PRESS ARTICLE

The original becomes the standard

Murrhardt-Fornsbach, 10.11.2023

 

The original becomes the standard

Now, everyone is talking about the rotating quick coupler which has been Holp's concept for greater efficiency for over 15 years  

A shortage of skilled workers, rising costs for fuel, machines and materials are leading to a change of thinking in long-serving processes on the construction site - and the optimisation of the use of excavators as flexible and efficient equipment carriers - an approach that Holp GmbH, as the manufacturer of the RotoTop, has been successfully pursuing for 16 years.

By using various attachments, the excavator becomes a flexible tool carrier that can fulfil numerous tasks. The excavator becomes even more flexible when a rotary drive with a fully hydraulic quick coupler is permanently installed. This basic idea is by no means new, as it has been communicated by Holp for many years, because this is how contractors can achieve the fastest increases in performance and cost savings with their machines.

16 years of pure rotation

16 years ago, the first quick coupler from Oil Quick was made endlessly rotatable by the RotoTop. Since then, Holp has been working on optimising the rotary drive and expanding the product range for a working weight from 600 kg mini excavators up to 45 tons tracked excavators. Despite continuous further development, the RotoTop is still compatible with any excavator as long as it complies with the European standard, regardless of how old it is and whether it has a control system installed or not, as the RotoTop itself does not require a control system. To utilise the full potential for savings and increased performance, Holp recommends the fixed attachment of the RotoTop together with a fully hydraulic quick coupler, whose connections can completely be served by the large 8-fold rotary joint.

Holp also offers tiltrotators named RotoX, but only recommends them for the small proportion of specialised applications. The fact that pure rotation is sufficient for at least 90 to 95 per cent of all excavator applications, or in other words, for all applications on a standard construction site, has long been ignored or even negated by many market players. Now that the prospects in the construction industry have changed, costs are rising and the shortage of skilled labour on construction sites is becoming ever more glaring, more and more manufacturers and importers are understanding the principle of endless rotatability, taking up Holp's arguments or even starting to cosntruct similar devices. The original rotary drive from the pioneering company of endless rotation is thus increasingly becoming the standard for every excavator.

Once tried - never removed again

There are numerous fans of endless rotatability who have understood and supported the principle since the beginning. It is noticeable that many smaller companies rely on the RotoTop, because they have not been able to employ a "helper with a shovel" for a long time due to the shortage of skilled labour. Andreas Welz from Blaustein, for example, who has been using the RotoTop for almost 15 years, says: "Installing the RotoTop is purely a question of money: either you invest in a RotoTop and get your money back every day on the construction site. Or you don't do that and pay extra on all sorts of occasions, e.g. because certain jobs simply take much longer. In my experience, the RotoTop pays for itself in about 500 hours, after that it just makes money for you."

What’s more, the RotoTop is designed for more than one excavator life: It can then be overhauled for a second excavator life for just 20 per cent of the purchase costs once the excavator is decommissioned. Like that it becomes clear how the quality of the RotoTop leads to high profitability. What's more, the RotoTop is easy and intuitive to operate because, in conjunction with the excavator kinematics, it has exactly the right movement options which can be compared to your own wrist. Other entrepreneurs, such as Niklas Timm from Steenfeld in Schleswig-Holstein, only came across the RotoTop later by chance. The labour and excavator contractor spontaneously bought his new wheeled excavator with RotoTop after it was explained to him by the dealer. A few weeks later, he asked himself: "How could I ever work without it?" and is certain that he will only drive excavators with a rotary drive in future.

Christian Lücking from Westerstede has been using a 2.6 tonne mini-excavator with RotoTop for several months now and is delighted with how light the rotary drive is, how it does not all affect the excavator's performance and how one man alone can complete tasks such as placing angle blocks, which would have always required two people without RotoTop.

Successes in other European countries - the Holp revolution

Germany is not the only country with a shortage of skilled labour. The RotoTop is enlarging the dealer network in other European countries to save manpower there. One English contractor, for example, was so desperate to change the way he worked that he thought of designing his own rotary drive. The British magazine "Earthmovers" reported on Adam Gilbert, who is now part of the "Holp Revolution" as one of the first British customers of Holp dealer MPS Southwest. Gilbert had often thought about how to manage to turn the bucket - and thus save time and employees. Gilbert is now happy to have found and purchased the RotoTop from Holp, which now reliably delivers these savings - for him, the new way of working is a real revolution.

Günter Holp sees it like this: "Using the RotoTop is like a revolution for the contractor because it changes so much of the way they work. Many of our customers no longer see this as a revolution, as it happened to them years ago. For them, the RotoTop has long been a standard feature or basic equipment for every excavator. Many other manufacturers and dealers have now also recognised this. We are delighted that we can now trigger this "revolution" in the way they work for all others at home and abroad."