Merdrignac looks to future with Genie lifts
15 February 2018
Fabien Tuduri, manager SNM Lift (left), and Philippe Merdrignac, managing director Merdrignac, with the hybrid Genie Z-60/37 FE boom at Merdrignac’s headquarters in Le Mans, Sarthe.
Adding to its fleet of 100 mobile cranes and work platforms, France-based Merdrignac Levage Développement (MLD) took delivery of its first Genie 20m hybrid Z-60/37 FE and electric Z-33/18 articulating boom lifts in January.
Both machines were provided by authorised Genie distributor and service and parts provider, SNM Lift.
“At a time when views on emissions and noise levels are evolving rapidly, and jobsite standards are getting stricter, versatility, productivity, and reduced operating costs are also key factors,” said MLD managing director, Philippe Merdrignac.
Merdrignac continued, “Over the past few years, we have seen a distinct change in customers’ attitudes. In addition to an increase in demand for reduced emissions, noise levels are a big issue. Today, the trend is particularly present among larger companies in the industrial and general construction sectors. With this in mind, we are expecting the hybrid GenieZ-60/37 FE boom to gain popularity rapidly for outdoor and indoor industrial and construction applications, as well as renovation and maintenance tasks.”
The Genie Z-60/37 FE boom lift features two modes of operation that are interchangeable at the click of a switch. In All-Electric mode, it can provide a full shift of operation on a single battery charge. Used in Hybrid mode, it provides more than a week of run time with a single tank of diesel to perform extremely efficiently in rough terrain conditions. In hybrid mode, the machine uses its environmentally friendly Stage IIIB/Tier 4F engine-powered generator to maintain the state of charge of the batteries. As a true hybrid machine, when braking or descending inclines, the Genie Z-60/37 FE boom lift uses regenerative braking to recover energy that is in turn used to recharge its batteries.
When asked if this new generation of Genie booms will change the way MLD manages its fleet, Merdrignac responded, “It’s a definite ‘yes.’ To be quite honest, we had been considering the pros and cons of electric and hybrid technologies quite some time before purchasing our new Genie Z-60/37 FE and Z-33/18 booms. We are already planning to introduce more of this type of technology to our access, lifting and transport fleets in the near future.”
