One new plant, 10 new products, 65 years

While many major manufacturers have, over the past two decades, built ranges encompassing crawlers, wheeled mobiles and tower cranes, Sennebogen has taken a slightly different approach.

The company’s founder, Erich Sennebogen Sr. made his first foray into series production of lifting and handling machines with the S500 and S600 manure handlers. Since then, the company has in large part built its business on finding new markets for its mobile lifting and handling equipment.

At the heart of its range are broad categories, like construction cranes and general purpose material handlers. But finding new niches, or new ways to work within existing sectors, remains a key part of its business.

At the company’s 65th anniversary celebrations, three very different product launches in the company’s material handling ‘Green Line’ demonstrated this approach. The first shown was the SLC4000E ladle cleaner. Sennebogen already has material handling equipment designed for handling scrap at steel mills; the SLC4000E is essentially a chisel or hammer mounted on a hydraulic boom, designed to break up slag crusted into ladles. It can work for up to ten minutes at a time with the point of the machine facing temperatures of up to 1,000°C. Sennebogen believes it is the only company to make a machine like this entirely in-house.

The 817E ‘Waste Beetle’, presented next, represents a different type of innovation. The company is well-established in the waste and recycling sector.  This machine is its smallest yet, designed to be compact and agile while able to deal with dust, heat, and continuous loading.

At the other end of the scale, the company recently built its biggest balance material handler, the Sennebogen 8400. The first of these machines was delivered to the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas. After being fully assembled and tested in Straubing, it was disassembled and transported by barge along almost the full length of the Danube.

The company also presented new cranes in its 825 line of material handling all rounders, the 825E (the 825A was launched in 1995); and two more port cranes to join the 8400, the 9300 harbour mobile, and the 870E port material handler.

The other side of the Sennebogen business from the Green Line is its Crane Line, consisting of both construction cranes and duty cycle equipment. The company had four launches here.

Of most interest to the hire industry will likely be the 1100e crawler. While many crawler sellers have begun to to see customers moving to telescopic booms below 70t, this 50t lattice boom crane demonstrates Sennebogen’s commitment to this crane type.

The company also showed two new telecrawlers, the 16t 613E and the 30t 633E. The former has a new 2.53m wide undercarriage, which can be transported without permits. 

The latter, as the GHC30, is sold and supported in the US by partner Manitowoc Grove, and its development was prompted initially by US demand. Sennebogen now produces five machines for Grove, ranging from 30USt (33t) to 130USt (120t).

Erich Sennebogen Jr. explained that the more compact 633E/GHC30  machine was ideal for smaller operations. While the machine was first developed at Grove’s request, Sennebogen said there was ‘absolutely’ a market for it in Europe.

He said: “There are always market segments [for different telecrawler sizes] around the world. Sometimes the market is bigger on that side or this, but it makes sense to distribute around the world.”

Sennebogen described the long term commitment to the agreement and aftersales support. “It’s a good synergy. We are not presented in the US with cranes, so it’s good for us; and they have their home market with that machine.

“The telecrawlers are getting more and more popular, with more and more interesting machines. People are seeing the advantages.”

Sennebogen discussed how the company manages its wide portfolio. While lots of ideas were, he says, the result of internal development, their philosophy is also to be driven by the market. In recent years, focus has been on engine emissions, first on Tier 4, and now on Tier 5.  While this has been a challenge for all manufacturers, the company demonstrated in Straubing its ability to continue to identify and respond to new customers needs.