The move by the major tiltrotator manufacturer means the company will no longer offer the older, industry-standard S-type quick hitches in the sizes S45-S80, which date all the way back to the 1980s.
The new QS quick hitches connect hydraulic and electrical power automatically from an excavator to its tools and attachments using EC-Oil. The intelligent nature of the hitch and control system is said by Engcon to make it among the world’s safest.
“We’re constantly hearing tragic news about people injured or even killed due to unsafe quick hitches and incorrect operation. I think this is unacceptable, so I’ve taken the decision to switch entirely to our own safety hitch and locking system,” says Stig Engström, Engcon’s founder.
Engcon’s QS quick hitches and QSC locking system is said to eliminate the potential for human error that can occur when attaching or detaching buckets and other tools and attachments. Because the bucket’s axles are independently detected by electronic sensors, swinging or half-connected buckets are not possible. Ground-pressure sensing further eliminates the possibility of operator error by requiring the attachment to be grounded before the hitch can be opened and it is also possible to disable the digger’s boom and slew functions when the hitch is in an unsafe state. As well as preventing operator error or misuse, the system also has boom-mounted audible and visible alarms to warn nearby operatives when attachments are being changed or the hitch is in an unsafe state.
The growth in the use of hydraulic attachments on job sites has led Engcon to make its popular EC-Oil automatic hydraulic connection system a standard fitting on installations using the DC2 control system. This means that operators using the company’s tiltrotators on diggers from six tonnes upwards can change hydraulic tools without ever having to leave the cab again – making the jobsite even safer.
