Record production and plant expansion
HAMM, the oldest manufacturer of road building machines in the world, is celebrating the 140th anniversary of its foundation in 2018. Fittingly, the innovative company is maintaining a successful course with its modern compaction technology, as the latest production figures show. In 2017, for example, HAMM produced more than 10,000 rollers in a single year for the first time. In order to ensure that the demand for HAMM rollers can be satisfied in the years to come, the Tirschenreuth-based company has completed a massive expansion of production capacity at its parent plant in recent months.
As a global player and technology leader in the compaction technology sector, HAMM ranks among the most popular brands in the world. The portfolio encompasses rollers for the horticulture sector, landscaping and small road building all the way to equipment for the construction of racing circuits, motorways, airports and state-of-the-art bridge structures.
Robust engineering – a track record of innovation stretching back 140 years
Since HAMM's foundation in 1878, innovation has been the constant driving force behind the development of the company and its technologies. As well as refining existing processes, it also involves the courage to adopt new ideas and re-examine existing thinking. An early example from the company's history is the switch from making mobile agricultural machinery to compaction technology at the beginning of the 20th century. Since that time, the course of the company has been shaped by innovations. Some of the important milestones in the history of road building, developed and made market-ready by HAMM, are the world's first diesel-powered road roller in 1911, the first all-wheel drive for rollers in 1932, the first pneumatic tyre roller launched in 1963, oscillation compaction in the 1980s, networked compaction with HCQ since the beginning of the new century and – most recently – the power hybrid train. At the same time, HAMM consistently focussed on the needs of the drivers and pioneered the design of rollers according to ergonomic principles. Today, with its new Easy Drive operating concept, HAMM offers an absolutely simple, language-neutral and intuitive operating system for tandem rollers, pneumatic tyre rollers and compactors – and satisfies the most demanding requirements in terms of driver comfort at the same time.
The quest for innovation continues
The pioneering spirit that gave birth to such groundbreaking developments is still alive and well 140 years after the company's foundation. "The satisfaction derived from continuous optimisation inspires our teams to come up with ever new ideas. These form the basis for our efficient, powerful and environment-friendly machines and solutions for road building," says Dr Stefan Klumpp, Chief Technology Officer at HAMM. And of course, the developers are already laying the foundations for the technologies of the future. One important topic for the future is autonomous driving. An important component of this is the test track on which the driverless HAMM rollers have already been operating for some time. A further project was realised in 2017 in the form of a fully remote-controlled compactor – the machines have by now already been in operation for a number of months.
Oscillation: A winning bet 35 years ago
One of HAMM's many innovations is oscillation compaction. At the beginning of the 1980s, HAMM was the first roller manufacturer to offer this technology to the industry. In the meantime, these rollers have become an integral part of the product program. In the past five years alone, the specialists in compaction technology have delivered more than 3000 machines with this technology, and the numbers are still rising. Today, one in four of the tandem rollers leaving the Tirschenreuth factory is equipped with an oscillation drum. One reason for this is the large variety of models, because with more than 30 models, HAMM has by far the widest offering of oscillation rollers in the world. This is also attributable to the fact that HAMM is unique in making oscillation tandem rollers in the compact class and HAMM is the sole manufacturer to offer compactors with oscillation technology for earthworks. And last but not least, HAMM offers oscillation rollers for all markets – that too is unique.
Factory expansion in Tirschenreuth
HAMM's global presence and market-driven premium products have resulted in an ever-growing increase in demand in recent years. In order to adapt the production capacity accordingly, HAMM set about a massive expansion of the Tirschenreuth plant at the end of 2016. The many extension and rebuilding tasks will be completed in the course of 2018. At a cost of more than €30 million, they mark the greatest investment in the company's 140-year history. The entire project includes the construction of a new 12,600 m² logistics centre, the installation of another production line and additional assembly stations, and the expansion of the drum plant by 3600 m². Once the work is completed, HAMM will be able to produce up to 12,000 rollers a year in the Tirschenreuth works. In addition, a second endurance test track was built for trialling prototypes, the spare parts warehouse was greatly enlarged and HAMM constructed a 2000 m² training hall. Furthermore, the factory site was enlarged to around 400,000 m².
Production record in 2017
The huge demand for HAMM rollers led to a production record: 2017 saw the number of HAMM rollers coming off the production line exceed the 10,000 mark for the first time. One reason for the success is without doubt the enormous customer orientation and great production flexibility. Because thanks to modern processes, smart warehouse systems, intelligent production planning, a "just-in-sequence" delivery of components to the conveyor belts as well as the highly flexible design of the production lines, HAMM is able to individually configure and deliver each machine in accordance with the customer's wishes.