Missed Connections?
By Tudor Van Hampton
Spring 2008
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Tudor Van Hampton
'Smart' hydraulic couplers are slowly arriving. |
Vendors that exhibit at a megashow like the triennial Bauma often get lost in the crowd. But a little, family-owned Swedish company called OilQuick AB managed to attract hoards of onlookers at the Munich event last April by demonstrating a hydraulic coupling device that seemed almost to do the impossible.
Original-equipment manufacturers, such as Bobcat Co. and Caterpillar Inc., make quick-couplers for skid steers, telehandlers and other compact machines. But they usually focus on speeding up the mechanical linkage between the machine and the tool so operators can safely and speedily grab implements from the cab. Few systems also hook up hydraulics automatically for tools needing extra power, often defeating the purpose of the quick-coupler.
OilQuick takes it a step further with a patented contact and radio sensor that "reads" the tool and "tells" the machine how much power to send it. The machine does all the work, leaving the operator in the cab's safety and comfort.
The company, which sells mostly in Europe, demonstrated it on a hydraulic excavator, whose operator made 3,100 tool changes during the seven-day show. Contractors and OEMs alike took notice. "They had almost more people in their booth than any other booth," says Brian Rauch, who leads worldwide engineering for John Deere's construction and forestry division.
Cool yet costly tools—like OilQuick—are often slow to arrive. But tighter jobsites may make it more appealing. "It is something that is going to happen here in five to 10 years," says Mark Ramun, national sales manager for Jewell Paladin, a demolition upfitter. Costs are significant, four or five times a tool's usual $8,000 to $10,000. "It's going to require the North American market to change the way it does business," Ramun says. "They'll eventually make it into the U.S. It'll just take some time."
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