Hydromac lives on .... in name

Following a recent discussion on our Italian friends page on Facebook, Quelli dell movimento, it appears that the Hydromac name is still going in certain parts of the world, so I figured it would be a good time to re-visit and edit this blog post.

The details are not 100% clear, but it would appear that an Argentinian company bought out the rights to the Hydromac brand name and are badging up Chinese excavators in the distinctive green livery for sale in South American regions. In this photo courtesy of Danilo Sabbadini we see one of the models the 21 tonne class H121-8 which looks like a cross between a Komatsu and a Volvo!

Let's take another look at the history of Hydromac. 

Hydromac SpA, not to be confused with today’s modern Turkish company Hidromek, were an Italian excavator manufacturer that was founded by Carlo Bruneri in Turin in 1965. The company came into being after Carlo and his brother Mario Bruneri, dissolved their partnership in the Bruneri excavator business. It was often said that Mario Bruneri was the “father of the hydraulic excavator” with the Bruneri company pioneering the development of these machines in the region. Early Hydromac models were based on previous Bruneri Yumbo models. However in the late 70’ early 80’s, Sergio Pininfarina was approached by Hydromac to be involved in some design work for the new H180 and H200 models.

The results of Mr Pininfarina’s design work was at the time quite simply stunning and very futuristic, in fact I remember as a youngster receiving a glossy pull out poster of the H180 model from my regular issue of Construction News and putting it straight up on my bedroom wall!

The most noticeable feature of the machine was the space capsule style cab, which was said to be ergonomically designed and the striking decals. Looking back at this machine today as an operator, I would think the massive curved front screen would have been an absolute nightmare to look through. The curved screens on some of the old Samsung excavators I have operated in the past would often distort your view of the work area, and they were nowhere near as curved as the screen on the Hydromac H180.

One cannot fail to be impressed by Mr Pininfarina’s design work on these machines, which were way ahead of their time in terms of style and looks. There is something very interesting about the history of hydraulic excavators and excavator development in Italy and its a place I would love to go exploring in search of some old historical machines in the future.