The fifth Innovationstage für Höhenzugangstechnik was held in Hohenroda, Germany last week.
The following is a brief, and sometimes irreverant overview of the event in which manufacturers or distributors are only supposed to bring along one machine that truly represents their latest technology. As you will see the rules are a tad flexible it seems.
At the event - held in the centre of Germany previously the home to Platformers Days - networking was clearly the focus. According to the organisers Andreas Möller and Yama Saha, all of the allocated stands were sold. This led to a what our local correspondent says was a “somewhat paradoxical situation, a full house, but not much going on. There were no queues at the visitor entrance, so there is certainly still room for improvement for this young industry event.”
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In the spirit of this spring’s unusual weather patterns, it was a chilly event in spite of the sun coming out from midday onwards. Again the words of our correspondent: “You could get a sunburn and freeze your buttocks off on the same day. In the afternoon it got surprisingly shady and frosty in the upper outdoor area.”
While most of the people we spoke with bemoaned low visitor numbers, they talked quality and the chance to meet old friends etc… with plenty of time to meet and chat. A few quietly spoke of it being a ‘System Lift event’ (the German association of regional rental companies) that was clearly not the case, with a diverse spread of high quality visitors from across the industry.
In total around 50 brands were represented. In addition to the large established manufacturers such as Snorkel, Genie, Haulotte, JLG, Manitou, Merlo, Multitel, Niftylift, Palfinger, Ruthmann and Skyjack, a number of smaller, more specialised manufacturers were represented, including Comet, Faresin, Hyrax, Liftroller and Omega with tracked Super deck scissor lifts.
CMC displayed its 13 metre S13F and the 23 metre S23 with lithium power.
Sahalift was there with its brands and machines Aichi, Airo, Almac and Ommelift, JCB with its small 514-40 telehandler and the larger 17.5 meter 514-180 model.
Fresh from manning the Bravi stand at Vertikal Days Pierino Bravi was in Germany to present the latest attachment for his Leonardo lifts - the ‘Small-E’, step up type platform attachment which extends the platform height by 670mm to entering through false ceiling panels.
And what of Chinese suppliers? Although XCMG and Zoomlion did not attend, Dingli/Magni, Sinoboom and LGMG were all present.
And the next Innovationstage event? It will be held on the 19th and 20th of June next year - so perhaps less of a chilling experience for our roving reporter.
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