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Exhibitor Profile : Add-on earners
Digga Europe will use the Executive Hire Show to promote its latest attachments for machines like compact excavators and telehandlers. Nick Johnson reports.
The hire industry should make much greater use of attachments. That is the view of Ed White, the European General Manager for Digga, the Australian company whose name has become closely associated with augers. At this year’s Executive Hire Show, Ed and his team will promote the desirability of not only augers (including both attachments for compact machines and the company’s self-contained one-man post hole borer), but also trencher attachments. The message is that the versatility, and earning power, of machines like compact excavators and telescopic handlers can be quickly enhanced by shrewd use of suitable attachments.
Digga is well placed to advise on the selection and use of such attachments. Chairman Steve Wright in Australia formed the high-profile company in 1981. He is now more focused on new product research and development, and his wife, Suzie, is Managing Director and CEO. Having pioneered pendulum drilling in Australia, Digga now makes a wide range of attachments in its highly automated factories in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. The Wrights started exporting to Europe in 1998 and they set up a wholly owned subsidiary company in this country four years ago. Its base here moved to Andover in July 2007 and Ed White joined the company the following month. Having used Digga products during his previous employment as Plant Manager with the Aspin Group, he was a good choice for the appointment. His practical knowledge of using augers and other attachments is now available to hire companies wanting to add these products to their fleets.
Equipped with its own fabrication and painting facility at Andover, Digga Europe makes auger flights up to 1.7m in diameter and can adapt attachments to meet particular customer requirements. The auger flights are fitted with the Padloc tooth locking system and, for arduous work, there are Digga-branded carbide tips. All augers utilise the company’s own design of in-house manufactured drive units which include Standard, Light Duty (more speed) and Heavy Duty (more power) models.
Digga augers can be matched to excavators from 750kg ‘micros’ to machines weighing 50 tonnes. A particular feature is the manufacturer’s patented auger swing control system. Called SCS, this integrated technology, which can be retrofitted to existing auger drives, acts independently of the excavator’s hydraulics to dampen the fore/aft and side-to-side pendulum motion of the attachment. As an option to mounting augers on excavators, plant hirers can utilise compact tracked loaders. Digga has recently been demonstrating the use of an auger on a Wacker Neuson 1101 tracked loader and Ed White says this type of carrier provides a very stable platform that can easily traverse rough terrain to reach the operating area.
Of particular interest to tool and small equipment hire companies is Digga’s self-contained one-man post hole borer. Powered by a 9hp Honda engine, this small size wheeled unit can be quickly folded up for easy storage and transportation. Designed to carry an A1 Digga auger, the well-balanced machine has forward and reverse rotation and an anti-kick back mechanism.
Ed White contends that more plant hire companies should consider supplying trencher attachments on their mini excavators. Such an implement can excavate a narrow trench much more productively than a bucket. There is also a good case for using trencher attachments on telescopic handlers - a combination that is now proving more popular in agriculture for renewing field drains.
At a time when many telehandlers in hire fleets are suffering reduced utilisation due to the downturn in house construction, the prospect of fitting a Digga Bigfoot or Hydrive trencher attachment and winning new business ought to be very attractive. Attachments can be a cost-effective way forward and Digga, with its bold claim of “We can fit anything onto anything”, is well placed to assist. •
01264 351365
www.digga.com
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