SED 2000 is being held in a field in the heart of England, near Milton Keynes, from 6 to 8 June.

Highlights include a new crawler from NCK, a display from Kato Cranes (UK) ranging from spider-like mini-crawlers, through yard and city cranes to a truck-mounted tower crane. It could be the UK’s finest plant show yet. It is a little later in the year than usual, so with a bit of luck the rain may hold off. Otherwise it could be a mudbath. Here’s a roundup of what’s on offer – whatever the weather.

Autoguide Equipment F 526A

Equipment for drilling and erecting telegraph poles and fence posts is on show, including a Mercedes Benz Unimog with Palfinger PK 9001 crane and Autoguide auger equipment.

Ainscough Group R 568

The rental company’s new equipment includes a J&R 500t capacity hydraulic modular jacking system and a 25t Kato city crane specially liveried in silver and blue to commemorate the Group’s silver jubilee. Ainscough takes delivery of a new Liebherr LTM 1030/2 at the show and is displaying the old with the new by having its first crane on the stand, a Coles Mark 1. Ainscough is also promoting its new online hire service at www.e4lift.com Claimed as a world first, customers will be able to place orders, ask for site visits, make enquiries and view management reports.

Atlas Hydraulic Loaders S 514

Atlas launches the 95.1, a 9.5tm loader crane designed for speed, flexibility and reliability, and is described by Atlas as a grab loading revolution.

Cormach O 314

Truck loaders displayed include the new 25500 which is making its UK debut.

Cranes Today N 288

The Cranes Today bus (big, red, open-topped – you can’t miss it) will be in the heart of the cranes and access village, between the stands of Maxxiom and our friends Demag. Drop by any time, meet the team and sink a pint with us.

European Cranes O 27C

The UK distributor for Terex mobile cranes is introducing the new ATT 900, rated at 80t with 53m of full power main boom. Evolutions of the PPM two axle Quadral ATs also make their UK debut.

Fassi (UK) R 560

Fassi promises that at least one of its truck loaders on show will be new to the UK market.

Grove Crane O 25C

Making their UK debut are the GMK 5100 and the GMK 5180 all-terrain cranes, rated at 100t and 180t respectively. See pp42-43 for details.

EH Hassell/Sennebogen P 337

SED 1999 effectively launched EH Hassell’s UK and Eire distribution agreement with Sennebogen. Since that time, it has sold six of the German company’s crawler cranes, with buyers including Mowlem, McNicholas and Weldex. This year EH Hassell is showing a 50t Sennebogen 640HD lattice boom crawler and a 30t-rated 630R-HD telescopic crawler.

Hewden Stuart A 327

In addition to the display of equipment from Hewden’s hire fleet, new attractions for 2000 include the Hewden Interactive Zone and Health & Safety Theatre. There’s also the opportunity to test your skills with the remote control model plant challenge.

HM Group/Hitachi J 139/140

SED is the first show for HM since the management buyout at the beginning of the year. HM is UK distributor for Hitachi cranes, as well as Fiat-Hitachi construction equipment and Merlo telehandlers.

Kato Cranes (UK) O 12C

As far as cranes are concerned, Kato’s corner is likely to prove the most interesting site of the show. With its biggest ever SED stand, Kato Cranes (UK) is showing the 10t CR 100 and 25t CR 250 Kato city cranes as well as a pair of Kato truck cranes, the NK 250 EV and NK 350 EV. Also on show are a Marchetti Trio from Italy and Marchetti’s new 70t AT, the MG 70.4. Another brand new product on this stand is the Kato mini crawler, rated at around 8t. Also from Japan, are the even smaller Maeda mini crawlers, rated at 1t, 3t and 4t. As well as Kato, Maeda and Marchetti, Kato Cranes (UK) is the distributor for Shuttlelift and Spierings products. New to the UK is the Spierings truck-mounted self-erecting tower crane, the SK 598-AT5, with a 30m tower and a 48m outreach. The display is completed with a Shuttlelift 5550 Carrydeck industrial crane.

Kato’s 10t city crane, the CR 100

Kobelco L 412C

The Kobelco 7200 crawler crane features an innovative boom design that allows lifting performance to be matched to the job at hand. A choice of four booms, heavy-duty, light-duty, long and luffing tower, effectively combines several machines in one, says the manufacturer.

Liebherr B,P & O 1C, 320, 336

Liebherr GB’s biggest ever SED presence includes a first UK viewing of the 100t-rated LTM 1100/2. Liebherr reports that it has taken many orders in the UK for this machine, but UK customers are not likely to see their machines much before the end of the year. Five other mobile cranes are displayed, from the LTM 1030/2 up to the 300t capacity LTM 1300/1. Leibherr’s stand is dominated by an 180 EC-B 10 tower crane, rigged to 24m mast height with a 30m length jib.

Liebherr’s new 100t LTM 1100/2 is on show

Mannesmann Dematic O 313C

A first UK showing of the five axle 100t-rated AC 100 all-terrain is promised. It will be painted in Ainscough’s colours.

Masol Hydraulics (Ireland) L 559

Masol Hydraulics (Ireland) is launching the Italian built Mantis range of self-erecting tower cranes onto the UK market after intensive market research into why the market has proved resistant to self-erectors. The Mantis range comprises four models with jibs ranging from 18m to 35m and lifting capacity up to 4t. Masol began promoting the product in Ireland in January 1999 and since then has taken orders for more than 30 cranes. Sales have been mostly to end-users. Irish contractors, unlike in the UK, still retain at least some plant. However Masol believes that self-erectors could yet find a home in the UK rental market as an alternative to telehandlers, which have become so widespread in the past couple of years that hire rates have plummeted, making them a less attractive business for rental fleet owners.

NCK Cranes P 347

NCK has struggled in recent years, and little has been heard since its 1997 takeover by Staffordshire Public Works. But it is making a minor revival with its new 90t Astra HC90 crawler crane which is receiving good reports from those who have seen it. At SED we will all get to judge. Weldex has the first unit, and Initial GWS has the second and is due to take delivery of the third unit. Others are likely to follow their lead.

Palfinger/TH White P 332

Palfinger distributor TH White is showing an Epsilon E93 grabbing crane fitted with the latest stand-up controls. Also on display are a PK 7501 and a PK 9501, as well as a Crayler.

PM Cranes M 563

PM is exhibiting a selection of cranes including the PM 12S, suitable for builders merchants and utilities, and the PM 34 twin linkage crane suitable for movement of machinery, portable buildings and containers.

Potain UK J 512

Potain appears to be on course this year to surpass its 1999 performance in the UK, when it sold about 15 cranes. In the first quarter of this year it sold seven cranes, including five luffers. Eire is also proving a particularly buoyant market, Potain says. On show at SED are two products that have yet to take off in the UK, the new Potain PC 10 portable crane and a self-erecting tower crane.

R-B International P 343

Crawler manufacturer R-B reports that it is getting lots of enquiries, but firm orders are harder to sign. Buyers of its CH 135 (135t) include Weldex, which took two last year, and Van Seumeren of the Netherlands. The Dutch are particularly good customers for R-B, with Zwagerman now running nearly 20 R-B crawlers, and three CH 50s going to an undisclosed Dutch customer recently. R-B appears to lose out on orders by not having a machine between its 70t and 100t models, an issue that the company is now looking to rectify. At SED the company is exhibiting a new luffing fly jib variant of its top of the range CH 135, with maximum luffing fly combination of 60m of main boom and 48m of fly jib. Maximum capacity of the luffing fly jib is 60t. The CH 135 is also available in standard specification for both lifting and duty-cycle work. As seems almost compulsory for crawler cranes at plant shows this year, the luffing CH 135 will be exhibited at SED in Weldex’s colours. R-B has also taken five orders for this machine from Zwagerman.

Sandhurst Manufacturing F 35

Company (SMC)

SMC has sold its Starlifter compact crawler cranes to civil engineering contractors and has now begun to get its machines into rental fleets, firstly with Ainscough, and now GE Capital has ordered one 3t and two 8t units. SMC’s next step is to start exporting and the company is now looking for distributors overseas.

Tadano Faun O 26C

Tadano Faun is exhibiting two of its newest cranes, namely the compact Crevo 200 city crane and ATF 60-4 all-terrain crane. Weighing less than 20t, the Crevo has a pick-and-carry capacity of 6.7t. A six section boom, with off-set fly extended, stretches to 31.2m. Also on show are the ATF 30-2 and ATF 50-3.

Vanson Cranes P341

Raimondi distributor Vanson Cranes says it is featuring a luffing tower crane and the recently introduced MC12 micro-tower crane. “Both products have incorporated some innovative technology to reduce maintenance costs while reducing erection and dismantling times,” Vanson says.

Waterland Trading P 427

A selection of all-terrain cranes from the Netherlands are exhibited by this trading company.