MOLINE, Ill. —  John Deere announced an expanded relationship with Wacker Neuson, a manufacturer of compact and construction machines, for 0-9-metric-ton excavators, to include North America.

John Deere and Wacker Neuson will collaborate on the development of excavators less than 5-metric-tons, including battery electric excavators, that will be manufactured by Wacker Neuson. Additionally, John Deere will have control of the design, manufacturing and technology innovation, for the 5-9-metric-ton models, leveraging a solid foundation from Wacker Neuson. 

“Excavators are an integral part of our customers’ jobsites, and we anticipate growing demand to continue,” said Domenic Ruccolo, senior vice president, sales, marketing and product support, global construction equipment, John Deere. “As we look to the future of our excavator line-up, this agreement will allow us greater flexibility as we continue to deliver a robust product portfolio that prioritizes the operator experience.”

Distribution, parts, service and support will continue through the John Deere dealer network.

“We’re excited about the expanded agreement as it supports our goal of bringing productivity-driven features and industry leading technology to customers with greater agility,” said Jerred Pauwels, vice president, excavators, strategy and business development, John Deere. “Through this relationship, we’ll innovate faster, and offer additional features and performance differentiation for our customers.” 

The Wacker Neuson Group is an international group of companies headquartered in Munich, Germany, employing around 6,000 people worldwide. As a manufacturer of light and compact equipment, the group offers its customers a broad portfolio of products and a wide range of services. 

For more information, visit http://www.johndeere.com/.

Entries for the 2022 HNA Awards are now being accepted.

The annual awards program honors outstanding residential and commercial hardscape projects. Entries feature hardscaping designs for walkways, patios, pool decks, outdoor living kitchens and living spaces and driveways as well as commercial plazas and streets.

Award winners will be recognized during the 2022 HNA Awards Ceremony on Oct. 20 during the Hardscape North America trade show at the Kentucky Exposition Center. Winners and honorable mention recipients will be featured on the HNA website and in several industry publications.

Eligible projects include residential and commercial projects in the following categories:

All entries, except the Vintage Installation category, must have been completed between Nov. 1, 2018, and June 30, 2022. Vintage installation entries must have been installed before 2012. Projects are juried by industry experts for their excellence in design, craftsmanship, construction, and compatibility.  The entry deadline is Sept. 2, 2022.

The HNA Awards are produced by the Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute and National Concrete Masonry Association (ICPI-NCMA) and endorsed by the Brick Industry Association (BIA) and the Natural Stone Institute (NSI). Sponsors for the HNA Awards include Belgard, iQ Power Tools, Keystone Hardscapes, and Memphis Wood Fire Grills.

Click here to learn more or to enter a project.

SpaceAge Labs has secured seed funding of $1.25 million, led by Silicon Solution Partners (SSP), a VC firm supporting deep tech start-ups, and SEEDS Capital, the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore.

SpaceAge Labs is also supported by NUS Enterprise, the entrepreneurial arm of the National University of Singapore (NUS), Imagine H2O (a water innovation accelerator) and PUB's Singapore Water Exchange. Planetspark, a wholly owned subsidiary of SGX mainboard listed Excelpoint Technology Ltd. is also a partner working closely with SpaceAge Labs to help accelerate their technology alongside joining the round as an investor.

The start-up will use this seed funding to grow its team, expand internationally, and roll out several pilot projects across Singapore, Australia, and the U.S.

"Growing populations, increased urbanisation, rising labour costs, lack of skilled workers, high safety standards and social distancing stipulations – various factors have been coming together resulting in the strong need for remote monitoring and IoT/AI solutions. This is why we set up SpaceAge Labs – to help governments and corporations improve the way they are managing their widespread assets for improved efficiency, reliability and safety," explained Deepak Pitta, founder and CEO of SpaceAge Labs.

SpaceAge Labs is a deep tech start-up that was incubated at NUS Enterprise Singapore Science Park. It is revolutionising operations and maintenance of remote and distributed assets by collecting asset data using low power, long-range wireless IoT devices, together with advanced AI software to generate valuable insights from this data. This increases the asset's uptime (due to data-driven predictive maintenance), reduces cost (less manpower required) and provides peace of mind (operators gain real-time asset visibility).

While remoteEye can be applied in various sectors, SpaceAge Labs is initially targeting three sectors: water/wastewater; urban greenery/landscaping and facilities management. SpaceAge Labs has IoT deployments with more than 30 customers, including two key Smart Nation pilot projects in Singapore: Firstly, working with National Parks Board (NParks) to digitalize grass-cutting operations to improve contractor efficiencies; and secondly helping the Public Utilities Board (PUB) to monitor for manhole overflow events in Singapore's wastewater network.

The company's flagship product is remoteEye, a complete, sensor-agnostic IoT/AI platform that enables connected operations and maintenance. remoteEye consists of three parts:

1. rEye IoT Nodes – These are low-powered, wireless devices that read and transmit data from industrial sensors located at the assets.
2. Wireless networks – The sensor data is transmitted via low power wide area wireless networks to the cloud. The networks are at low cost (from $1 per month per device), able to transmit over long distances (several kilometres) and consume low power (up to five years of battery life).
3. rEye Data Cloud – Enterprise-grade IoT/AI software that stores, analyses, and visualises this sensor data. This software is secure, easy to use and able to scale easily from managing one asset to thousands of assets. Proprietary AI software and geospatial data analysis provides useful insights and predictions that can be accessed via web or mobile.

To read more, click here.

The June issue of Lawn & Landscape is hot off the press.

You won’t want to miss out o our 2022 Best Places to Work For list, where we interviewed the top five companies to see what sets them apart. You’ll get the best advice not only from LawnSavers Plant Health Care (featured on our cover), but New Castle Lawn & Landscape, Monarch Landscape Management and others!

 Also inside is our annual Tech Report, which is sponsored by Aspire. Read all about tech trends and how several companies are adopting software advancements to improve their business and boost profits.

Additionally, we’ve got a roundup of the latest trimmers and edgers on the market, along with advice guidance on what to consider when selling your business and how to make the most of branding.

To read the issue in its entirety, click here. Or head to our Digital Edition.

The Integra Group, the force behind BOSS, is adding to new members to its team.