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Gallery: Plantworx Innovation Award Winners 2015

Some of the most ground-breaking construction and plant equipment products of the past year have been recognised with Innovation Awards ahead of the Plantworx working construction exhibition to be held in Leicestershire, UK, in June.

Organisers say we are seeing a re-emergence of true innovation across a wide range of products and technologies after a long period of enforced focus on emissions and fuel compliance.

As a result the 2015 winners include a no-card-no-drive access platform system, glow-in-the-dark safety wear and an excavator that can switch from diesel to electric to suit the working environment.

“The legislation-driven need to reduce emissions and fuel consumption to comply with EU Stage IV regulations tested the innovation muscles of the construction equipment industry,” the Plantworx organisers write. “And some of the results – the development of hybrid-powered excavators, for example – have advanced the industry’s environmental cause rather more quickly than anyone had previously imagined possible.

“Yet, with OEM research and development budgets targeted almost exclusively towards the sole aim of making equipment cleaner and greener, wider ‘above-the-bonnet’ innovation has been stymied for a number of years,” they continue. “As a result, non-engine-related developments in the field of construction plant and equipment have generally been in the form of small, incremental changes and improvements: a new in-cab display here; a new shape of engine hood there.”

However, with Stage IV regulations largely satisfied and the push towards Stage V still several years away, PlantworX saw a surge in “true innovation” and more diversity in the entries submitted for consideration in the 2015 awards program.

“While some of the entries remain engine-related,” Plantworx says, “the way in which those engines operate or are being harnessed is totally new and unprecedented.”

The judging panel, which was chosen to be able to assess the entries from different perspectives, was comprised of: Speedy Services innovation and customer experience director Wendy Bates; The Builders’ Conference trade association chief executive Neil Edwards; Fabrications by Design’s Rich Holt; Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) director Kevin Minton; and AW Demolition owner/operator Austin Wilkinson.

See the gallery above for all the winners.

 

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Plantworx Innovation Awards 2015 winners. Back row (l-r) Western Global’s Bradley Ireland; Worsley Plant’s Sean Heron; JCB’s Romy Tilbury; and Wacker Neuson’s Richard Harrison. Front row (l-r); Datatag’s Kevin Howells; Elite-GSS’s Kris Heard; Marubeni Komatsu’s Ed Prosser and Kaz Kondo; and IPAF’s Lynn Price.

 

 

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