JCB, Genie and Point Of Rental Take Top Prizes in Innovative Product Award

JCB Teleskid Grabs the Gold Award

JCB Teleskid

Key Innovation: The only skid-steer or compact track loader with a telescopic boom, allowing 8-foot reach; 13-foot, 3-inch lift height and 3-foot dig depth.

The concept of a skid-steer or compact track loader combined with a telescopic boom was enough to impress RER’s panel of judges, but the fact that the machine, launched in March of this year and presented at ConExpo, is manufactured by a company with a long reputation of engineering achievement sealed the deal with voters.

“The JCB Teleskid can do the work of four machines – a telescopic handler, a masted forklift, a compact loader and a skid-steer loader, all in one easy-to-service machine,” says Randy Tinley, product manager for skid steers and compact track loaders, JCB North America.

The Teleskid combines the advantages of vertical lift – for greater lift capacity and lift height – with radial lift, for improved excavating and grading in a single machine. Also, the machine’s bucket-positioning levelling system is active when the boom is raised or lowered, making it easier to keep materials in the bucket.

Based on JCB’s large-platform skid-steer design, the Teleskid is available in the 3TS-8W wheeled and 3TS-8T track models, with rated operating capacities of 3,208 pounds and 3,695 pounds, respectively. The machine’s single-arm, telescopic boom design allows landscapers to perform tasks not possible with conventional skid-steer loaders, such as loading high-side trucks without a ramp, reaching across a standard 8-foot-wide trailer, mowing down slopes, and digging or clearing ditches by being able to dig below grade to a depth of three feet.

“The general applications for skid-steer loaders and track loaders are construction, landscaping, industrial and agriculture,” says Tinley. “We designed and built the product in Savannah, Ga. The leveling system is exclusive to JCB North America. We can put an attachment on the front – whether it be a bucket, a bale spear or a set of forks, it doesn’t matter. It mimics the movement of your joystick, so it’s a bi-directional attachment leveling position that gives the operator the ease of use of the machine. You have a more alert, more cognizant operator sitting in the cab, being able to use the machine in a versatile way that he could never have done before.”

Although there isn’t an exact timeline, Tinley says the Teleskid was the product of a couple of years of thought, research and development.

“Inspiration for this product came from the current product we had, being the single side arm side-door entry, the safest skid steer on the market,” says Tinley. “The natural progression was to develop the extendable boom, so it would be the only extending boom skid-steer/compact track loader on the market. The product fits well in the market, there was a need for it, we saw it and so we took advantage of that.”

JCB says the fully enclosed cab is 33 percent larger than the industry average. “The Teleskid is a large-frame machine,” says Tinley. “Your legroom, your visibility, the rear-look visibility, the visibility to the attachment, to the quick hitch – you get in that cab and you really feel comfortable because you don’t feel enclosed by two booms where you have to climb out the front window. Side-door entry makes it the safest, the cab is the largest and the visibility is the best.”

The JCB myCHOICE software allows control responsiveness, and joystick sensitivity is tailored to suit operator preferences. “We put in the ability to change the responsiveness of the transmission joystick,” says Tinley. “Your loader arm joystick has three different modes, so just by airing up and down on the right-hand display, you can get a quicker or less responsive joystick, so operators who want a really fast responding machine and want to get the job done very quickly can go to the mode that allows a quick-response joystick.”

If an operator wants to work more carefully with a more sensitive operation, they can set the joystick to a slower mode. “So it’s up to the operator to decide how they want their machine to respond,” Tinley notes.

The Teleskid also has a smooth-ride system, and a bi-directional parallel lift. “We put in high-flow capabilities so the operator doesn’t lose any attachment range,” Tinley says. “You actually are gaining because you’re able to extend the boom and run standard-flow equipment. And we have a reversing fan inside the cab so every 15 minutes your fan automatically reverses and cleans off the top of your cooling pack whatever debris may be on there.”

Being able to dig three feet below grade can also be viewed as a safety factor. “You can keep your machine on the top of the road and actually extend three feet down into a ditch and pull debris out of the ditch to you,” Tinley says. “That makes it a safer skid-steer. If you had any work below grade or you are running any attachment like a mower and you wanted to extend down the hill and mow, you can go close to the debris without ever having to push your machine down.”

Tinley also emphasizes the benefits of the Tier 4 Final JCB Ecomax engine that does not use DEF, DPF, SCR or a regeneration system, making serviceability easier.

Genie's SX-135XC Gets the Silver

Genie SX-135XC Boom

Key Innovation: Extra capacity platform – 660 pound/1,000 pound, and extending jib with 90 feet of outreach.

The Genie SX-135 XC self-propelled telescopic boomlift delivers industry-leading outreach and capacity throughout the full working envelope. The first model in the Genie Xtra Capacity (XC) group of booms, the SX-135 XC boomlift includes 90 feet of outreach, 660 pounds unrestricted lift capacity, the ability to work 19 feet, 8 inches below grade and a 12 foot, 11 inch compact footprint.

“The XC system allows us to automate what was previously a manual process for operators,” says Sean Larin, product manager for large booms (100 feet and higher) for Genie. “With the older machines, an operator would get into the machine and indicate basically how much weight they had. If they were in the heavier weight zone, they would tell the machine that from the platform, and the machine would restrict their total height and their outreach, so they would be working within a slightly smaller envelope. Now with newer technology, and what’s in the new standards rolling out for ANSI and CSA, the machine automatically detects what capacity zone the operator should be in. If the operator gets into the boom and has 600 pounds -- two guys and some tools -- the machine indicates they have the entire envelope to work in. They can go straight up to 135 feet and won’t hit any walls in terms of where the machine will allow them to go.”

If the load is larger, up to 1,000 pounds, about 10 feet is trimmed off of the operator’s total outreach, by restricting the jib. At full length with 660-pound capacity, the jib is about 30 feet long. With larger loads, it would be restricted to about 18 feet. An LED with a graphical display will let the operator know he’s in the max capacity zone, going out to about 80 feet of extension.

The Genie SX-135 XC also utilizes Genie’s X-chassis, at about 33 percent less total footprint compared to the company’s 150- or 180-foot boomlift, allowing for less weight and more maneuverability on jobsites than traditional chassis.

“Efficiency is a huge piece of what we do,” says Larin. “When we got to the 134, we realized we could actually reduce the size of the X chassis and essentially be able to offer a lower price and a more efficient machine in terms of operation for our customers. There are also jobsite advantages to having a smaller chassis. You can get into tighter spaces. We got a lot of feedback that the smaller X chassis is really liked on sites such as an onshore refinery along the Gulf Coast, as well as tight urban environments such as cities in the northeast United States. Also the X chassis requires less preventive maintenance and having to replace and repair parts, and is much easier on tires.”

The machines also incorporate tilt-sensor technology. The sensors are metal-shielded because the boomlifts are used on rugged jobsites. Also popular with users are up-and-over maneuverability and being able to work below grade. “It can reach over an obstacle and then you can go down and work on the other side,” notes Larin. “They are used on bridges a lot. The long jib allows you to go nearly 20 feet below grade and park the lifts on the edge of a bridge and reach down below to do inspections on the bottom side of the bridge. And we’re seeing them a lot in stadiums and complex structures that have big metal trusses because the jib allows them to maneuver between tight spaces and large obstacles.”

Point of Rental Inspection App Wins the Bronze

Key Innovation: Point of Rental’s Inspection App enables rental businesses to manage their maintenance process digitally, saving time and money while increasing trackability, efficiency and profit.

More than a year in development, Point of Rental’s Inspection App automates inspection, maintenance, and service processes, all from a mobile device. It tracks each step from off rental to “ready to rent.”

“Of course inspections are critical for equipment, but some industries such as lift and access, as well as in countries such as Australia and the U.K., the documentation is a legal requirement,” says Point of Rental CEO Wayne Harris. “Many companies have created their own custom processes to handle the process flow and subsequent paperwork. Those processes are time intensive and many require double entry of the data from their manual paperwork into their computer system. We wanted an integrated process that enhanced the process flow and naturally captured all of the documentation as part of that flow. The easier you can make a process, the more likely it is that it will get done.”

During setup, managers can determine the inspection process for each item to go through, which technicians can be assigned, and determine the mission criticality of each checklist item. They’ll be able to determine which checks will require a manager to approve and can individually select whether he needs to approve the inspection before the item is back ready to rent. With the Inspection App, a rental company can set up common items such as “check the oil”, “electrical test” or “enter tire pressure” and then build inspection steps together. “You then build the inspection list for each cat class of equipment using a combination of generic tasks along with specific tasks for that unit,” says Harris.

Each technician can access their assigned inspection via the mobile interface. The app enables easy checklist access as well as the ability to add condition photos, data and descriptions. If a mission-critical checklist item fails its inspection, the app automatically enters an internal maintenance or repair order immediately. Condition photos and descriptions area in the system, so when maintenance staff gets to the equipment in need of repair, they know what to fix.

“During the inspection, each user goes through their inspection list,” says Harris. “This includes places where if there is any damage or issues, they can snap a picture with their smartphone or tablet – whatever they are running the inspection app on – and it will automatically attach it to the inspection job. If the item fails the inspection, the system generates the repair order and the mechanic can see exactly which aspects failed inspection and where the problem is. Whereas without the Inspection App, the entire inspection would have to be redone once it got to the mechanic.”

Important for the future of a rental business, the Inspection App tracks inspection data, helping managers speed up their inspection and maintenance process by tracking the time spent at each step of the process for each item. It tracks maintenance costs more accurately, and makes it easier to track depreciation costs. Managers can see which serialized items are consistently having trouble, which checklists take the most time to get through, which inspectors are the most thorough, and can adjust processes accordingly.

The Inspection App integrates directly with Point of Rental’s maintenance program to create maintenance jobs such as “Yearly Checkup” or “500-Hour Maintenance” to automate process of each of those tasks. “When you create the maintenance templates, you can even set the employee group responsible for each portion,” adds Harris. “For example, you can even set the employee group that is responsible for each portion, for example, you could have your ‘A’ mechanics responsible for the engine portion and your ‘B’ mechanics responsible for the drivetrain portion. This is commonly where the approval process comes into play for larger maintenance jobs.”