Demag, Stahl and Abus were all noticeable absentees from this year’s CeMat exhibition, part of the massive Hannover Fair. However, despite these leading German manufacturers missing a major international event on their own soil, the show itself was reasonably well attended and provided a wonderful gathering place for the industry. Whether there was much in the way of radical innovation is a moot point, but there were new products and new faces.
Among the Germans that were there, Liftket and Helmut Kempkes both had new additions to their hoist lines. Liftket showed a 6.3t chain hoist, which fits in between its standard range and its 12.5t model (which it also sells in derated versions as 10t or 8t hoists). Helmut Kempkes had a new, more compact version of its 5t wire rope hoist. The company is also a crane builder but reports that competition is now so fierce in Germany, with bigger companies struggling to stay afloat, that it is focusing on export markets. Consequently its exports are ‘booming’, it says. Overseas projects include an Alsthom power station in Greece.
Two new hoists were launched at the fair by RWM of the UK. The first is a range of ultra low headroom hoists with capacities from 125kg up to 2t, with a closed hook dimension from 225mm. These are available in push and power travel versions.
The second is a range of what RWM believes to be the first 24V DC electric chain hoists ever to be produced. Available with rated capacities from 125kg to 1t, these compact hoists were initially designed to be used inside commercial vehicles, wired into the vehicles’ power supply. They can also be supplied with a power pack and be used as a self-contained portable unit. The standard power pack, a lead-acid battery, delivers 40 lifts from one charge. Controls of the hoists are by a standard pendant linked to two constant rated contactors. Overload protection comes from a slipping clutch, and the hoists have a 24V brake. They are available in eye and hook suspension and with push or manual geared trolley.
Finnish company Erikkila premiered a new ergonomic lifting device, called the Ergolator, which it patented last year. Designed with the paper and packaging industries in mind, the Ergolator lifts loads up to 150kg and attaches to a jib or bridge crane. Unlike similar ergonomic lifters and air balancers, the hands of the operator do not move with the load. Instead the load moves up and down a track system, with the load held by one of a variety of grippers. Erikkila, being a small company, is not in a position to sell the product to end-users so is selling it through the distribution market.
German company Ceplus was in Hannover promoting its CeSar anti-sway system and also its electronic tracking guide system for cranes. The latter has two analogue inductive sensors fitted to one side of the bridge above the rail edge, one at the front and one at the back. A fuzzy logic algorithm is used to get the speed difference and the drive speed is adjusted accordingly. The benefit is that wear on mechanical tracking elements is dramatically reduced by the resulting ‘truer’ travel.
Among the newer names to the international market at Hannover was Motorman. This company has been in business in Spain for 25 years, producing and selling crane scales and load limiters almost solely for the domestic market. It is also a distributor for Telecrane radio remote control equipment and has been strengthened by a healthy Spanish market in recent years. Following the lead of other Spanish companies in the crane industry, including GH, Ikusi and Itowa – all of whom exhibited at CeMat – Motorman is now going international to expand its sales base and minimise its exposure to an inevitable slowing in its home market. It had previously done a little business in Russia and Cuba but Hannover marked the start of its big international push. The first product to be homologated for sale across the European Union is the TP weighing block. Motorman has been selling this in Spain for five years, but European homologation was confirmed only in April this year.
Another exhibitor of measuring equipment was Piab, the Swedish manufacturer of force measurement equipment. Piab showed the latest generation of its crane safety monitor which gives the life history of the crane to aid maintenance procedures and also acts as an overload protection system. A Profibus unit inside enables information to be downloaded to a computer.
Load limiting devices and crane scales are both also in the product range of Itowa. The Spanish company is better known, however for its radio remote control equipment. Its range of crane remote controllers includes the Compact, the Boggy, the Combi, and now the Gold, described by Itowa as low cost, high tech and as small as a television remote controller.
New from HBC-radiomatic at the show was a Masterkey system, similar in concept to Cattron’s I-key. With Masterkey, a key contains the crucial information such as access codes, frequency assignments and pitch and catch data. Transferring the key from one transmitter to another means that more than one transmitter unit can be used to operate a crane (one may be broken, for example) but it is still not possible to use more than one transmitter at any one time.
Also new on the HBC stand was the FCS 08-1 crane scale. Though rugged, cased in aluminium, for industrial use, it is not low tech. By using DECT technology, the Tare setting can be set easily from the transmitter and the weight of the load is displayed on the crane transmitter as well as on the scale read-out.
Another innovation from HBC using DECT technology is the catch/release radio system which allows two crane operators, each with his or her own transmitter, to control the one crane. A light on the transmitter indicates which of the two operators has control of the crane at any given time. The thinking behind this idea is that it increases the availability of the crane.
Companies from countries in eastern Europe and Asia, where manufacturing costs are lower, continue to increase their impact on the international market. There are those in certain parts of the world who believe that goods built in China or in eastern Europe are inherently inferior because of endemic quality control problems, but the simple truth is that there are many leading companies in the industry selling products that are either substantially or wholly produced in these countries, with no obvious ill effects. The badge that gives country of origin does not always tell the whole truth. With outsourcing to lower cost countries a growing phenomenon, those Hannover exhibitors from eastern Europe and China were worth checking out.
Among these was Elmot, a Bulgarian company that has been selling components such as motors to major manufacturers like Stahl for years but four years ago began producing complete electric wire rope hoists. Also from Bulgaria was Balkancarpodem (BCP) which has joint ventures in North and South America, Australia, western Europe and the Middle East. BCP produces clamps, chain blocks, manual lever hoists, electric wire rope and chain hoists, crane components, fork lift trucks, pallet stackers and other industrial lifting equipment.
Chinese exhibitors included Cathay Asian Inc (also known as CAI Lifting), which had new chain blocks, lever hoists and winches, and – from Taiwan – Woos Sing Industrial which produces lifting equipment under the Tiger brand, including manual and electric chain hoists, lever hoists and trolleys. From India was Indef, which is part of the Bajaj Group and the distributor of Hercules branded hoists.
Space does not permit full discussion of all exhibitors but there were many others that put on a good show. The large stands of SWF and Yale were both busy. The former had concentrated on providing an appealing space (namely a bar) rather than going hard on the equipment, though the Nova hoist, now available in sizes up to 100t, was exhibited. Yale, in contrast, had a forest of equipment including the Yalelift 360 hand chain hoist, featured in the last issue of Hoist as the Columbus McKinnon Hurricane. The stands of Kito, Gis and Vetter also proved to be major draws.
Hook blocks, grabs and other lifting devices were shown by Gosan of Spain and France’s Charlet, while Maschinenfabriek Emcé of the Netherlands promoted its winch technology. Cesan of Turkey had a strong presence, indicating its growing profile in the market. Other exhibitors in the main hall of CeMat included air hoist supplier Yokota Europa, special crane builder and component supplier Saalfelder Hebezeugbau (SHB), which has some magnificent references, and the vacuum lifting specialists Elephant from Italy and Vaculex from Sweden.
Unfortunate were those companies like French crane builder and hoist manufacturer Ateliers de la Chainette (ADC) who were located in a neighbouring hall next to where Demag Cranes & Components had been scheduled to have a massive presence. Clearly Demag would have been a major draw and the area around its stand would have become a rival to the main lifting equipment hall. Once Demag had pulled out, those crane companies that had hoped to benefit from Demag’s traffic did not get the footfall that they deserved.
Despite the absentees, CeMat proved to be a significant success for an industry still going through difficult times. Perhaps next time some of the big names will return and there will be even more new names appearing from rapidly industrialising nations to challenge the status quo.
