Sawmill group Cedar Ltd puts its faith in PALFINGER EPSILON

The partnership between the large Croatian sawmill group Cedar Ltd and PALFINGER EPSILON has been established for several years already. Back in early 2012, the first EPSILON cranes – three medium-weight EPSILON Q class (Q150Z82) models – were delivered to the Cedar Group by Croatian PALFINGER general importer PK d.o.o.

Thanks to high operator satisfaction with the EPSILON cranes' performance and service life, further cranes were supplied from the Salzburg plant as early as 2015 – this time models from the somewhat lighter M class (M12Z91 and M12L97), both of which already form part of the new "Next EPSOLUTION" M series available since June 2015.In addition to the new Master Drive with hydraulic pilot control, these cranes are also equipped with EPSHOOD – the innovative operator protection feature made from technical thermoplastic.

Furthermore, one of the central features of the new series – the state-of-the-art Master Drive control concept – was presented with the Innovation Award at Austrofoma in October 2015. This control concept was also currently nominated for the Innovation Award at the forestry trade show, the KWF-Tagung in Roding. 

Operators were immediately impressed by the new EPSILON cranes, in particular by the sensitivity of the new controls. However, due to the many innovations of the new series, there were initially some aspects that, from the customer's point of view, were still not functioning satisfactorily.At EPSILON, customer satisfaction is of utmost importance, which is why EPSILON promptly offered the technicians in charge a comprehensive information and training programme. This quickly revealed that most issues could be clarified swiftly, for the most part on-site, and therefore resolved with a positive outcome.This approach was successful in significantly increasing the trust that those responsible at Cedar place in EPSILON's competence, expertise and indeed innovative prowess, as well as in strengthening the partnership for the future.

The result speaks for itself: For 2016, ten further EPSILON cranes with various lifting capacities have been ordered and, in some cases, already delivered. In addition to the abovementioned M12Z91, M12L97 and Q150Z82 models, a crane from the heavy lifting class S – an S260L82 – now also forms part of the delivery. This crane, with a lifting capacity of up to 236 kNm, is suitable for handling heavy logs in particular.
By the middle of the year, the Cedar vehicle fleet will therefore feature a total of 17 EPSILON cranes.