EC-Oil – on the way to being a necessity

Engströms was founded in 1956 and is today run by the second generation of the Engström family, the brothers Jan-Olow and Per-Eric. The 100-employee strong company carries out civil engineering works over much of Sweden, and has around 130 units, of which about half are track or wheeled excavators of various sizes.

”Just about every excavator from 5 to 25 tons is fitted with tiltrotators from engcon. The machine operators can’t work efficiently without the tiltrotator”, explains Hans Nilsson, Works Manager at Engströms.

Test-driving

The collaboration with engcon has deepened over the years, and has among other matters resulted in Engströms test-driving engcon’s products before they are mass-produced. Engströms have for example test-driven grabs from engcon and more recently the EC-Oil. Hans Nilsson sees advantages in being involved at an early stage.

”Partly as we gain an extra modern tool that we can use in the business. And we also get the opportunity through feedback to influence tool development, so the result becomes as good as it can get”.

He sees the EC-Oil as a ”must-have” tool in the near future - if it isn’t already.

”On service machines such as our wheeled excavators that use a lot of tools, the EC-Oil is superb. ”A lot of time and money can be saved - by being able to quickly change attachments and tools without the driver needing to leave the cab.

”It’s not unusual for clients to ask specifically for a machine with EC-Oil, so they know that the job will proceed quickly and smoothly”.

Saves time

Martin Hagström has been operating his excavator for nearly ten years, the last two for Engströms.

All this time he’s been driving a 2010-model Liebherr 314 with the engcon system, a tiltrotator EC15 and EC-Oil.

”The tiltrotator is an obvious choice for me and I’d feel it would be difficult to work without the EC-Oil. Previously, when hydraulic tools had to be exchanged, the machine had to be depressurised, then run out and manually connect the hydraulic hoses and then restart the machine again. Every change of hydraulic tool easily took five minutes, but with the EC-Oil it can be done in seconds.”

Some days Martin can make up to 50 tool changes, and the engcon hydraulic grab is frequently used.

”It goes without saying that it wouldn’t have worked without the EC-Oil. ”It enables me to save a lot of time”.