SAE Publishes Vacuum Excavation and Sewer Cleaning Equipment Standards

SAE has published a second standard for Vacuum Excavators and Sewer Cleaning Equipment with the publication of J3107 to compliment the already published J3106 Standard.

The members of AEM’s Underground Equipment Manufacturers Committee (UEMC) understood the need for standards for the growing vacuum excavation equipment industry. Vacuum excavators have been in production for many years, but the full use of this equipment for assisting with the safe excavation around underground utilities has just started to be realized in the last few years. The industry responded with substantial growth.

AEM's UEMC Committee drafted the initial scope of the vacuum excavator standard and then approached SAE, a standards development organization, to expand the efforts to the entire industry. Those efforts included several manufacturers and industry experts to build the standard.

Since many of these industry manufacturers involved manufactured a combination sewer cleaner and vacuum excavator machine, it was only practical to include both machines in developing a standard.

After many meetings, the joint efforts of industry experts and countless hours, our SAE MTC9 sub-committee, led by Susan Harmon of Charles Machine Works (Ditch Witch), completed and navigated the two standards through the SAE channels and process.

The publication of SAE Standards J3106 and J3107 has complimented the significant efforts that the underground construction industry has delivered to their workforce to improve safety and send all workers involved home safely after a hard day on the job.

“This joint effort was an excellent example of how AEM facilitates the industry coming together to support the safety of our equipment and operators,” Harmon said.

Source: AEM