18.10.2008

A little more SAIE

The weather held up at SAIE this week and the annual show appeared well attended, perhaps down a little on prior years, partly due to a transport strike on Friday, however there were plenty of visitors and deals were being done.

Here are a few more of our observations, for a full report we are devoting five pages in the next Cranes & Access magazine to the subject.

Haulotte had its usual impressive two story stand, which this year included Bi-Jax staff now badged up as members of the Haulotte team. Alexandre Saubot, chief executive of the Haulotte Group, said that the company the integration of Bil-Jax into the group was going well and that production of some Haulotte products in Bil-Jax’s Archibold, Ohio facility was likely to commence during the first quarter of 2009.
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The Bil-Jax 45XA on the Haulotte stand

He also said that the company was aiming to retain all or most of the Bil-Jax distribution network, given that this was a key asset of the business that had been acquired. In European markets with no Bil-Jax dealer, such as Italy, the local Haulotte subsidiary will normally handle the Bil-Jax product line. Where a dealer exists, such as Germany and the UK the dealer will continue to distribute the Bil-Jax line and possibly add some Haulotte products to their line up.
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It was not all orders and seriousness on the Haulotte stand

Haulotte also announced the introduction of an EN280 working platform for its telescopic handler range. Saubot also said that sales of telehandlers were progressing slowing, and due to tough price competition and the fact that the range was still limited. He added though that the concept of a fool proof easy to operate design was proving popular with those companies that were operating them.
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Alexandre Saubot on the Haulotte stand

The Merlo stand had fewer completely new products than usual, but did show a fair number of improvements and line extensions. These included a new simpler, less costly outrigger option for the Roto 45:21. Standard models feature a highly sophisticated beam and jack outrigger system with auto levelling and sensing. The unit maintains the same basic capacity with the ‘banana outriggers’ but will not benefit from the additional usable capacity benefits provided by the existing outriggers.
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The new curved beam outrigger design on the Merlo Roto 45:21

The Merlo MPR range of self-propelled telehandler based aerial lifts are now in production with more than 25 units already sold. The production units include a large number of changes over the evaluation models, including and different platform stowage design and more traditional upper controls. To see original report in C&A click here and look at page 31/32
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The Merlo Platform MPR is now in production with over 25 units sold, many changes have been made, including the adoption of a more traditional control box

Leader unveiled two new Cicogna (Stork) dual telescopic boomed truck mounted lifts, the 27 metre working height Cicogna 270AJTT and the Cicogna 200, both of which use a similar dual telescopic boom concept to that of the Pagliero MX 13/17/20 series and MX27 which is proving to be highly popular since its launch last year. The Leader booms are made of steel though, rather than aluminium and also feature an articulating jib. The 270 offers over 17 metres of working outreach with 120kgs in the platform or 15.5 metres with 230kgs.
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The 27 metre working height Cicogna 270AJTT truck mount

The Cicogna 270 will be mounted on a 5.6 tonne truck in Italy in order to come in under the six tonne self drive rental rule, while in the rest of Europe it is likely to be mounted on a 7.5 tonne truck which should allow a reduced outrigger spread.
On the lighter truck the maximum stabilised width is 3.57 metres.

The 200 which mounts on a 3.5 tonne truck, offers between 8.5 and 10.5 metres of working outreach depending on the load in the platform from 230kgs to 80 kgs.

Mister Gru has been acquired by Fiorenzo Flisi, one of the founders of Oil&Steel, who parted company with the platform and loader crane company last year, having sold his shares in the business to BS Private Equity which controlled the business. The Mister Gru tag has gone as has the smaller models and the Ecopower concept which combined dual diesel and battery electric power.
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The 35 tonne MGI MG35HS city crane

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Fiorenzo Flisi with his new MG35HS city crane

The 35 tonne unit is now a more conventional diesel powered city crane, it retains its six section 25.9 metre main boom plus a four metre swingaway telescopic luffing jib which offsets to around 80 degrees and can handle up to 3.5 tonnes.
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The MGI truck mount, the MG35TK

New at the show was the MG35TK which uses the same boom as the city crane but is mounted on a commercial 26 tonne truck chassis. The TK, which is also available as a 30 tonner on a two axle chassis, can also be equipped with a three section 11.5 metre telescopic luffing jib which offsets by up to 90 degrees and lifts up to five tonnes retracted or 2.5 tonnes when fully extended.
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The six section 35 tonne MGI boom with four section, 11.5 metre telescopic luffing jib

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The shorter 11B04 4.5 metre three section luffing jib

Both cranes are available with EN280 platforms and radio remote controls.

The Airo stand was packed full of equipment and included a new spider lift, the R150C with a 16.5 metre working height.The unit replaces an early 12 metre spider lift that used a Bluelift superstructure. The agreement between the two companies has now come to an end.
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The new Airo R150C spider lift

The two cranes on the the Unic spider crane stand both featured short jibs or searcher hooks, one a simple fixed design and the other a telescopic jib.
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The 500kg extended searcher hook on Unic spider cranes

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A telescopic version

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Leigh Sparrow (L) catches up with Angelo Cerioli originally of Castelmagiore based Cerioli brothers- the crane and access distributor, now general manager of AMCA, the Bologna based sales and rental company

Finally – for now – IPAF had a similar stand to last year with demonstration units and was promoting its harnesses in booms policy, Clic-Clac, along with its training programme. The federation now has 50 Italian members and on Friday hosted the sixth annual meeting at the show.
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The IPAF stand

President John Ball opened the meeting with a welcome in Italian before switching to his native English for his review of the federations training and membership programmes.
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IPAF's sixth annual Italian conference

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John Ball speaking Italian