TRACK-MOUNTS
43
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2013
ACCESS, LIFT & HANDLERS
As Florian Büscher, marketing manager
at Teupen, explains, “The equipment rental
industry is one of the most important channels
for the entire tracked lifts industry. Rental
companies are looking for everything that
increases a better marketability of the relatively
new tracked lifts such as a consistent and
simple to use control concept. Furthermore,
everything around the product must help rental
companies to have more success.”
An example comes in the manufacturer’s
latest model, the 69-foot (21 m) working height
LEO 21GT. It has an unrestricted 40 feet (12
m) of outreach at 551 pounds (250 kg) basket
load. Transport weight is 6,503 pounds (2950
kg). The track chassis is height and width
adjustable, while the machine stabilizes on a
30 percent slope. It has a corner-mounted, 180
degree rotatable basket.
Hinowa, for example, is actively targeting
rental companies with its two latest machines
T
he tracked aerial work platform sector
is undoubtedly a niche sector of the
AWP market, but it holds a great deal of
potential thanks to advances in technology and
a growing realization of its attributes.
With the biggest customer base in Europe,
manufacturers are looking at the likes of the
U.S. and emerging nations, such as the Middle
East for growth. The general consensus is that
tracked platforms hold about 3 percent of the
total world AWP market, with major growth
on the horizon in the U.S., and a feeling that
emerging markets like the Middle East should
be buying tracked platforms by the dozen, but
are not doing so yet.
As Laura Gasparini, export manager at
Palazzani Industrie explains, the sector
may be niche for now, but there is little
option than to use tracked platforms in key
applications. “Thanks to their lightness and
compact dimensions, tracked platforms cannot
be equalled in places where aerial work is
difficult, like historical monuments, churches
and mosques, medieval towns, shopping malls,
terraces, town centres, parks, airports and so
on.”
And according to Mirca Negri, Hinowa export
engineer, “tracked platforms are growing faster
than other types of MEWPs because many
people do not know about them yet.”
Power options
Two factors affecting that growth are Lithium
batteries and the attitude of rental companies
to this type of equipment. Let’s take a look at
rental first.
In the past tracked platforms’ have lacked
user friendliness, with complicated set up
and operation, outriggers that needed to be
individually adjusted, reduced power during
indoor and electricity cables that need to be
supervised at all times.
Manufacturers are targeting rental companies and promoting Lithium as the tracked
platform sector promises to grow its market share.
Euan Youdale
reports.
Niche no more?
Platform Basket’s prototype double insulated 56.10 foot working height
PB18.90.46 is designed for use on power lines up to 46 KV. It is insulated
on the basket and main boom and has a compact 2.62-foot width for narrow
passages, and is transportable by trailer. Maximum outreach is 28.5 feet.
