Robot named Halo makes lifting tons of concrete a one-man job

BOULDER — On the very north end of Boulder, just as the Front Range makes ripples out of the eastern flats of Colorado before the Rockies become full-blown tidal waves, a startup company is hoping to get the attention of the precast concrete industry.

“We haven’t had any sales yet, but our system could revolutionize the industry,´ said Doug Jatcko, president and chief executive officer of Halo Inc.

The system is an automated robot by the name of Halo that can make precasting concrete a one-man job in a mobile factory. More efficiency is added with a few more pairs of hands. Halo is designed to replace the many pieces of machinery traditionally required to precast concrete, and the many workers needed to man those machines.

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“When we compared our operation to a colleague’s plant in Texas, we found that Halo allows us to work with only 25 percent of the employees in order to produce the same amount,´ said Brian Blatt, project manager at Front Range Precast Concrete Inc.

Jatcko is president of Front Range Precast Concrete, which specializes in precasting watertight concrete cisterns and septic tanks. He came up with the idea for Halo in 1997, after a visit from his father. Jatcko’s dad saw the labor-intensive precasting work and suggested automating the process.

“If they can build robots to make things too small for human hands to make, like cellphones,” Jatcko said, “then why not build a robot to make things too big for human hands, like precasted concrete?”

The Halo currently operating at Front Range Precast Concrete can lift up to 30,000 pounds of concrete. An average-sized car weighs roughly 3,000 pounds. The company already has conceptualized the next Halo to be able to lift up to 70,000 pounds.

“And I don’t see why the third Halo wouldn’t be able to lift up to 100,000 pounds,” Blatt said.

Jatcko said Halo Inc. is now in its fifth year, has the patent for the robot and is looking to expand. He said the few stockholders the company has are experts in industries related to concrete, and they have seen the inefficient systems being used in precasting plants.

“They were easily converted to the Halo side,” Jatcko said.

To date, research and development has totaled less than $400,000, and that includes nearly $100,000 for promoting the Halo at shows and industry conventions. Jatcko said his Halo is the only one that exists. Two others have been designed and budgeted, but haven’t yet been purchased by the clients.

“The reason Halo isn’t jumping off the shelves is because of the tremendous capital precasters invested in the workers, machinery and plants they already have,´ said Jatcko. “To want to purchase a Halo you would either have to be a new startup or seriously expanding your current operation.”

He said most of the interest in the Halo is coming from companies in the United Kingdom, the Middle East and China.

“In Iraq, with all the water problems they are having, our Halo could drive down a street and build a cistern and a septic tank for each home right on site,´ said Blatt. “The Halo would be very effective for places lacking infrastructure.”

Also, Blatt said the Halo can be broken down into smaller sections and become very transportable. “Simply stack it on a rail car or the bed of a truck and roll it on to the next town.”

Operating the Halo is simple as well. The person driving the unit has eight levers to command the robot, and each lever has a picture next to it identifying its function.

“The simplicity of the system also provides a higher level of safety for the workers,´ said Jatcko. “The old way was accident prone, but now with Halo doing all the ‘hands on,’ work accidents are much more rare.”

He said the robot hits top speed at 4 mph, and it rotates the concrete at only one revolution per minute, which is just the right speed for a person to easily get out of the way.

“You know, when you are working with heavy loads like these, you’re not trying to race,” Blatt said. “You’ve got to be able to stop the weight that you’ve put into motion.”

Jatcko is thinking about installing a light curtain between the framework of the robot. Then if a worker does break the plane of the frame, he said, the machine will stop whatever it is doing, and accidents will be reduced.

“With Halo, the precast concrete industry’s efficiency and safety are increased many times over, and there is minimal concrete wasted. In casting a 14,000-pound septic tank, I waste no more than a cup of concrete,” Jatcko said.

“Now we just need the industry to grow faster than the Rockies.”