Category: Industry News

Auger suffocates delivery driver. Published in: Post-Bulletin (Rochester, MN) Date: 12/27/2006 A delivery driver for All-American Co-op died Tuesday morning on a rural Fillmore County farm when he was suffocated by a truck auger. According to the Fillmore County Sheriff’s Office, Rick Bamlet, 49, of Stewartville, was making a delivery to a farm east of […]

Power-pole plant in high gear so utilities can restore juice Published in: Seattle Times Date: 12/23/2006 By: Benjamin J. Romano CORRECTION: Information in this article, originally published December 23, 2006, was corrected December 26, 2006. A transformer converts electricity to lower voltages, not lower wattages as reported in a previous version of this story. Dec. […]

Spot on: spotting and retrieving scrap metal bins can be made easier with the right truck and the ideal container. Published in: Recycling Today Date: 12/1/2006 By: Taylor, Brian Efficient operations help maintain a profit margin whether scrap metals markets are booming or struggling. For scrap processors, serving their commercial and industrial customers effectively while […]

Holiday cheer is just a call away; Not interested in putting up and taking down your holiday lights this year? This business will do it for you. Published in: Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) Date: 11/29/2006 By: Brian Stensaas Air temperatures might have made it feel like September last week. But Rob Schlosser’s crew affirmed that […]

Altec boosts trade with China: Firm’s president traveled to Beijing, Shanghai on a mission Published in: St. Joseph News-Press (St. Joseph, MO) Date: 11/25/2006 By: Susan Mires Altec’s president and chief executive officer traveled to China on a mission to promote trade. The end result could be more jobs in St. Joseph. “By taking down […]

Multi-Tool Implement Carrier Published in: Pacific Builder and Engineer Date: 11/20/2006 Adding a Street Sweeper, Two-Head Mower and Hooklift Makes the Unimog U500 More Versatile Portland-based Unimog North America demonstrated the versatility of its Unimog U500 during a recent presentation of the multi-tool implement carrier in St. Charles, Ill. The Unimog, sold and serviced through […]

Komatsu plans expansion: Casting, excavator operations will grow Published in: Bangkok Post (Bangkok, Thailand) Date: 11/15/2006 By: Santan Santivimolnat Nov. 15–Komatsu of Japan, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of construction, mining and utility equipment, is investing 1.25 billion baht this year in Thailand with its local distributor Bangkok Motor Works Co, to expand in […]

Buffalo resumes cutting damaged trees: Arborists to guarantee they aren’t savable Published in: Buffalo News Date: 11/2/2006 By: Brian Meyer Buffalo has resumed cutting trees severely damaged by the October storm, but its public works chief gave assurances Wednesday that only trees deemed by arborists to be unsavable will be chopped down. The Common Council […]

Mike Anderson & Matt Burkhart Discuss A10.31: Safety Requirements, Definitions & Specifications for Digger Derricks Published in: Professional Safety Date: 11/1/2006 The newly revised A10.31 standard, Safety Requirements, Definitions and Specifications for Digger Derricks, has been well received within the construction and demolition industries. In fact, many SH&E professionals in those industries have already begun […]

Caretakers of the forests Published in: Daily News (Jacksonville, NC) Date: 10/29/2006 By: Chrissy Vick As a low fog rolled into the middle of the forest, Ricky Adkins pulled out his machete. The forest ranger traipsed through limbs and leaves on his way to the foot of a swamp in search of one special tree […]

Veri-Tek International Corp. to Acquire Assets of Liftking Industries, Inc. Published in: PR Newswire Date: 10/19/2006 WIXOM, Mich., Oct. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Veri-Tek International Corp. (“Verti-Tek” or the “Company”) announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of Liftking Industries, Inc. (“Liftking”), a leading material handling […]

OSHKOSH TRUCK BUYS EQUIPMENT MAKER FOR $3B Published in: The Capital Times (Madison, WI) Date: 10/16/2006 Military and commercial vehicle maker Oshkosh Truck Corp. said today it is buying JLG Industries Inc., a maker of aerial work platforms and booms, for about $3 billion in cash. Oshkosh chairman, president and CEO Robert G. Bohn said […]

Utility crews get heroes’ welcome Published in: Buffalo News (Buffalo, NY) Date: 10/15/2006 By: Stephen T. Watson A caravan of bucket trucks from a Massachusetts power company rolled down Elmwood Avenue on Saturday afternoon, receiving the kind of welcome typically reserved for rock stars and sports heroes. “You guys rock,” shouted a man standing at […]

Con Edison and O&R Crews Heading North to Restore Power to National Grid Customers in Buffalo. Published in: PR Newswire Date: 10/13/2006 Consolidated Edison, Inc. is dispatching 29 crews from its two utilities to assist National Grid, the upstate utility with headquarters in London, England, to help restore electricity to the more than a quarter-of-a-million […]

Electric utilities event a real Power Fest Published in: Columbus Telegram (Columbus, NE) Date: 10/6/2006 By: Julie Blum Safety demonstrations and rides in bucket trucks were just a couple of the activities at Power Fest. The three local electric utilities sponsored the annual event held at Lake North on Thursday to celebrate Public Power Week. […]

Heil Environmental Sells Its Truck Equipment Business. Published in: Dixie Contractor Date: 10/2/2006 Heil Environmental has sold its truck equipment business, consisting of the Heil Truck Equipment Group and Heil South distributorship, to Truck Bodies and Equipment International, Inc., a portfolio company of Kirtland Capital Partners. The sale enables Heil to concentrate all of its […]

FOCUS ON: Augers Published in: Grounds Maintenance Date: 10/1/2006 You need an auger like you need a hole in the ground, which, actually, is quite often if you find yourself digging holes for trees, posts, poles and sprinklers. The following augers are available as attachments to compact pieces of equipment or manual operation and they […]

Climbing School Is the Best Fall Protection.(safety measures for linemen) Published in: Transmission & Distribution World Date: 10/1/2006 By: Chuck Herron As any lineman will tell you, climbing a pole is a unique skill. It’s hard to explain the way it feels the first time you try to climb using hooks (gaffs). In my 38-plus […]

Ingersoll Rand Published in: Underground Construction Date: 10/1/2006 Ingersoll Rand announces the appointment of Larry Silber to president. Utility Equipment. In addition to taking on new responsibility for the Utility Equipment business, Silber maintains his current responsibility for sales to the rental industry’ for the Ingersoll Rand Construction Technologies and Compact Vehicle Technologies sectors. Over […]

All in for aluminum Published in: Trailer/Body Builders Date: 10/1/2006 By: RICK WEBER FOR MANY YEARS, Wilcox Bodies Ltd in Mississauga, Ontario, has been building aluminum mechanics bodies with an all-steel subframe as a one-off manufacturing process for the company’s Canadian customers. When Wilcox took those bodies to shows in the United States, the reaction […]

Grounding Mobile Construction Equipment Published in: EC&M Electrical Construction & Maintenance Date: 10/1/2006 By: Jaclyn Alcantara, Associate Editor As the nation’s power demands have increased over the past few decades, the nature of the hazards posed by overhead transmission and distribution lines has become increasingly complex. And for operators of mobile construction equipment like boom […]

Prepare to Work Safely From Work Platforms Published in: Construction Equipment Date: 10/1/2006 By: Larry Stewart Site assessments, machine inspections, and safety gear are simple keys to avoiding accidents with aerial-work platforms Aerial-work platforms are typically used by people who are trained in the trades — iron workers, welders, masons, etc. The machine is a […]

Has the Transformer Failed? Published in: Transmission & Distribution World Date: 10/1/2006 By: Daniel Desrosiers, Hydro-Quebec IT’S ALL ABOUT POLE-MOUNTED DISTRIBUTION TRANSFORMERS. Like every other utility, line crews at Hydro-Quebec (Montreal, Canada) find reclosing on distribution transformers both potentially dangerous and time consuming. With fuses blown and reclosers open, deciding when to re-fuse a transformer […]

New Manitowoc crane keeps environment in mind: Vegetable oil stands in as hydraulic fluid. Published in: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Date: 9/27/2006 By: Rick Barrett Manitowoc Crane Group is testing a truck-mounted crane that uses vegetable oil in the hydraulic lift system. It’s a first for the crane industry, according to the company, and it’s aimed […]