirtgen, Vögele and Hamm, as well as the mining technologies of the Wirtgen surface miner and Kleemann‘s crushers and screens.

Clear indicator of long-term commitmentFor Stefan Wirtgen, it was important that the new subsidiary be seen as a strong sign of confi dence in diffi cult economic times – especially in a market that is becoming increasingly important for the Wirtgen Group: „We have high hopes for the new subsidiary. Despite the current crisis, we intend to look to the future with optimism and confi-dence. I consider this investment to be

a milestone, because it expresses our resolve vis-à-vis customers, business partners and friends of the company to make a long-term commitment to this market.“ John Geary, Managing Direc-tor of Wirtgen Australia, presented the new possibilities for more intensive customer support with more than just a touch of pride: „The central location of the subsidiary and the new facilities offer a lot of value-added. The focus is

clearly on the larger spare parts ware-house, which has three times the space of the old one. After all, it wasn‘t just to accommodate the spare parts and wearing parts for Kleemann products that we wanted this expansion.

And now, of course, we‘re also in the fortunate position of having four repair stations in the workshop. And last but not least, we now have special training facilities that allow us to offer all man-ner of training courses.“

„Vision“ conquers the market The market launch of the new Vision pavers in the 8-foot and 10-foot class-es provides a very good opportunity for Vögele to convince Australian custom-ers of the technical advantages of these market-leading road pavers. Vision pavers can install asphalt at greater speeds. The Australian market is very similar to that in the USA in this respect.

Learning how to operate the machines is a particularly fast and comprehensi-ble process as the Vision pavers come with the ergonomic operating concept ErgoPlus, which is extremely user-friend-ly and offers the operator the greatest possible clarity. The current marketing strategy includes a broadly arrayed ad-vertising campaign in the Australian and New Zealand trade journals, as well as a direct marketing campaign.

At the same time, customers are being sent Vögele‘s application engineering magazine, „RoadNews“, which pro-

vides machine-related and application engineering know-how on Vögele‘s Vision pavers in a manner that is spe-cifi cally geared towards practical appli-cations.

The new subsidiary of Wirtgen Australia provides 40 percent more capacity and whole new possi-bilities for sales, after-sales support and professional customer training.

The inauguration attracted many customers and guests from Australia and abroad to Penrith/Sydney.

Stefan Wirtgen, President of the Wirtgen Group, warmly congratulates Managing Director John Geary and his team: more than 150 customers celebrated the event together with the mayor and local politicians.

KLEEMANN GAINS GROUND IN AUSTRALIAThe complete product range of Kleemann mobile crushers and screens is now sold di-rectly by Wirtgen Australia: Andrew Gotley, National Development Manager, conducted an intensive marketing campaign for the products this year, showcasing them at trade fairs, congresses and seminars.

www

Wirtgen Australia and Wirtgen New Zealand have just launched their new websites:www.wirtgen-aust.com.au and www.wirtgen.co.nz

This MR 122 Z is being used by Multiquip in a quarry in New South Wales where shale is mined.

The sales and service team of Wirtgen Australia includes more than 60 personnel. The main loca-tion of Wirtgen Australia is located in Penrith near Sydney. An additional sales and service point is located in Perth in Western Australia.

8

THE WIRTGEN GROUP IN INDIA

INCREASED PRESENCE IN GROWTH MARKET INDIA

LOCAL FINAL ASSEMBLY SECURES COMPETITIVENESS The Wirtgen Group has already

been represented on the Indian mar-ket with its own sales and service company Wirtgen India for two dec-ades.

Now, the Wirtgen Group is taking the next step to safeguard its competitive ability in the long-term: a new head-quarters is being built in the industrial centre of Pune in north-west India, comprising a large sales and service centre with connected fi nal assembly plant for Hamm single-drum compac-tors, which are in particularly high de-mand in India.

Long-term local commitmentThe Indian market currently harbours remarkable potential: just like China, India is one of Asia‘s emerging indus-trial countries experiencing incredible economic growth. This dynamism also has positive effects during times of cri-sis: the markets recover signifi cantly faster than those of Western industrial nations. True to its corporate pledge

„Close to our customers,“ the Wirtgen

Group has already demonstrated a strong presence in India – a country with 28 states – through local sales and service points in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, New Delhi, Hyderbad, Bangalore and Cal cutta.

„To also ensure that we‘re well posi-tioned to cater to the special require-ments of the Indian market in the me-dium to long term, we have decided in favour of local production,“ says Stefan Wirtgen, President of the Wirtgen Group, explaining the strategic decision.

The fi nal assembly of single-drum com-pactors for earthworks is scheduled to commence at the new Pune site from mid-2010. The Wirtgen Group has al-ready successfully taken a similar step in China, where Wirtgen China produc-es market-specifi c products for local sale at an assembly plant.

Pune – a location chosen with foresight The future headquarters of Wirtgen India is located just 45 minutes from Pune city centre. The central location in India, combined with the close vicinity to the sub-continent‘s most important port and the fi nancial centre of Mumbai (formerly Bombay), are clear locational advantages. International industrial en-terprises, such as Liebherr and Cum-mins, are already located here, and there are numerous component suppli-ers in the immediate vicinity – a deci-

sive factor as the Wirtgen Group is un-compromising when it comes to select-ing its suppliers. The quality of the components purchased locally in India must fulfi l the same stringent require-ments placed on products for global sale. „The component suppliers based around Pune are highly effi cient. This naturally ensures that the products produced locally for our Indian end-customers are of high quality,“ states Ramesh Palagiri, Managing Director of Wirtgen India.

Focus on training qualifi ed machine operators At the foundation ceremony for the new construction project, special thanks were extended to the management of Rhineland-Palatinate Economics Ministry, which backed the project in cooperation with the German-Indian Chamber of Commerce. The 90,000-m2 site comprises the sales building, a state-of-the-art workshop and a large spare parts warehouse for the Indian market. An additional highlight is the training centre, where not only custom-ers of the Wirtgen Group can attend regular training activities, but where a trailblazing project for the Indian mar-ket is also in the offi ng: Wirtgen India plans on training some 200 machine op-erators from scratch each year, in order

to ensure that suffi cient personnel with the proper qualifi cations are available to operate Wirtgen Group machines in the future.

Equipped for the future By expanding its presence in India, the Wirtgen Group is setting a milestone for future activities in a market that still holds tremendous potential thanks to an ambitious infrastructure programme:

„We‘re convinced that Wirtgen Group products have the potential to boost the capabilities of our Indian customers both in the road construction industry and the mining industry. If we‘re then also able to offer products that are pro-duced locally and which are precisely matched to the special requirements of our customers in India, then we will have achieved our goal through this new commitment,“ emphasises Stefan Wirtgen.

The local construction fi rms are certain-ly not short of work: India‘s govern-ment is giving a great deal of support to infrastructure expansion and renew-al with projects worth billions, such as the „National Highway Development Programme“, which covers 200 pro-jects and over 13,000 km of highway, or the „Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission“, which is fi -nancing the infrastructure in the sixty largest cities of India.

Slipform pavers from Wirtgen and Vögele road pavers have already been involved in major projects like the

„Golden Quadrilateral“ for years. Now, the objective is to increase the market shares of additional product lines of the Wirtgen Group. The „Golden Quadrilateral“ is a motorway system that connects the Indian cities of New Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Calcutta. Almost 6,000 km long, the motorway currently has four lanes. It is to be ex-panded to a six-lane motorway by 2014.

Representatives of Wirtgen India attended the foundation ceremony at the new site together with Stefan Wirtgen on 2 August 2009. The ceremony was performed by Indian priests in accordance with traditional rites.

A Wirtgen SP 1200 in operation on a motorway job site in India: almost 6,000 km in length, the „Golden Quadrilateral“ is one of the Indian government‘s high-prestige projects. The plan is to expand this motorway system within the next fi ve years.

Frank Betzelt, Business Development Manager, and Stefan Wirtgen, President of the Wirtgen Group, as well as Ramesh Palagiri, Managing Director of Wirtgen India, look forward to the next step in one of the largest road construction markets in the world.

The 90,000-m2 site for Wirtgen India‘s

construction project: the Wirtgen Group is already

represented in India with six sales and service centres.

The new headquarters in Pune is intended to

strengthen the Group‘s strong commitment to the

local market.

9

WIRTGEN GROUP CUSTOMER SERVICE

WIDIAG – SYSTEMATIC CROSS-BRAND SERVICE DIAGNOSTICS:

IN FUTURE, ALL MACHINES WILL SPEAK A COMMON LANGUAGE A mild summer’s day in the not too

distant future: the sun is shining in a cloudless sky. A Wirtgen Group ser-vice technician is called to a large job site. Activity on the site is hectic, with various machines from Wirtgen, Vögele and Hamm in use. While an uneasy job site manager leads the Wirtgen Group service technician to the ailing machine, the technician re-mains clearly unruffled. But then again, he already knows it won’t take long to fi nd the problem – thanks to WIDIAG.

WIDIAG is the Wirtgen Group’s new cross-brand service diagnostics sys-tem. In the future, WIDIAG will serve as an interpreter between man and ma-chine for the service technicians of the Wirtgen Group’s headquarters, subsid-iaries and dealerships, greatly facilitat-ing the diagnosis of faults. This, in turn, will mean minimized downtimes for the customers thanks to more efficient troubleshooting and fault elimination.

When is WIDIAG to be implemented?“All new machine developments of the Wirtgen Group are automatically being equipped with WIDIAG. As of 2010, WIDIAG will be available as standard in the new generation of Wirtgen large milling machines, Hamm’s HD+ series rollers and the SUPER 1600-2 and SUPER 1800-2 road pavers from Vögele,” explains Dr. Günter Hähn, Managing Director of Wirtgen GmbH. A number of older machines will be successively retrofi tted according to a specifi ed rollout plan. “Those machines that are not suitable for being retrofi t-ted with WIDIAG for certain reasons will eventually be phased out of the market, just like every machine at some point. And precisely that will be the mo-ment when every service technician’s dream comes true: a single diagnostics tool for every machine in the Wirtgen Group,” explains Markus Strunk, Area Service Manager for Eastern Europe and Russia at Wirtgen. Why WIDIAG?Nowadays, product innovations are largely based on the further develop-

ment and networking of the electronic components in the machines: this is the only way to continuously push the range of functions and performance of road construction machines. “Our cus-tomers value the broad range of appli-cations and the intelligent tools that as-sist in the operation of Wirtgen Group road construction machines. However, all of this can only be achieved techno-logically through the use of highly ad-vanced, fully electronic control systems. We want to utilize all of the advantages of automation technology for our cus-tomers, while simultaneously guaran-teeing optimum service support. And that’s where WIDIAG comes into play,” explains Ingo Sundermann, WIDIAG Project Manager at Wirtgen GmbH.

“Of course, we already used diagnos-tics tools in the past, but we needed different systems for each brand. No less than 13 just for Wirtgen machines alone, plus two for Hamm and another one for Vögele. WIDIAG provides us with a panacea – a single tool for all brands and product groups, tailored precisely to the needs of Wirtgen Group service technicians,” says Ulrich Städele, Service Manager at the German sales and service company Wirtgen Augsburg, in praise of the new development.

WIDIAG in practice“I simply connect my notebook to the machine and WIDIAG reads out all of the machine’s measured values and pa-rameters and displays these on the pro-gramme interface. If there’s a problem with the traction drive, for instance, the fault can be diagnosed on the basis of the chronological data of the measured values recorded while the machine was being operated. WIDIAG can likewise read out the machine’s internal error me-mory dump,” says Sundermann, explai-ning how the diagnostics system works.

WIDIAG – a benchmark in road constructionCustomers of the Wirtgen Group cur-rently receive on-site assistance from a professional Wirtgen Group service or-ganization. This service organization provides highly effi cient customer ser-vice through the use of specialists and highly developed service tools. “We re-ally are the benchmark for service in our segment and for complex special-pur-pose road construction machines, like milling machines, pavers and rollers for earthworks and asphalt paving. The competition doesn’t even come close to having such high-quality and useful service information systems like WITRAIN and WIDOS, let alone diag-nostics tools like WIDIAG,” states Dr.

With WIDIAG, the Wirtgen Group is raising the benchmark for professional customer service in the road construction industry. The above photo shows German sales and service company Wirtgen Augsburg testing WIDIAG in a pilot project.

THE TECHNOLOGY WORKSHOP 10 YEARS ON: A CRADLE OF INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES FOR 10 YEARSWIDIAG is a classic example of the successful and constructive cooperation between departments and brands within the Wirtgen Group. The requirement to develop a stand-ardized diagnostics software solution for all brands of the Wirtgen Group originated in the service departments and was brought to life in the Technology Workshop. The de-velopment departments of Wirtgen, Vögele and Hamm joined forces to develop a solu-tion, and the result is WIDIAG.

WIDIAG is just one example of many develop-ments that originated in the Technology Workshop. The tried and tested control tools ErgoPlus, Level Pro, HCQ, WIDRIVE and Hammtronic, as well as the Wirtgen Group‘s Product Documentation System WIDOS, are all based on ideas from the Technology Workshop.

VIEWS ON WIDIAG, THE INTELLIGENT WIRTGEN GROUP MULTIMETER

Martin Buschmann, Head of Engineering and Development at Joseph Vögele AG “The introduction of WIDIAG is no problem because all of Vögele’s new Dash-2 generation machine types are

equipped as standard with the ErgoPlus con-trol system.

We simply have to load the new software. No changes have to be made to the hard-ware components.”

Achim Eul, Head of Control Technology at Joseph Vögele AG“We already had a diag-nostics tool in the past that we developed in-house, but that was more in the form of an error memory dump.

WIDIAG is far more user-friendly, it can read more parameters and can also generate logs, recording and plotting data to allow graphic visualization of the data.”

Klaus Meindl, Control Technology, Hamm AG“Every four to six weeks, the WIDIAG team meets to swap notes in Biebelried near Würzburg, the geographical midpoint between Wirtgen, Vögele and Hamm.

Every single brand has benefi ted tremendous-ly from the cooperation. After all, many heads are better than one.”

Ingo Sundermann, WIDIAG Project Manager at Wirtgen GmbH, developed WIDIAG from the origi-nal idea to production maturity together with his colleagues from Vögele and Hamm.

Günter Hähn. And to make sure this ad-vantageous situation remains un-changed in the future, the development departments of the Wirtgen Group headquarters have already been hard at work on even newer developments for some time. “We’re using WIDIAG as a basis for future telemetry applications. WIDIAG is to become the central inter-face for tasks such as job data acquisi-tion and fl eet management,” explains Dr. Cyrus Barimani, Head of Engineering and Development at Wirtgen GmbH.

10

TECHNOLOGY IN OPERATION

CHALLENGING, SPECTACULAR, INNOVATIVE: RACE TRACK IN ABU DHABI

HAMM AND VÖGELE MACHINES BUILD FORMULA 1 CIRCUIT Tight bends, high-speed straights,

50,000 covered spectator seats and sensational routing through the middle of a luxury hotel and along the brand new marina. These are just some of the highlights of the fascinating „Yas Marina Circuit“ in Abu Dhabi.

The circuit celebrated its Formula 1 debut on 1 November to the enthusi-asm of motorsport fans around the world. The builder-owners insisted on quality in all work sections – especially when it came to asphalt paving and com paction. So it was clearly a case for Vögele pavers and Hamm rollers.

The highly spectacular new circuit is part of the 40 billion dollar „Yas Island“ project. A huge leisure paradise cover-ing 2,500 hectares has been created on „Yas Island“ at the north of Abu Dhabi. The heart of the project is the Formula 1 circuit, designed by German race track architect Hermann Tilke. The 5.55 km circuit promises exciting races as it demands a great deal of driving skill and the utmost concentration, with such challenges as the outwards slop-ing bends.

German construction fi rm Bickhardt Bau AG was awarded the contract to pave the gravel and asphalt courses on the circuit and entire peripheral area. Between autumn 2008 and August 2009, they installed 210,000 tonnes of asphalt over a total surface area of 750,000 m², using fi ve Super 1900-2 pavers from Vögele and seven HD Series asphalt rollers, one CompactLine HD 12 and a

rubber-tyred roller from Hamm. No question: the machines from the Wirtgen Group did their jobs splendidly.

Wirtgen Group technologies in demandThe combination of Vögele high-com-paction screeds and Hamm tandem os-cillating rollers produced perfect com-paction results when installing the base and binder courses. Particularly strin-gent requirements were placed on the precision of the circuit: the finished wearing course had to display a surface accuracy of 2 mm measured over a lon-gitudinal distance of 4 m. „Thanks to the grade and slope control technology from the Wirtgen Group, such as the Big-Multiplex-Ski and Niveltronic sys-tem, we were well able to achieve this challenging goal,“ explains Horst Hen-nighausen, Paving Manager, who had already supervised the asphalt paving of the circuits in Bahrain and Shanghai.

Top service in the Persian GulfThe machines used in such a gargantu-an project naturally clock up the hours. Regular, professional maintenance is thus essential to the overall success of the project. The Wirtgen Group assists

its clients in this task by means of a dense network of Wirtgen subsidiaries and authorized dealerships around the world. In Abu Dhabi, the service techni-cians of Genavco took care of the rollers and pavers of Bickhardt Bau. „We‘re ex-tremely satisfi ed with the service of the Wirtgen Group in the United Arab Emi-rates,“ says Project Manager F. Dit trich in summing up his experiences, going on to add that „The team from Ge navco reliably supported us the whole time with expertise and original spare parts.“

Around Yas Island, Arab fi rms built numerous access roads leading to the vast grounds during the course of 2009. Hamm rollers and Vögele pavers were always on the scene!

In August 2009, daytime temperatures of almost 50°C were the norm. For this reason, the wearing course was paved at nighttime when the temperature dropped to a comparatively „cool“ 30°C. The extremely bright fl oodlights provided for unique visibility conditions on the job site.

Majed Al-Qrdrah, Manager at Genavco:

„We have 21 staff in Abu Dha b i . Th is team now takes care of almost 300 Wirtgen

Group machines belonging to local construction fi rms. We provide com-plete service for all of them. We were delighted to be able to support the cus-tomers from Germany in the construc-tion of the circuit.“

Rolf Weibel (right), Vögele Area Sales

Manager for the Middle East, visited the crew of

Bickhardt Bau on the job site in spring. At that time,

the machines from the Wirtgen Group were

installing the base and binder courses on the gigantic parking areas and connecting roads.

Local customer support: Thomas Schaumberger, Area Sales Manager from Hamm, also main-tained extremely close contacts with his customers in Abu Dhabi.

Genavco represents the Wirtgen Group in the United Arab Emirates. Established in 1967, the company has branches in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and Al Ain. Genavco‘s Internet address is: www.genavco.comwww

Be it Sachsenring, Hockenheim, Bahrain or Shanghai, Bickhardt Bau AG is a recognized specialist at home and abroad when it comes to building race tracks. For more information on its projects, please visit: www.bickhardt-bau.dewww

the loading capacity of the dumpers is high enough for them to cope with the surface miners‘ high production volume.

Equipped with a special cutting drum assembly for hard rock, the 4200 SM

arrived at Cloudbreak in early August after a 26 hour overland journey. Wirtgen service technicians Rainer Salas and David Möhlmann were al-ready prepared and waiting in the early morning. Thanks to their know-how, it took just four weeks for the colossal machine to be assembled and tested and the FMG crew to become familiar with operating it. The 4200 SM was put into regular operation in September, al-lowing everyone to adjust to the new machine, from the operators and logis-tics crews, all the way to the service crew for the miner, which is responsi-ble for the continuous maintenance of the specialist mining machine.

4200 SM: pure performanceWith the 4200 SM, FMG made a real quantum leap in performance and pro-ductivity. While the 777 series dumpers from Caterpillar with a loading capacity

of 100 tonnes are still adequate for the 2500 SM miners, FMG has had to ac-quire Type 789 mining trucks for the new Wirtgen giant, with almost twice the loading capacity at 195 tonnes. The 4200 SM can load one of these trucks in just four to six minutes, depending on the hardness of the material being mined. The new machine also quickly became a favourite among the operat-ing crews, who were only too keen to get to grips with the 4200 SM. The cab of the new miner provides the operator with an improved overview of all rele-vant working areas and all-in-all a more comfortable work station thanks to lower noise levels and protection from dust and vibrations in an ergonomically designed operator‘s cabin. Smart material distributionThe „Automatic Positioning System“ installed by FMG is a highly intelligent instrument for controlling the distribu-tion of the cut material rapidly and se-lectively. To this end, geologists calcu-lated and developed a model of the opencast deposits. This was then con-verted into a digitized map that is trans-mitted to the surface miners wirelessly. This allows the operator of every sur-face miner to see the position of his machine and the quality of the material that has just been mined on a display in the operator‘s platform. The machine operator then radios the information on the cut material to the dumper driver, together with the location where the material is to be unloaded. The differ-ent grades of iron ore are fi nally select-ed from the various storage sites and mixed according to the desired com-position. In this way, the principle of selective iron ore mining with the Wirtgen miners is also implemented 1:1 in the subsequent material distribution phase, in order to comply with the high demands of FMG on quality.

Another aspect of the principle is the potential savings in time and costs, as the mined material ends up at the right unloading or processing point without any further interim steps. Depending on the moisture content, the material is stored in stockpiles to dry, or fed di-rectly into the further processing chain on site. Material that cannot be utilized is either stockpiled as overburden or used as material for routing operations inside the mine.

11

TECHNOLOGY IN OPERATION

Cloudbreak is a gigantic mining operation run by the Fortescue Metals Group in the Pilbara region in the north of Western Australia. The iron ore mining site covers 40,000 km2 and is approx. 2.5 hours by air from Perth. The entire project is an amazing feat of logistics: some 8,000 people work here, shuttling to-and-from the mine during shift change on a charter fl ight with Skywest Airline – just like other people commute to work every morning on the bus.

A residential and administration camp comprising a huge collection of pre-fab huts about half an hour‘s drive away provides the workers with all of their daily necessities. In addition to Cloudbreak, FMG is currently devel-oping an additional mining facility some 40 km away at Christmas Creek.

Recipe for success: selective miningTaking stock of the mining operation since its commencement in May 2008, it is soon evident that the use of Wirtgen surface miners as the primary mining equipment in this project has truly paid off. The structure of the material, the hardness of the rock and the entire ter-rain provide ideal conditions for cost-effective exploitation of the opencast deposits using the selective mining technology of Wirtgen. Comparisons of various mining methods for the flat structure of the opencast iron ore de-posits commissioned by FMG clearly favoured surface mining, instead of

conventional mining methods using drills and explosives. Wirtgen miners have been put to the test for 20 years now in soft rock, such as coal, and in hard rock like limestone or granite – rock that is ten times harder than the

average iron ore found at Cloudbreak. FMG directly exploited the advantages of the surface mining technology at Cloudbreak to mine crushed iron ore more cost-effectively.

The recently arrived 4200 SM has also provided impressive evidence of its worth as a production machine. The benchmark for the high-performance gi-ants from the Wirtgen product line is an impressive daily output of 12,000 ton-nes, all in a single shift. The major chal-lenges posed by the project are the var-ying degrees of hardness of the rock in the pits and the need to operate a seam-less logistics chain and to ensure that

CUSTOMER SERVICE CENTRE IN PERTHAs the surface miners are in operation 24 hours a day, the need for spare parts and maintenance is extremely high. The challenge faced by John Geary, Managing Director of Wirtgen Australia, and his team was to be able to offer key account FMG an effi cient service con-cept with comprehensive support at the highest level for 16 miners. And FMG accepted: the cutting drums and the conveyor systems of the miners are transported to Perth for overhauls and repairs. As General Manager, Steve Coppack (photo) expanded the Perth service centre for the mining activities. At the mine itself, the machines are maintained by a team of around 18 per-sonnel, including service technicians of Wirtgen GmbH and Wirtgen Australia, as well as FMG personnel. Wirtgen Australia can always rely on expert advice from

Area Service Manager Norbert Ückerath and Christoph Dasbach from Wirtgen GmbH, who also coordinate the dispatch of service technicians from the headquarters to Cloudbreak.

Wirtgen on-site customer service: David Möhlmann (left) has been at Cloudbreak six months, ensuring optimum support for the powerful fl eet of 16 surface miners.

16 WIRTGEN SURFACE MINERS TOP PERFORMERS IN AUSTRALIAN MINE

NEW 4200 SM: PRODUCTIVITY IS ITS TRADEMARK

The powerful 4200 SM in action: together with two 2500 SMs, the largest miner was initially used in the Brampton pit, where iron ore is mined on three levels.

A total of 15 type 2500 SM miners are currently in use: the iron ore is transported the 260 km from Cloudbreak to Port Hedland via a dedicated train. At the port, it is loaded onto ships and primarily exported to China.

A huge screening plant at Cloud break processes the iron ore into three products with different grain sizes.

12

SOCIALLY COMMITTED

CHARITY GROUP „CHILDREN IN NEED“ SUPPORTS RELIEF WORK IN THE PHILIPPINES

HOPE FOR FAMILIES IN MAHAYAHAY successful in the end.“ In late 2008, we decided to follow this path together with Father Kulüke.

What has been achieved to date?

In a preliminary project orientation phase, every single family was visited and their data compiled, such as number of children, ages, schooling, fi -nancial situation of the family, illness in the family. All families were then invited to attend public discussions. Several meetings were held to inform them of the project’s development.

The basic conditions were defi ned and individual mothers, fathers and also youngsters were selected from the community to represent it in future. These selected representatives then at-tended various training and leadership seminars.

The most pressing task was for doctors to examine all members of the Ma-hayahay families. Two doctors exam-ined them at the beginning of the year. Many of the children were found to be suffering from malnutrition, tuberculo-sis, intestinal problems, infections and a large percentage of the young pa-tients had to be referred to specialists. Countermeasures were initiated imme-diately. The doctors provided medica-tion and it was decided to provide ad-ditional daily meals for 156 children in Mahayahay.

The free services to be provided by each family were laid out in a commu-nity plan. Three mothers are responsi-ble for cooking the additional daily meal, while other mothers clear up af-terwards and take over the cleaning. The food is also bought by the mothers under the supervision of one of Father Kulüke‘s social workers.

It has not yet been possible to open the kindergarten as planned, as the re-

quired land is not available in Mahaya-hay. The neighbour is not prepared to let his land for rent.

For this reason, the young children aged between one and fi ve years are looked after daily by two trained nurs-ery school teachers and three assis-tants from the community, sheltered only by sunshades. Lessons are also being provided for all the children who should have started school long ago, but have never been able to do so.

It is a start, but a great deal still remains to be done. Training the mothers and fathers and then fi nding jobs for them will not be easy. Yet we, the members of the char-ity group „Children in Need“, are opti-mistic. With Father Kulüke‘s help, we will succeed in giving the families of Mahayahay a future again”.

“My fi rst visit to the families in the poverty-stricken Mahayahay area about eight years ago was prompted by circumstances reported by a nun at the Cebu Hope Center which I was visiting at the time:

She related that, very early that morn-ing, a young woman from Mahayahay had come to the Cebu Hope Center with the baby daughter she had given birth to all alone during the night. She had no milk for the baby who refused to stop crying, even after she gave it boiled rice water.

The young mother had walked many kilometres to ask the nuns at the Cebu Hope Center for milk and nappies for her child. Because we all feared that the baby might not survive, I urged the Franciscan nuns to accompany me to

the Mahayahay district so that we might take care of the child.

BackgroundThe conditions which I found in Ma-hayahay on my arrival were appalling. There were about seventy dilapidated huts scattered about a neglected site. A foul-smelling brown stream ran be-tween some of the huts. In a fl ash we were surrounded by innumerable chil-dren, many barefoot or wearing over-sized slippers. Several of them were covered in rashes.

Suddenly the nun saw the young moth-er with her newborn baby standing out-side her hut, the baby in her arms. The

little girl looked ill. We gave her mother enough money to see a doctor and buy baby food.

One year laterWhen I returned to Mahayahay a year later, I immediately asked about the baby. Unbelievably, she had survived and developed more or less well.

The surroundings, however, were still appalling. The stench was still foul and whenever it rained heavily, rats and other pests sought refuge in the shanty huts. Very few families had a regular in-come, all the other fathers being unem-ployed and only occasionally earning a few pesos in the port.

A large number of families had come to Cebu City from the countryside many years earlier with high hopes of fi nding work in the city. As unskilled workers, however, they had little chance and gradually slipped into total hopeless-ness.

Where should we begin to help? It seemed to me that these people had fallen so low that normal relief work would not be much use. Together with the nuns, we fi nanced sewing courses for the mothers, paid doctors‘ bills for the children of the slum, provided rice for starving families and organized a festive celebration with gifts and good food at Christmas.

In actual fact, however, we were un-able to achieve any enduring improve-ment. And the num ber of despairing families looking for a new home in Mahayahay was growing constantly.

I couldn‘t stop thinking about the situ-ation. In 2008, Father Heinz Kulüke, a German priest who had lived in the Philippines for over 20 years, promised to help us.

„It will take many years,“ he said, „but so far, the process has always proved

Gisela Wirtgen visited the Mahayahay slum together with a Franciscan nun.

The little girl from Mahayahay very nearly died at birth: today, she is a lively child thanks to the support of the Charity Group “Children in need”.

Eleven million children worldwide die every year before reaching the age of fi ve, due to infection, poor hygiene, lack of drinking water, lack of medical treatment and malnutrition. The project in Mahayahay brings hope to the families in the slum.

www

For further information on the charity group „Children in Need“, visit us on the Internet: www.kinder-in-not.de

The German priest Heinz Kulüke is striving to bring change every single day. For the families in Mahayahay, his dedication brings hope and optimism.