JLG, Kubota Tractor and Skyjack Top RER’s Latest Innovative Product Awards
JLG’s 670SJ self-leveling chassis boom lift, Kubota Tractor’s U10-5 minimal tail swing compact excavator, and Skyjack’s XStep took the gold, silver and bronze awards in RER’s annual Innovative Product Award. For JLG, it was the second time in three years to win the gold award, having last won with the DaVinci AE1932 all-electric scissor lift two years ago.
This year, JLG’s self-leveling chassis boom lift is engineered to automatically adapt to terrain on slopes up to 10 degrees in any direction, while driving with full functionality at its full 67-foot platform height. In an industry where operators often have to adapt the terrain to make it possible for a mobile elevating work platform to be able to function, JLG has created a machine that adapts itself to the terrain.
The silver award went to Kubota Tractor for its U10-5 minimal tail swing excavator, a light compact excavator in the less-than-one-ton range designed to work in very tight spaces with a .6 of an inch overhang. The 2 foot, six inch width can expand to 3 feet, 3 inches for enhanced stability.
The bronze award goes to Skyjack for its XStep, a 19-inch enclosed space that latches securely onto the midrails of a 15-foot or 19-foot scissor lift to safely enable an operator to step up for additional reach rather than use unsafe methods such as standing on the midrails or top guard rails or standing unsecured on scaffold planks.
The winning products were voted upon by a panel of judges from the rental industry.
JLG also was a winner in the Material Handling category with its rotating telehandler and shared the Technology Enhancement award with Trackunit’s Kin. The complete list of category winner are:
Compressors/Air Tools: Apeiron Energy’s Aquaculture Aeration System
Computer Software: Point of Rentals’ Public API
Earthmoving: Kubota Tractor’s U10-5 minimal tail swing excavator (Also Silver Winner)
Engines/Power Sourcing: Apeiron Energy’s Power Cube
Lifts: JLG’s 670SJ Self-Leveling Chassis Boom Lift (also Gold Winner)
Material Handling: JLG’s Rotating Telehandlers
Miscellaneous: DryAir Manufacturing Co.’s 1800 Hydro Heat Pro
Technology Enhancements: Trackunit’s Kin and JLG’s Next Generation Augmented Reality App
A more indepth look at the award winners will be presented in RER’s February magazine as well as here on the website in the coming weeks.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.