Since 2003, when the Innovative Product Award was established, there have been some great surprises, sometimes involving products that few in the rental industry have heard of, manufactured by companies previously almost unknown. One year one of the top three awards went to a company making a product in a garage in Canada. Last year the bronze award went to a battery-powered skid-steer loader designed by a demolition specialist who needed to devise a way to do interior gut-out work at an airport on budget.
Many of the decorated products were high profile such as Genie’s 180-foot boomlift a few years ago, and JLG’s popular LiftPod, a small one-person low-access lift, as well as last year’s Silver Award winner, JLG’s 185-foot boomlift. Caterpillar, Doosan, MBW, Terex, Briggs & Stratton, Honda, Multiquip, JCB and many other prominent manufacturers have taken home top awards in the past.
This year’s top three products were an intriguing mix. The Gold Award goes to a product none of our 14-member panel had ever seen or heard of before, manufactured by a little-known young Italian company: a scissorlift mounted on a track chassis called the Bibilift BL-26. Our panelists, all from the rental industry and all but two currently owners or top executives of equipment rental companies, read the information on it, saw the pictures, watched the videos and voted it to the top spot.
The Silver Award goes to software maker Point-of-Rental Software, which last year won the Gold Award for its Cloud system -- also not its first IPA statuette -- and this year also getting strong voter support for its Contract Fulfillment software. And the Bronze Award goes to Manitou, long a leading manufacturer widely respected for its engineering excellence, and this year receiving strong support for its MRT 3255 Privilege Plus Rotating telescopic handler.
Every year, some of the winning products go on to become major fixtures and even market game-changers in the rental industry, while others gain little traction in the marketplace. The same could be said for the many fine category winners and other entries that don’t score highly in the voting, but are really no less innovative and ultimately important contributions to the evolution of constructionrelated equipment.
All of the Innovative Product Award entries will be profiled in RER, in print and online, in the next few issues, beginning now with the three 2015 IPA honorees.
GOLD WINNER: Scissor Stacks on Mobile Tracks
Bibilift BL-26
Manufactured by Almac; distributed in North America by ReachMaster.
Key Innovation: A track-mounted scissorlift that can drive on sloped and soft surfaces as well as set up and reach full height on sloped or uneven ground without the use of outriggers.
A track-mounted scissorlift, the Bibilift BL-26 features a 25-foot, 11-inch working height, and is powered by a 220V electric motor and a Honda gasoline engine. The unit has proportional controls, 550-pound platform capacity and is relatively lightweight at 4,400 pounds. Because of its tracks, the Bibi can drive on sloped and soft surfaces and a variety of rough-terrain surfaces that other scissorlifts could not traverse. With the patent-pending Bi-Leveling feature, the machine can set up and reach full height on sloped or uneven ground without the use of outriggers. The Bibilift features a chassis for up to 25-degree gradeability and adjustable tracks that can accommodate a 21-degree side slope.
The machine is manufactured in Italy by Almac, a three-year-old company. “All the founders of the company had extensive experience in the aerial lift industry, in rental, manufacturing and other areas,” says Stephanie Gunther, key account sales manager, ReachMaster. “They all got together because they realized a huge need. A lot of people were going to them to see if they could build a scissorlift on tracks.”
The Bibilift’s primary markets until now have been the main European markets as well as Australia and New Zealand. ReachMaster is the exclusive distributor in North America.
Gunther says at this point rental is a growing market for the Bibilift, with about 50 percent of the units being sold into rental fleets and another 50 percent sold directly to end users. Primary end users have been landscapers, solar panel installers, industrial facilities for maintenance, buildings next to hills and rocks for maintenance, cell-phone tower maintenance and more.
The Bibilift strongly impressed RER’s panel of judges.
“The ReachMaster’s Bibilift 26-BL is probably the most innovative idea in small scissors in two decades,” says Bob Kendall, president of Star Rentals, based in Seattle. “The ability to not only negotiate uneven terrain but also to self-level and elevate on uneven terrain in unique applications is most impressive”.
“The Bibilift impressed me by its ability to easily tackle a common problem in the contractor rental market,” adds John Durante, president of Bronx, N.Y.-based Durante Rentals. “To look at the design you have to think to yourself, wow, that’s so simple yet so smart. It’s amazing when there is a standard that everyone builds to for so many years, where you see minor improvements over the years but all building off the original standard, then one day, someone puts out something completely different. The Bibilift is that something completely different.”
SILVER WINNER: From Yard to Screen to Counter to Driver
Point-of-Rental Software
Contract Fulfillment
Key Innovation: By combining real-time contract processing with the flexibility of mobile smart devices, Contract Fulfillment is an electronic replacement for load slips and pre-staging reports, making it easy to fill contracts accurately and efficiently.reach full height on sloped or uneven ground without the use of outriggers.
Contract Fulfillment is a paperless contract documenting system that allows for a company to electronically track all stages of a rental contract in real time. New orders and changed orders are instantly available to all employees of the rental company at any time. Contract Fulfillment tracks a contract through item prep, truck loading or unloading and final counts, thus eliminating front counter workers having to call back to the warehouse, yard, shop or dispatch system every they have a question or there is a change in contract status. Contract Fulfillment can be run from a tablet or smart phone.
“Before we had this feature, in the morning at our customers’ rental companies the counter guys would have to ask ‘which unit are they sending out?’” Wayne Harris, CEO of Point-of-Rental Systems explains. “Then the guys in the back would get back to them to answer the question. The counter guy would have to ask ‘what’s the hour meter reading, what’s the fuel level?’ And there would be multiple contracts going out, with drivers waiting for the information from the counter staff and the drivers can’t leave without the paperwork. And they’re waiting for the guy in the back who is busy loading a backhoe for a ‘will-call’ customer, so the driver waits for 30 or 45 minutes before they get in their truck to go. With Contract Fulfillment all the information is electronically available on handheld devices for all employees.”
The Contract Fulfillment system can be set up to facilitate the delivery drivers’ communication with the customer about the status of the order and enable all facets of the rental company operation to be aware of the status of each contract at all phases and be accessible from any handheld device or computer.
The system is integrated with RFID, and orders can be filled and returned utilizing an RFID reader to provide precision counting and instant validation of rental contracts. If a customer has multiple contracts open at a jobsite, when items are brought back together, they can simply be scanned and Contract Fulfillment will mark each item as returned regardless of which contract it is on.
When contract modifications are made, such as item additions, subtractions, removals and substitutions, employees in the yard can see changes in real time, ensuring equipment is ready when needed.
In the return process, items can be checked in with confirmed or unconfirmed counts indicating complete returns complete returns or additional processing needed. Yard staff can document shortages or damages and make notes that are communicated in real time to counter staff, thus reducing customer wait time and enabling counter staff to recover costs associated with loss or damage.
BRONZE WINNER: 3-in-1 Capability at 100 Feet
Manitou MRT 3255 Privilege Plus rotating telescopic handler
Key Innovation: 3-in-1 capability: telehandler, winch and platform mode. E-Reco attachment recognition matches proper load charts; rotating telescopic handler lifts higher than 100 feet.
The Manitou MRT 3255 Privilige Plus rotating telescopic handler is the first telehandler from Manitou that can lift higher than 100 feet with a maximum lift height of 103 feet, 4 inches, with a lift capacity of 12,100 pounds when equipped with forks and 15,860 pounds when equipped with a winch. It is powered by a Tier 4-certified Mercedes-Benz 231-horsepower diesel engine, which provides 664 foot-pounds of torque. The 3-in-1 machine can work in multiple operating modes: telescopic handler, winch and platform. It has an optional remote control feature that allows the operator to control the machine from outside the cab.
E-Reco, the attachment recognition system and the 3B6 Load Moment System simplifies operation, creating more time for productivity. These features will automatically detect a correctly installed attachment and assign the appropriate load chart and safe operation zones. The hydro-pneumatic suspension system and longitudinal/lateral frame leveling make it possible to handle bulk materials over uneven ground.
To ensure safety in congested jobsite areas, the work zone can be pre-set to control work-zone parameters. Hydraulic-function speed memory allows an operator to store maximum movement speeds of the boomlift, extend, fork tilt, turret rotation and auxiliary hydraulic function, letting the operator program the machine for different working applications.
“The rotating capability of the machine really changes the dynamic of what a telescopic handler is capable of doing,” says Steve Kiskunas, product manager for Manitou telescopic handlers. “It changes the dynamic of picking up materials, driving over to the worksite and unloading the materials. With the rotating machine, you can park the machine in one place, swing over, pick up the materials, swing into a work area and place the materials. It changes how work is organized. When you put a different attachment on that machine, combined with the rotation -- let’s say you put a platform on the machine -- now that machines becomes not just a telescopic handler with a platform on it, but it becomes more or less a larger aerial work platform.
“And likewise with the winch, that third capability; or that third machine that you could possibly replace, you could do the work of a small crane on the jobsite also. So you have an AWP, a telescopic handler and a small crane on the jobsite, all three of those machines can be replaced by the one Manitou with the three different attachments.”
The attachment identification system is, essentially, a radio frequency card attached to the attachment that the machine reads when it’s connected. “However where Manitou has taken it to the next level as it is integrated into the machine’s control management system so when the attachment is connected to the machine, the machines knows automatically which load chart to use based on the position of the machine as far as the outrigger extension or the rotation of the turret,” says Kiskunas. “It identifies the right load chart to use and tells the operator what its capacity is with that attachment.
“So the machine automatically tells the operator, this is the limits of where you can go with that attachment, and this is where you are right now. It gives the operator more information about the weight of the machine and the materials they are picking up and placing and the capability of the machine ahead of getting into any problems.”
Also impressive is the remote control system that can start and stop the machine and take care of any operating functions and control the auxiliary function of the unit. “The remote control is not just for platform use. You can use it with a truss boom, with a winch, or some other attachment where you’re actually at the landing zone and the machine is parked down a ways and you’re controlling the machine and bringing the materials to you where you are standing, which gives you remarkable line of sight and visibility to where the machine is operating and where the load is coming into,” adds Kiskunas.
The ability to pre-set work-zone parameters is an important safety feature Manitou has added.
“The machine has an onboard computer with a display screen,” says Kiskunas. “Viewing the display screen the operator, first of all, can set a restriction on the overall lifting height of the machine. For example, if there are some high power lines nearby or if he’s working inside a building and doesn’t want to put the machine through the roof he can set the lifting height restriction so the machine will never accidentally go beyond the lifting height restrictions to bring damage to the building or cause an accident.
“The operator can also set the rotation restriction for the machine so if it is working on a city street and there’s a telephone pole or power line or building, he can avoid swinging into that obstruction by setting it to not go past a certain degree angle.”
Category Winners
In addition to the top award winners, here are the category winners for the 2015 RER Innovative Product Award.
Compaction Equipment: Atlas Copco LT Series Rammers
Key Innovation: The new rammers are as much as three inches narrower than their predecessors, enabling use in narrow spaces. The rammers also feature a rubber isolator on each side of the handle to absorb vibrations and optimize operator comfort.
Compressors/Air Tools: Doosan Portable Power P185WDO air compressor
Key Innovation: Powered by a Tier 4 Final Doosan D24 engine, the first Doosan Portable Power air compressor to be fitted with a Doosan engine.
Concrete-Working Equipment: Diamond Products, Early Entry Saw
Key Innovation: The saw has five wheels for increased stability and preventing the saw from wobbling during a cut.
Cutting/Drilling Equipment: Boxer 120 Dedicated Trencher
Key Innovation: A walk-behind unit designed as a ride-on with better visibility. Ergonomically designed operator control station with all controls accessible for two-hand operation.
Earthmoving Equipment: Case Construction Equipment 580N EP backhoe
Key Innovation: Lower-horsepower version of Case’s popular 580N backhoe maintains same backhoe lift capacity and breakout force with greater fuel efficiency and a maintenance-free Tier 4 Final engine, requiring no fluids or diesel particulate filter.
Engines/Power Sourcing: Perkins 404F-E22TA Tier 4 Fine engine
Key Innovation: Real-life testing shows 7 percent improvement in fuel consumption from Tier 3. Increased performance allows the 2.2-liter engine to do the work of a 2.9-liter engine in many applications.
Generators: Cummins Power Generation, Tier 4 Final Rental Generator, 275 kW, Model C275D2RE
Key Innovations: Paralleling capability, masterless load demand, dual frequency, multiple voltage selectors.
Lawn & Garden Equipment: Honda HSS1332ATD Snowblower
Key Innovations: DC electric starter, joystick electric chute control, LED integrated headlight, fingertip steering hydrostatic transmission, increased blower diameter.
Light Towers: Generac MLT6
Key Innovations: A three-point stability design that eliminates the rear jack while remaining stable when tested against 65 mph sustained winds. It is the only light tower on the market to include LED trailer lights as a standard option, which can be turned on while the unit is in operation for added safety.
Material Handling: Redesigned JLG telehandlers
Key Innovation: A new cab layout and new control panel reduce complexity and improve information delivery.
Miscellaneous: Makinex Dual Pressure Washer 4000
Key Innovation: The Makinex dual pressure washer combines a rotary cleaner and wand pressure washer in one machine.
Power Tools: Hilti Breaker TE 1000-AVR with wave chisel TE-SP
Key Innovation: The Hilti breaker TE 1000-AVR, when used with the new Wave chisel TE-SP provides rental customers up to a 50 percent increase in demolition performance with the lowest vibration in its class.
Technology Enhancements: United Academy Powered by United Rentals Wallet Card and App
Key Innovations: QR codes that securely link to user training profiles, which are also encrypted; training profiles that are mobile optimized for web viewing but also accessed by Android and iOS mobile apps.
