EPSILON service team in endurance test at -31°C

Whether it’s a rare replacement part or an inquiry regarding the execution of a special platform: When partners around the globe have any technical questions, the EPSILON service team is always available to help.
In addition to providing support via phone and email, the team also defines the maintenance standards and organizes the service training for dealerships worldwide.

Off to the far north

Most recently, the team was sent far up into the European north – to Finland – for a training trip.
Due to the intensive work and extreme environmental influences in Europe’s most heavily forested country (76% of the land surface is covered with forest), the maintenance conditions for these specific requirements were going to be discussed and demonstrated with the local partners. After all, to manage the vast, usually deserted Finnish forest areas profitably, the transport trucks – with a total weight of up to 76 tons – are not the only thing that is nearly twice as heavy as elsewhere. The forestry cranes also see above-average use with their 2-shift operation six days a week. This is compounded by the long and cold winters in Finland with their extreme temperatures that place particularly high demands on people and technology.

-31°C. It leaves one breathless. Time for the service team!

During the current round trip, the service team received an especially heavy dose of this experience. In what was the coldest week of the winter up to then, the temperatures dropped to a chilling -31°C. Packed into special thermal suits, the team’s first task was to free the crane and platform from a thick coat of ice before the actual tests could start. Those who could take a seat in the cozy, nicely heated EPSCAB considered themselves lucky. The rest of the team members had no other choice than to keep themselves at an “operating temperature” with regular push-up competitions.
Something similar also applied to the cranes. When the temperatures are this low, the system occasionally needs more time to heat the hydraulic oil and get it to the right operating temperature. It turned out that these extreme temperatures are unusual even for the tough Finns. As a result, only a few customers had experience in how to significantly reduce the warm-up time with relatively simple measures, such as by using special low temperature oils with minimal viscosity or by installing additional oil tank heaters. 

Customer proximity as a key to innovation

These tests were also very informative for the EPSILON service team – where else do you get the opportunity to inspect the entire truck including the wood platform and crane in such extremely cold weather? The EPSILON engineers, in addition to providing the known solutions, immediately came up with other ideas to continue improving the crane performance for extreme conditions and integrated these insights at once in the development of the current series.
This again proves that listening pays off! With good customer relations, it is possible to react to a wide range of customer wishes quickly and without red tape. The experiences gained here are integrated immediately into the series development and will therefore benefit all users in the future.