Elebia Deutschland GmbH, the German division of the Barcelona, Spain-based automatic hook manufacturer, has marked its first year with a landmark order from construction industry trade association BG Bau.
BG Bau (Berufsgenossenschaft der Bauwirtschaft) will take delivery of an Elebia evo5 hook equipped with a magnet that both attracts and positions slings and other rigging gear. The 5t capacity hook is a top of the range model, which comes with a new remote control system called the eMax and a load cell.
This is the first time that Elebia Deutschland, which was founded on 1st January 2015 to join the Industrievertretungen Bauer portfolio of lifting equipment suppliers, has supplied equipment to the authority and Christian Bauer, the owner of the business, was keen to point out the significance of the order.
“The only barrier that we must try to overcome is to get the hooks better known in Germany,” he said. “The Elebia range offers clear productivity and safety advantages; we just need to raise its profile. The BG Bau order is a hugely significant milestone in the uptake of the automatic hook range given the increased visibility it will generate.”
Bauer explained that BG Bau would use the hook with an overhead crane for training purposes, where it will demonstrate to students the advantages of eliminating the need to work at height when rigging loads with the innovative hook. The evo5 will feature in a variety of training courses in Nürnberg, the largest facility operated by the German institution for statutory accident insurance and prevention for the construction industry.
Demonstrations are crucial to the wider education process surrounding the automatic hook range, with productivity advantages clearest in a physical rigging application. In fact, Bauer said one such demo on a construction project stimulated BG Bau’s interest in the product.
He explained: “I was running a demo with the evo5 at a construction site nearby, when someone from BG Bau visited to carry out an inspection. It is common for the organisation to carry out unscheduled inspections on sites where cranes are in use so nobody was expecting them, but it resulted in a request to give a demonstration at the Nürnberg facility, which led to the order.”
Eight years ago, Elebia was awarded a patent for the product, which was introduced to the market two years later as a failsafe, 5t capacity hook (the e5) that was able to remotely engage and release loads. In 2010, the e10 was launched before second generation versions followed (the evo5 and evo10) two years later and a evo20 was later unveiled.
The evo5 hook was chosen by BG Bau based on the size and capacity of the overhead crane at the Nürnberg training facility.
