by Nick Drew | Wed 09 Oct 2019
More Finnish Attractions
In the current edition of Earthmovers you will find a round up of some of the kit I saw during last months visit to the Maxpo 2019 show in Finland, in this blog post I thought I would pop on a few other items that caught my eye as I toured around the show ground.
The historical Hyvinkää Airport, which was established in 1940 during the truce period following the famous winter war, was once again the location for the 18th edition of the Maxpo exhibition, Finland’s largest show for construction, ground care and utility machinery, which attracted over 260 exhibitors and a total of 14,500 visitors during the three days, I was lucky to be invited over again thanks to our friends at leading Finnish magazine Konepörssi.
Honka Trading Oy are the main Takeuchi dealers in Finland and they had virtually all the models from the Japanese manufacturers range of excavators on display including the hugely popular and well received TB2150 R fixed boom model.
Honka are also dealers for the Turkish built Hidromek range and had two models on display, an HMK140W rubber duck which has been sold to Rauman Kaivinoy and the new compact radius 15 tonne offering the HMK145LCR which was getting a lot of attention from visitors. 
Check out our walk around video of the Honka Trading stand.
Kubota dealer Konesilta Oy had a wide range of the Japanese designed machines on display including the all new KX080-4@ (Alpha) which was sporting steel track pads and in true Nordic fashion was fitted with a shiny chrome light bar on the roof of the cab. 
There was also Kubota action for the visiting kids too with a fairground style hydraulic excavator and sand pit for the next generation of young Finnish operators to hone their skills. 
Finnish family-based company Cernos Oy is celebrating 25 years in business. The company produce the Cobra range of screening buckets suitable for excavators ranging from 3.5 tonnes to 40 tonnes. Cernos Oy spokeswoman Pia Hyrkäs said that the buckets, which are designed by her husband and fabricated by themselves in Finland are amongst the best in the business. 
The Cobra Next Generation Screening Buckets can be supplied with mounting brackets for both excavators and wheeled loaders and are available in sizes 0.2 – 6.5 m3 as standard. An integrated dust binding system is also available for all Cobra screening buckets.
Long term Hitachi dealership Rotator Oy displayed a wide range of the familiar orange machines, including the latest Dash-6 mini excavators that were launched at Bauma earlier this year. 
Dominating the stand was the Hitachi Zaxis 690LCH which competes in the 70-tonne class sector. The company was also celebrating a milestone anniversary of 40 years as a JLG access platform dealership.
Long established Finnish screening bucket manufacturer Allu had a large number of their products on static display. The company were also demonstrating its Transformer DN 3-7 screening bucket with 8mm TS screening blades mounted on a Cat 330F excavator. 
The demonstration showcased the benefits of their patented blade structure which enables three different end product fragments sizes from one Allu Transformer bucket, according to an Allu spokesperson on the stand Allu not only offers the widest range of different sized models, but also with doubling & tripling blades, they now have the widest range of blade variations on the market.
Allu in action in our video here.
Talking of attachments Epiroc was showing their brand new concrete pulverizer, the CC 3100 P. Tipping the scales at 3470kgs and designed for excavators ranging from 25 – 40 tonnes, the unit has 700mm jaw depth, a crushing force at the upper blades of 430 tonne and 112 tonnes at the jaws, maximum jaw opening space is 832mm. 
Compact loader manufacturer Avant’s stand was a hive of activity with a number of the distinctive green liveried machines being showcased.
The popular 640 model was being demonstrated by one of Avant’s long-standing customers who was thrilling the crowds with his skills using a variety of attachments. On static display was the latest model to join the range, launched earlier this year at Bauma, Avant’s largest ever loader the 800 Series 860 model which was shown with a fully glazed cab.
There was a lot of emphasis on environmentally friendly power sources and solutions at the show especially electric but also Hybrid machines. According to Suomen Rakennuskone Oy the regional Komatsu dealer, the demand for its Hybrid models is steadily on the up.
The dealer had two examples on its stand at Maxpo the UK built 21-tonne class HB215LC was being put through its paces on the demonstration plot while the 36-tone HB365LC was on static display.
Finland’s bitterly cold climate during the winter months means that they all need to work smarter with less input from men and women on the ground, hence, machine attachments for a whole host of applications are the key to surviving the harsh conditions and keeping machines working all year round. 
As such, you could not walk very far around the showground without encountering an attachment supplier showing kit ranging from snow ploughs and sweeper brushes to skid steer mounted grader units.
I look forward to my next visit to the land of forests, lakes and some of the friendliest people you will ever meet on earth, “Kiitos”.