A historical building renovation specialist says Hinowa spider platforms are giving its teams the best ever access to the challenging spaces they work in.
R&J Hogg is a fifth-generation family business based in Coney Weston, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, and has worked on more than 200 churches in East Anglia.
In one if its latest projects, it used a Hinowa Lightlift 20.10 Performance IIIS tracked spider platform to access the roof space of a 600-year-old church in Bunwell, Suffolk.
R&J Hogg has used powered access platforms for many years. But its highly-skilled craftspeople have been especially impressed with Hinowa spider platforms.
Company Site Agent Martin Jackson said: “We’re all clear that the Hinowa is the best spider platform we’ve ever used.
“We can get it into some extraordinarily confined spaces and once it’s set up, it gives us the best manoeuvrability in terms of placing the basket where we need it to be to do our work.”
Access platform Sales (APS) is the exclusive UK distributor for all Hinowa products. APS Major Accounts Manager Linda Betts said: “Hinowa spider platforms are designed to be equally capable in internal and external spaces.
“Heritage sites present some of the biggest challenges for working at height, so we’re very pleased to know that R&J Hogg find using Hinowa spider platforms so helpful.”
At Bunwell Church, the R&J Hogg team had been carrying out a survey of the underroof with a view to carrying out repairs to roof beams.
The only viable place to set up the Hinowa spider platform was close to the alter, then the team had to boom the basket all the way back down the nave.
“Because the Hinowa was so narrow, we could track into through the entrance and down the central aisle to the sanctuary where the altar is located,” said Martin Jackson.
“Then we could extend the boom back down the church to reach all areas of the roof without repositioning the platform.
“I like the way that the Hinowa 20.10 has one-touch self-levelling. In this case, it involved two outriggers being set on the floor higher than the other two. But the platform took it and worked perfectly. It was very impressive.
“The unrestricted basket capacity of 230kg is also very important to us, because we often have to work at full outreach while having an operative plus a technical specialist from our client or a heritage agency in the basket at the same time.”
The R&J Hogg specialist teams appreciate the Hinowa Lightlift 20.10’s manoeuvrability. It provides full 3600 turret rotation and 1240 basket rotation.
Combined with the platform’s smooth controls, says Martin Jackson, this helps them work safely around the many large obstacles – most of them unmoveable, precious and irreplaceable – found in churches and other heritage buildings.
The Hinowa Lightlift 20.10 has a maximum working height of 20.15m and a maximum outreach of 9.7m.
With a transport width of just 795mm and transport height of 1990mm, it can be tracked through a single doorway, ideal for the many heritage buildings that R&J Hogg works on.
The platform is available in a range of power formats. It can have a low-emission diesel or petrol engine, plus mains 110v electricity for internal working, or have all-electric power from long-lasting lithium-ion batteries.
R&J Hogg hired the Hinowa platform from TBS Plant and Tool Hire in Bury St Edmunds. It also offers a Hinowa Lightlift 17.75 spider lift, which delivers a maximum working height of 7.06m and outreach of 7.5m.
