20 Years of Erkat: A Success Story
Published: 9/12, 2019
Founded in 2000 as a two-person, operation, the Erkat brand is now respected all over the world. The brand, whose know-how is still based at its Hämbach, Germany, plant, provides a product range including high-quality transverse and longitudinal drum cutters for demolition, trenching, tunneling and rock excavation. Small wonder, then, that Epiroc’s January 2017 of Erkat brought two great lines of tools together.
Epiroc’s acquisition has also had positive impacts for Erkat. There is now increased awareness on developing innovative products, while new customer groups have been added. There are also ideal combination options, such as carrying out the main removal with an Epiroc breaker, followed by polishing with the Erkat cutter unit during tunneling work.
Erkat extreme – robust to sensitive, individual to specialist, always impressive
The unbeatable versatility of the ER cutter unit series is readily apparent. For excavator classes from 0,6 to 125 tons, Erkat offers a wide selection of different cutter unit sizes (ER 40X to ER 5500). Different cutting heads are also available for the relevant base unit depending on the usage area (rock milling, profiling, cutting wheel, mixing, wood milling, brush). Features built in to every product include robust design, high resilience, low maintenance, easy handling, the QuickSnap lock, and—above all—impressive efficiency.
The ER series is equally suited for trenching and tunneling work, special civil engineering, demolition work, milling ditches, and mixing soil formations. But it can also be used in particularly sensitive areas where extremely low-vibration and low-noise work is required. The cutter units can even be used in water depths of up to 100 ft (30 m) with no modifications.
Erkat guarantees ideal working conditions at all times in even the most difficult of environments. The advantages are readily apparent at the Berlin central station, where the ER 1500 L and ER 2000 X cutter units are currently demonstrating their flexibility during work in constrained spaces. The cutters are creating space for the hydraulic Epiroc breaker, which is the only way for the breaker to find the right point for breaking the concrete ground—an ideal division of work.
Elsewhere in Germany, the transverse drum cutters are delivering an impressive performance during work high up on the bunker ceiling during the selective reverse construction of the high-rise bunker in Hamburg. The focus here is on low-vibration work, efficient demolition performance, and quick tool replacement as quality features.
Quality and innovation for the future
In the future, Erkat’s focus will be on constant further developments for the increasing requirements of markets, companies and people. Epiroc aims to expand the leading position of the Erkat products even further, to minimize fine dust pollution at construction sites with more efficient water spraying and to significantly increase the product range.
Reinforced cutter units for demolition and tunnel construction, specially developed rotator systems, cutting wheels for mounting on existing transverse drum cutters, brush heads with and without dry aspiration, and much more are already available. The focus is mainly on sustainable work areas such as the renovation market, explosive-free reverse construction in inner city areas, or the removal of contaminated surfaces.