这not-so-surprising secret to running a successful surveying firm

Customer profile

Author:Angus W. Stocking

David E. Titcomb, PLS, runs a small but thriving survey business in Falmouth, Maine, USA. Founded in 1969 by David’s father, Robert P. Titcomb, PLS,Titcomb Associateshas two offices, employs three professional land surveyors and six field crews, and has provided services to hundreds of clients in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, including numerous engineering firms and the Maine Department of Transportation (MaineDOT). Among the company’s key business decisions has been an unwavering commitment to providing excellent service and using best-in-class technology. It’s a forward-thinking strategy that often requires making significant investments — the sort that give many small business owners pause. But David Titcomb takes a different view.

“We’re always looking at how we can make life easier for our clients,”他说。“For example, we’re one of the few surveying firms in our region that works in MicroStation as well as AutoCAD, and MaineDOT and a lot of engineering firms prefer to work with us because they get files in the format that’s best for them.”

Achieving a faster turnaround on high quality deliverables is another way Titcomb Associates aims to provide better service. To that end, the firm recently invested in two new technologies after consulting with solution provider Maine Technical Source. One is the Leica GS18 T GNSS receiver, billed as the world’s fastest RTK rover, and the other is the Leica Nova MS60 MultiStation, which combines a laser scanner and a robotic total station in one platform. According to Titcomb, these investments have paid off in ways both predictable and unexpected.


GNSS that’s twice as fast… and safer, too

GNSS that’s twice as fast… and safer, too

GS18 TGNSS rover is one of the市场上最先进的接收器。It’s both the fastest RTK rover and the first to provide the first true“plumb-free” pole solution- 也就是说,GS18 T使用GNSS和inertial sensors to make an antenna that always knows exactly where it isand, importantly, where the end of the pole is. It doesn’t need to be calibrated before use, doesn’t need to be plumbed before readings, and it’sfoolproof against magnetic disturbances

For Titcomb, these capabilities, combined with the “trust factor”, were far more important than price when considering the investment.

“爸爸从野生的理想者开始,所以我们一直对野生和现在的莉卡·地球系统乐器有信任 - 它们是防弹的。因此,我相信这个接收器的速度与广告宣传一样快,我知道速度会为我们带来回报。”

PLS项目经理Nicholas S. Elliston说,确实如此。

“We’ve already seen the difference with the GS18 T being able to collect additional constellations and frequencies over our previous receiver. We’re now getting data in places we couldn’t have used RTK before—that’s a game changer.”

g尤其如此iven the particular conditions in Maine.

“We obviously have a lot of trees here, and we developed a good sense of where we could work with our previous RTK solution—more often than not, in tree cover, we couldn’t,”Elliston adds.“对于GS18 T,我们经常可以。这意味着我们不必回到整个车站,当然,节省的旅行是一个大的储蓄者。”

But it’s not just更好的覆盖范围和更快的阅读that make a difference. According to Elliston, thecalibration-free pole is a time saverin itself.

“不必花几秒钟的时间来垂直杆(每镜头)speeds us up by 20-30 per cent。当我们可以将杆倾斜以在我们想要的点上拍摄射门时,这会产生更大的差异,例如,在护栏下构建角落或线条。我们获得准确的位置,而无需额外的测量或偏移或与Total Station一起回来。当考虑所有这些因素时,与以前的方法相比,我们现在在一半的时间内进行的一些项目。”

A surprise benefit to the tilt rover was safety.

“We do a lot of roadway surveying on the Maine Turnpike,”Elliston解释了。“我经常在现场交通附近工作,现在,我可以通过靠杆子并射击而无需直接投射就可以走得更远。当然,提高速度很棒,但是更安全地工作可能是最大的优势。”

Clearly, the investment in a more advanced GNSS receiver was a good one for Titcomb Associates,偿还更快的工作,在缅因州森林中更有效的工作,减少的车站工作以及更大的安全性。该公司通过对Echosounder套件进行测深量调查的套件进行进一步投资,从而利用了新的接收者的出色性能。

“我们将GS18 T连接到了Echosounder,现在我们可以在进行测深的调查时每秒收集一枪,”Titcomb says.“It’s pretty slick!”

What about the Nova MS60? It was a bigger bet on another advanced technology. Did it work out for this relatively small surveying firm in Maine?


扫描总站的回报

扫描总站的回报

When asked if he had any concerns before investing in a MultiStation that was nearly twice as expensive as a really good robotic total station, Titcomb is frank.

“Sure—it’s an expensive option for our relatively small company, and I had questions about our field crews being able to get the most out of it.”

So, what convinced him to take the plunge?

“我父亲总是坚信,一家调查公司需要能够在最短的时间内收集大量信息,因为时间是金钱。我同意这一点,而且我还决定现在只购买机器人总站,因为它们为我们提供了如此之多的灵活性和力量,”bob appleTitcomb explains.“So, first of all, theMS60 is a great, and very fast, robotic total station。Adding scanning to that made sense for us. It lets us do work we couldn’t do before, is快多了for some projects, and, most importantly, I already knew that there was some work we were doing that would bemuch saferwith a scanner.”

这work he was thinking of was roadway projects, one of Titcomb Associates’ largest areas of focus. The company regularly surveys bridges, roadways and intersections for a number of engineering consultants.“For interstate or turnpike projects, they’ll always close lanes for us, but there are some places, like on ramps, where it’s just really hard to do a lane closure and make it safe,”explains Titcomb. Now, in those situations, Titcomb crews set up the Nova MS60 well off the road and use the scanning capabilities to perform a快速,准确的地形调查without getting anywhere near traffic.

这safety benefits of scanning are even more obvious when surveying bridges.

“当我们调查桥梁时,我们曾经在梯子上,交通附近。”Titcomb explains.“It was very unsafe. Now we’ll never have to do it that way again.”

相反,他的工作人员可以简单地扫描整个桥梁甲板few minutes with greater accuracy than beforeand from a safe vantage point on the ground.

除了道路和桥梁项目外,Titcomb Associates还使Nova MS60忙于标准工程和建筑支持项目。该公司很早就意识到,大多数客户并不真正在乎数据的收集方式,而且他们地区很少有人希望点云作为可交付的云。但是,MS60被用作扫描仪,可以完成大部分工作 - Topos,at构建的调查,道路横切,现场监控,建筑物内部调查等等 -快多了than conventional surveying, more accurately and more safely, while gathering far more data。An important side benefit is being able to view the point cloud data in the field with the Leica Captivate software to make sure the crew has captured everything they need before they come back to the office, thereby eliminating return trips.

Titcomb说:“如果我们能做到这一切,”“那么,客户是否知道我们正在使用扫描仪,我们仍在完成更多优质的工作并赚钱。”


A solid approach to business

A solid approach to business

对质量的承诺与总是使用the latest technology is not for the faint of heart, and it is not necessarily the right strategy for every survey firm. But for Titcomb Associates, it’s a strategy that has proven itself over nearly five decades and made the company one of the most trusted surveying specialists in New England, USA.

“就像我父亲曾经说过的那样 - '你必须花钱才能赚钱,’”Titcomb says。“根据我们的经验,这是真的。从可靠的来源上花钱在高级设备上花钱一直为我们解决。”

Titcomb

该公司定期调查许多工程顾问的桥梁,道路和十字路口。Titcomb Crews在道路上设置了Nova MS60,并使用扫描功能进行快速,准确的地形调查,而无需接近交通。

Titcomb

年代时的安全扫描的好处是显而易见的urveying bridges and overpasses. Instead of climbing on ladders to obtain the data, crews can scan the entire bridge deck in just a few minutes with greater accuracy and from a safe vantage point on the ground.

Titcomb

Being able to view the point cloud data in the field with the Captivate software ensures the crew has captured everything they need before they come back to the office, thereby eliminating return trips.

Our Latest News

了解Leica Geosystems品牌的最新情况。
了解Leica Geosystems品牌的最新情况。

联系Leica Geosystems

Want to learn more? We're here to answer your questions.

Want to learn more? We're here to answer your questions.

Reporter 86

下载记者PDF
下载记者PDF

在世界各地的客户图像

Around the world. Any day. Any application.
Around the world. Any day. Any application.