Combilift celebrates 25 years of innovation
Published: 19 October, 2023
In 1998 Combilift originally made history with its world-first multidirectional C4000 3-wheel, all-wheel drive forklift. Last month, the company celebrated its 25th Anniversary at its headquarters in Monaghan, Ireland with the launch of its latest products. PWE reports
Celebrating 25 years in business, Combilift is acknowledged by many in the industry, as being at the forefront of innovation in the global material handling sector with its wide range of customised products. At its recent Anniversary celebrations at its headquarters in Monaghan, Ireland, the company launched a range of new products.
Speaking at Combilift’s 25th Anniversary event, Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys TD said: “Over the past 25 years, Combilift has made a very important impact to the Irish economy. Combilift is a visionary company in every sense and I’m delighted that the Irish government, through Enterprise Ireland, has supported Combilift through its incredible 25-year journey.”
Martin McVicar – Managing Director of Combilift, added: “We have a track record of innovation at Combilift. We invest 7% of our revenue annually in R&D and today is the culmination of many years’ hard work. We are delighted to be continuing this tradition of innovation 25 years on. Now employing over 800 people in Monaghan and 200 people in other locations across the world, the success of Combilift is testament to our people, our customers and our supporting dealers around the world. We are looking forward to the next 25 years at Combilift.”
The 25th Anniversary event was a positive celebration of how far the company has come in those 25 years and an acknowledgement of the contributions the company has made to the material handlings sector across the world.
Combi-LC
The first major launch during the event announced the company’s move into the offshore wind sector with a new product designed to meet the load handling demands of largescale offshore wind manufacturers.
As the green energy sector sees a surge in larger wind turbine components, including towers and blades, Combilift joined forces with industry leaders to engineer safe, stable, efficient, lifting and storage solutions across its supply chain.
The Combi-LC, designed at Combilift’s HQ and Manufacturing plant in Ireland, in collaboration with Siemens Gamesa, allows for the movement of wind turbine blades and towers – some as long as 115m and weighing in at around 70t, through production stages and on to storage locations – which can sometimes be as far as 5km apart
The concept of bespoke Load Carriers [patent pending design] is based on two fully customisable remote-control units with low-level chassis beds that can work in tandem master and slave operation, with dimensions and wheel configurations that vary according to load type and weight.
Siemens Gamesa, one of the world’s largest offshore wind suppliers, has become the first company to leverage the new technology by signing a multi-million order for a number of the bespoke Load Carriers, and Combilift is in active discussions with other offshore wind companies with similar demands.
Michael Woods, Head of Offshore Equipment Operations at Siemens Gamesa said: “Seeing the new LC Blade mover in the flesh is impressive, it is fantastic to see it come from design to fruition, the manoeuvrability and functionality looks great, we can’t wait to see it onsite moving blades.”
Combilift expects to generate over €50m in revenue per year in this market segment by 2026. To highlight the company’s move into the offshore wind sector, Josh Moffett, Heavy Equipment Manager at Combilift, explained: “We are thrilled to have launched this new product – The Combi-LC, and we hope it will act as a gateway for us to further progress within our venture into the wind energy sector. The scale of offshore wind projects around the world leads to a very unique set of challenges, one of which being the ability to transport the very large components that make up a wind turbine. We recognised this and used our expertise in load handling to develop a solution to support those in the industry. The product is specifically made to order and therefore can be uniquely customised to fit specific applications.”
Additionally, Combilift launched two other new products - the Combi-AGT, and Combi-Connect
Combi-AGT
The Combi-AGT is a 4-wheel electric stand-on model, which is the world’s first autonomous dual operational sideloader for long loads. The Combi-AGT harnesses the very latest smart technology to meet customer demands for driverless sideloader capability. These were driven in part by safety to eliminate the presence of personnel in aisles, consistency in handling procedures and to maximise order fulfilment, while also having a backup manual mode in case of power outages or internet disruptions.
Combilift’s automation team has spent 3 years liaising with specialist steel suppliers to identify the best specifications for the Combi-AGT. The new model, with a lift capacity of 5000kg/11,000lbs and various lift heights, addresses the requirements of steel service centres and the metal industries, which typically handle long loads. Combilift worked in tandem with IMR (Irish Manufacturing Research) during the development process to enable seamless integration with multiple client warehouse management systems.
Its design is based on the electric manually operated Combi-GTE model which has long been a very popular choice for service centres due to its ability to work efficiently in rail guided narrow aisles. The first Combi-AGT unit was supplied to Kansas based Steel and Pipe Supply 18 months ago, and since then Combilift have collaborated with a number of leading metal service centres across North America during the development process.
The laser-based sensors, fitted at various positions on the chassis, constitute an anti-collision safety system, as required by the American National Standards Institute. If the machine senses an obstacle or pedestrian that has entered its path, it automatically slows down and will, if necessary, stop in cases of emergency, it will then continue to drive automatically when the obstacle has cleared its safety sensor area. The enhanced adaptive safety system enables the size of the obstacle detection fields to increase or decrease as per the steer angle and speed of the truck
The natural feature navigation system is superior to traditional methods of truck navigation based on wire guidance or artificial landmarks such as reflectors. Instead, it uses the naturally occurring features in a warehouse – walls, racking and columns for example, avoiding the need to add to or change the warehouse infrastructure.
Its newly developed load dimension detection system (patent pending) operates by performing a laser scan of the load to check that its length matches the task sent to the machine. Similarly, when unloading, it checks that the rack in front has sufficient free space to accept the load.
Combilift CEO and Co-founder Martin McVicar said: “We have deliberately not rushed into incorporating autonomous products into our portfolio. As with any new launch we have carried out extensive field tests to make sure it is fit for purpose by liaising with a number of leading customers in the metal service industry during the product development stage. We are fortunate to have a very motivated group within our autonomous team of software and mechatronics engineers who are committed to scaling this business unit. The Combi-AGT signals a new milestone in product development with further expansion of our autonomous range in the pipeline.” In 1998 Combilift originally made history with its world-first multidirectional C4000 3-wheel, all-wheel drive forklift. 25 years on the company is still challenging the market and the Combi-AGT seems to be no exception
Combi-Connect
The third product launched at the 25th Anniversary event was Combi-Connect. It is a telematic software product that provides its customers with greater levels of insight into fleet management and utilisation, providing real-time data on fleet performance, including location tracking, usage analytics, and maintenance alerts. With this invaluable information at their fingertips, businesses can optimise operations.
Based on a subscription model, Combi-Connect offers fully transparent data analytics enabling not only dealers, but the customers themselves, to manage and make informed decisions.
For further information please visit: www.combilift.com
https://www.linkedin.com/company/combilift-ltd/
