Socage talks about development at SAIE

After a little over a year of buying the company, Fiorenzo Flisi managing director of Socage, announced several new machine models at SAIE as well as a significant increase in the company's turnover.

"We have appointed 12 new employees," said Mr Flisi, "and increased our turnover from €17 million to between €27 and €28 million." The company has also opened two new branches one in Spain the other in the UK.

Mr Flisi was also pleased with the increasing volume of export, from 20 to 40% and was continuing to explore new markets such as South Africa and Brazil.

He was also keen to differentiate between Socage and Cela, which although on paper may be owned by the same group of investors are going to operate independently - a sentiment bourne out by the management of Cela.

"Last year we said we would create new machines and this year we have five new products at the fair," added Mr Flisi

The smallest of these the A314 mounted on a Isuzu D-Max pick-up was launched first at Bauma on a LandRover Defender. This model is a cheaper version for rough terrain work with a maximum working height of 13.5 m and a maximum outreach of 6.5 m, "The A314 with its 225 kg capacity has the highest safe working load of its kind, said Mr Flisi.

What is really new and innovative about this model is the concept of an auto-levelling column. In fact thanks to a system of hydraulic rams electrically controlled the column, once the platform has been stabilised, self-levels.

The new T318 is the first of a range of T models designed to be small and compact. They will have 'H Frame' front outriggers which allows the T318 a maximum outreach of 10 m with an 18 m working height. The 15 m model is already available and Mr Flisi said that the market can expect 20 m, 22 m, and 24 m versions.

The operator can choose to deploy the outriggers within the mirrors creating a width of just 1.9 m, fully extend the front ones to get maximum outreach or just extend the cross-beam on the working side in order to reduce the foot-print.

All the hydraulic pipes and electric cables are enclosed within the boom to prevent damage and the unit is equipped with Socage's patented EASYLIFT stabilisation designed to deploy the outriggers quickly and easily.

The DA328 is designed to provide a higher working height and outreach where a legal limit of 6 t is in force. Mounted on Mitsubishi Canter 6C15, 3850 w/b for the exhibition, this 28 m machine with 16 m outreach and 225 kg load capacity will soon be available for trucks with GVW of 5.6T and above.

The TJ30, redesigned and mounted on a 16T Renault Midlum, is designed to be extremely compact, it can reach a working height of 30 m, has an outreach of 23 m (depending on the mounting) and the safe working load is 300 kg.

The aluminium basket is 2.2 x 0.9 x 1.1 m and it can be extended up to 3.2 m hydraulically.

As standard equipment, the TJ30 has a remote control that allows it to be fully operated from the ground.

The multi-area stabilisation system allows the operator to choose to work with the outriggers fully open, partially closed, closed or open only on one side: an electronic system registers and verifies the position of the stabilisers and re-calculates the safe working area.

Socage's new spider is the SPJ315, it will be available from 2011and Mr Flisi said that the prototype had been developed in response to customer requirements and suggestions. While the company stressed that a lot more work on the design is anticipated it will have a 15 m working height and 7 m outreach.