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From the relatively developed markets of the US and Europe where mast climbing equipment was first used, to newer markets in the Middle East and Asia, the outlook for mast [...]

It is SAIE's turn this month to debut new equipment, even though several of the newer machines on show will be launches in Italy of products previously seen at Bauma [...]

Stable labour pools and busy, high-tech industries have driven up demand for critical resources in the Nordic region. 'The biggest problem ... is lack of skilled labour--everywhere,' says Erkki Hokkinen, [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The engineering skill required to reach working heights of 100 m is important, of course, but the current divide in opinion not about how to get to these [...]

The risk associated with buying used equipment results from not knowing how it was used and what level of care it has (or hasn't) received. However, there are ways to [...]

Fifteen hundred exhibitors will congregate at the Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre for the triennial Intermat construction trade show from 24 to 29 April. A diverse group of access manufacturers are [...]

First impressions are often the strongest, as the saying goes. And the impression that some US contractors seem to have is that mast climbers are expensive, at least relative to [...]

Engines are a good place to start when looking at improving operating efficiencies of access equipment. One benefit of statutory-driven emissions reductions over the recent years has been the improved [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Socage is entering the '100 m' club, but the Italian company has not released the design working height. The machine's design designation is Sioux TJJ-10X, and there is [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 'Market conditions are what they are,' says John Miller, chief executive of scaffolding services contractor Millstone Corporation based in Upper Marlboro, Maryland in the US. Those conditions include [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It is clear that globalisation, regulation and safety, and market conditions are major influences on--and from--the scaffolding industry in North America. Let's start with globalisation: the [...]

One of the attractions of trailer mounts is the ease with which they can be moved about. Hence, laws that impose driver's license and other requirements have a big impact [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Sales of access equipment are at record-high levels, and you might think that used equipment is moving at the same pace. However, that doesn't seem to be the [...]

Just as a driver uses 'real-time' information to continuously control a vehicle, rental company managers want real-time information to direct their companies. Software suppliers are filling that need. Hence the [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Wumag has raised by about 2 m the maximum height accessible from a mobile platform with its new Elevant WT 1000. The 100.5 m platform height machine has [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It about uncertainty--you can't see what lies beneath the painted surface of scaffolding components. As Swedish manufacturer Haki's UK subsidiary sums up the issue: 'All systems are not [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Sturdy tracked undercarriages provide superior traction, low surface loading, and narrow transport width--the key distinguishing benefits of spiders--and can bear a lot of weight. That allows platform designers [...]

You never know where small, seemingly insignificant events will lead. That is what Braden Murrin, one of two directors of Advance Scaffolding in Australia, might have thought of an enquiry [...]

A look at recent events in the world of trailer-mounts quickly reveals Bil-Jax's continued strong push into the sector. The Ohio-based company signalled its intent when it secured resources in [...]

Although many manufacturers are reserving their big product launches for Bauma next year, there will still be plenty to see at this year's SAIE show--particularly from Italy's many manufacturers. What [...]

'Each machine has its own personality', says Wayne McDonald, JLG's senior vice president--engineering, when describing not only access equipment behaviour in general, but also the important 'feel' of an access [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Although the number of access manufacturers exhibiting at the Rental Show might be relatively small, there are enough big attractions to make the trip to Orlando worthwhile. Chief [...]

The assumed path--train the operator--to safe use of access equipment is not the universal solution some think, or wish, it were. Safe working at height is not quite that simple, [...]

Mohed Altrad does not know exactly where in Syria he was born, or exactly when (see box). However, you get the impression he knows certainly where he is business-wise and [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Light, compact, excellent accessibility, good performance: what is there not to understand (and like) about spider platforms? Yet, awareness of their capabilities seems to grow slowly in the [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Trying to 'raise the bar in attitudes about safety', access rental company Lavendon Access Services recently held a day-long seminar for fifty of its largest customers. Chief executive [...]

Yes, the basic machine is important, but the benefit from using telehandlers--even for lifting and placing--stems from what's at the end of the boom. There is a growing variety of [...]

In times past, if you wanted lots of power, something big, or to operate on rough terrain, you had to choose scissor lifts with internal combustion engines. Batteries just didn't [...]

Sometimes the most obvious measures, such as height and speed, get the most attention. Pega Hoists already holds two world records for rack-and-pinion hoists--longest single run, at 425 m, and [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It's not a particularly pretty picture, at least to some buyers and sellers of used access equipment. The view seems to depend on what part of the business [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Palfinger announced the deal to acquire Wumag on 20 June and, following regulator approvals, it is scheduled to complete this summer. This is Palfinger's second acquisition [...]

When Bernard Vandromme, business development manager--in plant vehicles, explained why TVH (Group Thermote & Vanhalst) had expanded from spare parts for fork lifts into those for access equipment too, the [...]

The high-energy physics laboratory CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland has been using two spiders from Italian company, Palazzani Industrie Spa, to install equipment for an experiment, called [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Although, as Richard Bryant, general manager of dealer King Highway equipment in Leicestershire said, 'some segments [of the UK access industry] appear to be very cautious right now, [...]

Pumps pressurise hydraulic fluid and cylinders convert it to motion. In between are control valves, and the mechanisms to control them are a fundamental issue of machine design and use. [...]

Providing services beyond the simple sale of products is important to scaffold manufacturers. As Germany's Peri says; 'business wouldn't be successful without efficient products, but also not without services. So [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When the breadth and depth of the design differences in Hek's new mast climbers and transport platforms sink in, one word that comes to mind is 'revolutionary'. However, [...]

In terms of numbers, truck-mounted platforms led launches at SAIE, as a glance at the summary tables below reveals. Tallest was Barin's new 73 m working height AP 73/35 on [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As Peter Ellis, operations director of Planet Platforms near Leeds in the UK, says; 'The Work At Height regulations have resulted in all physical working activity being assessed [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When Dominique Pagniez, Comabi's sales and marketing director, looks at the French market--which is 92% of the company's sales--he sees 100000 customers and 3000 distributors. Sixty percent of [...]

If there is any type of equipment for which effective control is important, it is MEWPs and telehandlers. Booms and scissors amplify at the basket or fork end movements of [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Lightweight, low-height access will be to the fore in Munich--reflecting increasing concerns over working at even relatively low heights--although traditional large construction site scaffolding will also be in [...]

'Stability', 'outrigger footprint', and 'boom rigidity' strongly come to mind when you're rising 100 m in the air, torn between looking at the views and, for reassurance, at the steadily [...]

The UK's Working at Height directive doesn't ban the use of ladders, but it does force end users to consider carefully whether they should be using them. The end result [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If confidence comes from past successes it also emboldens future actions. It's a characteristic that Egi SA, the privately-owned French manufacturer of insulated and non-insulated truck mounted platforms, [...]

What did Menno Koel, sales director of Holland Lift, think when he heard that JLG had bought competing scissors manufacturer Liftlux? 'My initial reaction was of surprise, but I then [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] One clear indicator of market growth is a rise in utilisation rates, and there is no misunderstanding Erik Bengtsson, area manager for aerial equipment with rental market leading [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The construction growth that accompanied the decade-long boom in Ireland's economy gave Mast Climbers Ireland opportunity to drive the use of mast climbing equipment into the industry. And, [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It is said that every cloud has a silver lining, and Josep Lopez must have seen one in the cloud of gloom hanging over the Spanish [...]

China's Beijing JingCheng Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. said it is exhibiting at APEX to better learn the European market. 'As a responsible company, we must know the conditions of the [...]