Rototilt doubles its production capacity

With the expansion of the plant in Vindeln, Sweden, and the expansion of its local sales and service network, Rototilt is setting the course for a stable positive market development.

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Rototilt is the world's leading manufacturer of safe and effective tiltrotators. In 1986, the Swedish company launched the system, which turns excavators into multi-flexible carrier machines and significantly increases their productivity. Today tiltrotators are available for hydraulic excavators from 1.5 to 40 metric tons, so Rototilt offers the widest range in this segment.

With the RPS positioning solution, the intelligent control system ICS or the improved worm gear, Rototilt always brings features to the market that extend the service life of the tiltrotators and further increase the efficiency of the carrier. The company's quest for greater security has been well-received in May 2019. The SecureLock quick coupler security system was awarded the German Innovation Award at a Gala at the Berlin Museum of Technology. "Our safety concept aims to prevent dangers from falling and/or swinging attachments. This distinguishes Rototilt from systems that focus only on preventing falling off, but ignore the dangers of swinging," explains Wolfgang Vogl, Managing Director of Rototilt GmbH, explaining the uniqueness of the concept and underlining why this approach is so important: "Even a swinging attachment can cause an accident with personal injury – in the worst case with a fatal outcome."

Delivery times are reduced

Rototilt Group AB has responded to the increased demand in Europe and North America for years with the largest construction project in the company's history. As it became apparent that production in Vindeln, which employs 200 people, would reach its limits by 2021 at the latest, the existing plant is currently being expanded by 3,300 m2. This will be completed in spring 2020, after which much more space will be available for machinery. In the course of the redesign, processes for machining, painting and assembly are also optimized and automated. "The plant will double its production capacity," says Vogl, underlining the scope of the construction work. It is particularly pleasing for customers that delivery times can be further reduced due to the new capacities.

In Germany, customers are mainly supplied from the road building, landscaping, civil and underground engineering sectors by a comprehensive dealer network with tiltrotators, hydraulic quick couplers and attachments. Rototilt GmbH coordinates sales and service from its Regensburg location. Following successful growth in previous years, Rototilt GmbH was again able to grow in the double-digit range in 2019. This positive business development also has an impact on staffing levels. In the past two years, Rototilt Germany has more than doubled its workforce from five to eleven. In the area of sales, the areas of application could be optimised. The sales representatives now look after smaller regions, are closer to the customer and thus more present on the market.

Improved service

Technical support has even tripled. "Through these settings, we pursue our goal of providing our dealers and customers with further improved service and responsiveness," says Vogl. In the course of the restructuring, for example, a clear substitute system for holiday periods was established. "Now we can ensure that there is always a contact person available who can provide assistance and provide professional advice," the managing director says. Even the warehouse, which is located in Regensburg, is now so well organized that in most cases the required spare parts are delivered to the customer as early as the next day. Even a shipment from the central warehouse in Sweden to Germany could be realized several times within 24 hours, unless it was a very large component.

2% of the excavators sold in Germany are currently equipped with a tiltrotators. This is significantly less than in Sweden, the mother country of hydraulic attachments, where tiltrotators are virtually standard equipment of an excavator. Wolfgang Vogl, however, sees enormous potential in Germany in the medium to long term: "I think that we will achieve a level of equipment of 20 to 30% for the new machines."

New and optimized products

In 2019, in addition to the new R9, Rototilt launched four advanced tiltrotators with the R4, R5, R6 and R8 models. They have a new end face sensor that further improves positioning using the existing RPS feature. The optimized worm gears of the new versions of the R5, R6 and R8 ensure a smoother run and increased lifetime. There is also something new about attachments: since September, the grading beam is available, which simplifies work on roads and larger areas. It is available in different widths. Asphalt cutters are also available since autumn. They are ideal for cable and pipe laying work. The models are designed for the most accurate cutting to avoid high additional costs and wasting resources due to unnecessarily removed asphalt. Furthermore, the lightweight design allows precise cutting on lawns. "We see growth potential in the attachment segment and want to further expand our range of products," says Vogl, awakening curiosity about new products that will follow in 2020. In general, Rototilt is always a specific attachment adapted to tiltrotators such as buckets, compactors, screening buckets, grapples and, more recently, grading beams and asphalt cutters.