Raising the Super Boom: RER Announces 2013 Innovative Product Awards

Established in 2003 to honor excellence in new product development for the equipment rental industry, the 2013 RER Innovative Product Award celebrates its 10th year of recognizing industry innovation and this year showcases the most innovative products introduced between Aug. 1, 2012 and July 31, 2013.

A panel of industry judges narrowed the pool of entries to one winner in each of 11 categories. Then, judges selected the product they felt displayed the most innovation in respect to the rental business from those 11 products selected category winners. This year, the panel nearly unanimously selected Terex Aerial Work Platforms’ Genie SX-180 boomlift as the Grand Award recipient. The other five category winners included in this month’s issue were the top vote getters among the finalists.  

Thank you to all of the companies that entered products in this year’s RER Innovative Product Awards competition. The remaining five category finalists are listed on page 33 and will be featured along with the honorable mentions in the January and February 2014 issues of RER.

For additional information on the Innovative Product Award winners, visit www.rermag.com. 

Grand Award
Category: Lifts

Genie SX-180 boomlift
Terex Aerial Work Platforms, Redmond, Wash.
Introduced: April 2013
Key innovation: The Genie SX-180 boom is the world’s tallest of its kind, according to the maker. It has a platform height of 180 feet and can be driven at full height. The stowed length shrinks it down to just 47 feet and the retracted width to 98 inches, making it transportable without special over-width permits. The lift capacity is 750 pounds.

Towering 30 feet above the next-tallest boomlift available in the market, Terex Aerial Work Platforms leveraged its patented X-chassis design to develop the Genie SX-180 boomlift to not only reach a height equal to a 17-story building, but to also offer stowed dimensions compact enough that the unit can be transported on a standard trailer without the need for any special over-size permits.    

“We’re very excited about the market potential and about the operational impact the SX-180 is having as well as a lot of the engineering learning that went into the development of this product,” says Frank Schneider, Genie product manager, super booms.

Terex AWP set out to engineer a new super boom with a maximum reach of 165 feet or greater, based on the original specifications written by Schneider. But as the company was gathering data from its extensive market research, it discovered that the per-hour value it could deliver to rental customers increased as the boom height increased.

“We took a look at both our direct customer base and our end-user customer base and what we saw was that there was a pretty significant economic motivation for going higher,” Schneider says. “We were hearing quotes like: ‘All the applications are going higher,’ and ‘We won’t ever buy a 100-foot boom anymore and put it in our fleet; we’ll only buy 125-foot and above.’ We could basically corroborate those perspectives with the sales volume that we could see in our existing product line where there was definitely a shift toward taller and taller booms from a customer-demand perspective. It became clear to us that the taller the booms we could provide, the better it is for our customers, the better it is for our end users, the safer the environment we can create for our end users and that really pushed us to look for how we could develop taller booms.”

With that in mind, Terex AWP engineers set out to modify the existing X-chassis, which was then under the Z 135 boom, to be a little bit wider so that they could go taller on the new model. The intent with the X-chassis redesign was to be able to make the new wider design a relatively flexible platform so that it could be used for multiple booms, not just what would become the SX-180.

“What our engineering team came back to me with was that they felt like they could go significantly higher than the 165 feet that I was specifying as being the minimum,” Schneider explains. “In fact, initially they told me 170 and held back that they were in fact targeting 180 until they had done more feasibility studies to prove they could reach 180 feet.”

The final product — the Genie SX-180 — achieves a 180-foot vertical reach and 80-foot horizontal reach, providing a working envelope suited for the most extreme access jobs. The 8-foot by 3-foot platform has an unrestricted capacity of 750 pounds.  The 10-foot rotating jib is intended to address those issues of being at height and needing to reposition to get to the next work zone. The jib rotates at plus or minus 30 degrees on the horizontal and 170 degrees in the vertical direction, giving the operator a significant envelope to reach into without having to reposition the boom at all.  

The machine, however, is designed to be driven at full height. So if the operator gets to the workspace and then realizes he or she has misjudged the elevation by a foot or two, the SX-180 can be driven into position without the operator having to go all the way back down to reposition the boom and then try again. Travel speeds vary based on boom position and range from 2.5 mph with the boom in the stowed position, 0.4 mph below 125 feet and 0.1 mph above 125 feet.                                                  

The newly designed X-chassis extends and retracts to provide both stability on the job and a narrow profile for transport. The boomlift’s stowed dimensions are 10 feet in height and 8 feet, 2 inches wide. With a stowed length of 42 feet, 7 inches, the 54,000-pound machine requires no over-width or over-height permits allowing it to be easily transported on a truck.

“From a rental perspective, if it’s not easily transportable, you’re going to have significantly higher transport costs — you’re going to need pilot vehicles and specialized trailers — and you’re eating into your potential customer base and your potential return on invested capital,” Schneider says.

“By keeping it on a standard trailer, your standard local rental company could conceivably put an SX-180 into their inventory and run it as part of their fleet without adding additional investments for transportation. We thought that was really significant in making this equipment able to be adopted by a broader range of rental companies.”

The Genie SX-180 is designed with reliability and serviceability in mind and features easy access to important systems and components, robust hardline hose and harness routings and access to slew bearing bolts from topside. The rotating jib offers a robust slew bearing and worm-drive arrangement. 

In addition, Terex engineers designed the lifting mechanism inside of the boom structure as a cartridge, meaning that the lifting elements — which include an extension cylinder and wire ropes — all go into the interior of the boom as a single cartridge. That assembly style allows a service technician to access and remove that cartridge in about 90 minutes, compared with some booms that require disassembly of the entire boom structure — a process that can take more than a week’s time, according to Schneider.

“You’re losing, in a substantial way, return on invested capital if you’re taking your equipment out for a week to do any kind of service or inspection,” Schneider says. “This cartridge seems like a little thing, but it’s really significant from a serviceability perspective.”

New platform controls consist of toggle switches and fully proportional jib and boom controls. The ground controls offer an updated function diagram layout and tactile membrane switches. Customers may choose from either a Deutz or Perkins engine. A 50-gallon fuel tank for longer run time and a 7.5 KW generator are standard equipment. 

The Genie SX-180 is suited for applications in the oil and gas industries, commercial construction, industrial construction and maintenance, and general maintenance, but new applications continue to present themselves.

“You can be outreached 80 feet in horizontal plane and outreached 120 feet in the vertical plane from where your base is located,” Schneider says. “That range of motion is pretty amazing from an engineering innovation perspective. And I think that range of motion from an application perspective is going to have a lot more uses than we even know about right now.”

Category: Cutting/Drilling

Hilti TE 30-A36 cordless combihammer
Hilti Inc., Tulsa, Okla.
Introduced: June 2013
Key innovation: The Hilti TE 30-A is the world’s first cordless combihammer, according to the maker. It brings cordless mobility to applications usually reserved for corded tools. It drills concrete up to 40-percent faster than the largest SDS corded tools on the market, Hilti says.

The JLG Mobile Analyzer combines a free mobile application and a wireless access module to provide technicians with remote access to program, troubleshoot, calibrate, or customize JLG equipment performance. The new tool for Apple or Google operating system devices allows for an extended operating range of up to 150 feet.

The JLG Mobile Analyzer is currently available in English and Spanish, with 11 additional languages available by the end of 2013, JLG says.

Users can download the app at no charge on mobile devices compatible with Apple iOS 5.0 and up, as well as Android API 8 and up, through Apple iTunes and Google Play stores. The app works with the JLG Mobile Wireless Access Module, which can be ordered through JLG’s Online Express or a JLG representative.

The access module plugs into a port on JLG products that are currently compatible with the JLG Analyzer Kit, as well as all new JLG products with Advance Design Electronics, and uses the app to transmit equipment performance data to a mobile device. To enhance functionality, technicians can make phone calls while using the JLG Mobile Analyzer, enabling them to talk with factory support representatives as they work on machines. And because technicians are not limited by connections to equipment by cables attached to handheld devices, they have greater mobility around equipment and can seek shelter in trucks or other protective cover during inclement weather, while continuing to receive and analyze data.

Category: Light towers

MLT4000S Solar Hybrid light tower
Magnum Power Products LLC, Berlin, Wis.
Introduced: February 2013
Key innovation: Hybrid power uses sun and liquid propane for a solar solution that performs every day.

The Toilet Master Jack lifts, tilts, holds, rolls, aligns and lowers a toilet, doing all of the work for the user. The world’s first toilet jack, the Toilet Master Jack is designed to be fast and easy-to-use with no strain or mess. The Toilet Master Jack was created to solve every problem ever encountered with lifting and removing a toilet.

The Toilet Master Jack changes a wax seal in 10 minutes or less. The user just needs to jack up the toilet, remove the old seal, position the new seal, then align it and lower the toilet back into place. It even puts the bolts in for you.

Benefits of the Toilet Master Jack include:

• Works on toilets with or without a tank, public stalls and wall mounts.
• Never lift a toilet again. It lifts it for you.
• Don’t put yourself or your employees at risk of injury again.
• It is sanitary. (You don’t have to touch the toilet itself.)
• Eliminates the water mess. No water can spill over the p-trap. (It tilts water away.)
• Toilet is never placed down on the floor. No wax mess to clean up. (It holds it for you.)
• Don’t struggle with looking for a place to put the toilet. It stays on the jack through the entire process. (It rolls it for you.)
• Don’t fight, guess or hope you align the toilet bolts correctly. It aligns, inserts bolts and lowers for you — the first time, every time, perfect alignment.
• Saves time and money

Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of wax seals are installed and or replaced every year and every time a wax seal is sold someone is lifting and moving a toilet. The Master Toilet Jack eliminates the need to do this task by hand.

Category: Lawn & Garden equipment

Stump Cutter SC30TX
Vermeer, Pella, Iowa
Introduced: February 2013
Key innovation: The SC30TX stump cutter is a completely hydraulic machine with no belts. It features the patented Yellow Jacket cutter system equipped with POW-R plates, which is designed to provide fast, simple serviceability, as well as extended pocket and tooth life.

Vermeer’s SC30TX stump cutter features the longest tracks in its class, providing consistent stability and easier loading and unloading of the machine when compared to shorter tracked models. The longer tracks also offer the lowest ground-bearing pressure in its class, the maker says. The hydrostatic ground drive and hydraulic cutter wheel drive eliminated belts and pulleys reducing maintenance time and cost.

The patented Yellow Jacket cutter system is equipped with POW-R plates that are designed to provide fast, simple serviceability, as well as extended pocket and tooth life. The machine’s AutoSweep system is an optional feature that monitors engine speed and automatically adjusts cutter wheel sweep rate. AutoSweep is designed to reduce engine, drive-train and structural stress.

With a focus on ease of operation, the compact design of the SC30TX offers intuitive controls and minimal service points. The modified operator presence handle design is now manufactured with a harder exterior to improve wear and appearance. This user-friendly handle system provides additional capacitance sending capability and is intended to help protect the operator.

A 25-hp EFI Kohler engine starts well during cold weather, makes choke cable obsolete eliminates the occurrence of engine flooding and improved fuel economy over comparable carbureted gas engines, the company says.

Other category winners include:

Compressors/Air tools
XP200WJD Tier 4i air compressor, Doosan Portable Power, Statesville, N.C.

Computer software
Sirius e, Orion Software, Montreal

Earthmoving equipment
Takeuchi TB260 hydraulic excavator, Takeuchi-U.S., Pendergrass, Ga.

Engines/Power sourcing
GXR120 rammer engine, Honda Engines, Alpharetta, Ga.

Material handling
Genie GTH-1544 telehandler, Terex Aerial Work Platforms, Redmond, Wash.