IMER GROUP brings innovation through agreement with German company WAITZINGER

IMER Group of Poggibonsi (Siena, Italy) forges ahead in its international development strategy. The Tuscan Group has signed an important strategic agreement with the German company Waitizinger Baumaschinen GmbH, leader in the production of truck-mounted concrete pumps.

On 1 March 2010 the Italian Group and German company Waitzinger signed a strategic collaboration agreement. Founded in 1990 by Franz Waitzinger with family management and ownership, Waitzinger Baumaschinen GmbH today has 90 employees at its 15,000-square-metre site in Neu-Ulm, Germany.

Paolo Salvadori, Chairman of the IMER Group Concrete Machinery Division, and Franz Waitzinger, General Manager and Chairman of Waitzinger Baumaschinen GmbH, met at the IMER Group plant in Basaldella di Campoformido, Italy at the end of February 2010 to complete the contractual formalities. "By way of this agreement, the IMER Group Concrete Machinery Division is launching an innovative and complete range of truck-mounted concrete pumps made in Italy and designed in Germany by Waitzinger, using the technical-design support of the Germany company,” Salvadori underlined. “IMER Group’s all-new range of pumps incorporates an innovative and revolutionary outrigger system patented by the German firm.”

The new line of pumps complements the existing product range of the IMER Group Concrete Machinery Division. Already for some time the IMER Group had needed to expand the technical division responsible for its truck mixer line, acquired in 2002, with the aim of developing a complete range of products and services in the Concrete Machinery Division. This will strengthen its market-leading position by offering products of unsurpassed reliability based on German technology. The new line of truck-mounted concrete pumps entered production on 1 March 2010 at the Udine factory and the Group’s five-year plan foresees an increase in production to 300 pumps per year. “In this particular period of economic crisis,” explained IMER Group Chairman Silvano Bencini, “strategic alliances enable outstanding businesses to remain competitive on the international market, thanks to product and process innovation. The aim is to achieve industrial synergies and to access German technology and products of unsurpassed reliability and excellence, while at the same time increasing business assets and the value of the IMER Group brand.”

Today the business structure of the Tuscan Group is already partly in place for its line of pump products. Now that an agreement has been signed with Waitzinger, the group has also acquired the technical and design expertise which it needs to grow and innovate more rapidly. At almost 50 years from the birth of the first company that opened the creation of IMER Group, the Tuscan Group is getting ready for the recovery of the markets with an agreement that enables expanding and completing the product range.

The models presented at BAUMA2010 are the R436 XS, with 36-metre, 4-element arm and XS outrigger XS, and the R442 ST, with 42-metre, 4-element arm and ST outrigger. The main distinguishing features include the concrete hopper designed to achieve top pumping performance and make cleaning operation easier, the electric machine and system emergency diagnostics panel, the proportional radio remote control, and the easy to change wear-resistant plates.

How it works: the concrete is put inside the pipes by conveying cylinders by way of the S valve and its automatic centralised greasing system guarantees a long lifetime of the load-bearing sections and seals. The loading hopper, fitted with stirrer, then makes it possible to easily convey the concrete into the central part of the suction sections. Optimisation of the suction phase ensures the filling of the conveying cylinders. A hydraulic water pump is used to clean the pipes and concrete pump.

IMER Group is European leader in the production of construction machinery, mortar spraying and conveying machinery, as well as that of machines and plants for the production, transport and laying of concrete. It is specialised in the construction equipment and Mobile Aerial Working Platforms, and supports seven production facilities - five in Italy and two abroad. Those occupy an overall area of over 390,000 m², 85,600 of which are covered. The company employs over 585 people, not including the personnel of the foreign branches, and now has five production divisions: the Construction Machinery Division, the Mortar Spraying and Conveying Machinery Division, the Powered Access, the Concrete Machinery Division and the Construction Equipment Division.