PREVIEW | BREAKBULK EUROPE
R EKH offers training programs for Lifting & Hoisting equipment.
as chemical and steel plants switch to sustainable energy sources, by using the power to produce “green” hydrogen. Rings, who is MD at Primoteq, officially
takes over from his predecessor, Maarten van der Velden, former chair and treasurer, EKH, next month, working alongside Frans van der Brugh, secretary, EKH, and branch manager, Koninklijke Metaalunie (Royal Metal Union), which has 14,000 member organisations in the field of metal working. EKH, founded in 1993, has approximately 60 members including ABUS, Mennens, Mitari, Primotek, Van Gool, Crane Solutions, Hoist International to name a few. Mitari recently completed a lifting challenge for Saris Aanhangwagens which needed lifting attachments for three robots as part of an expansion of its welding shop. Each welding cell has now been set up with Mitari lifting systems so the operator can load and unload parts and complete chassis from the welding mold. EKH also partnered with LEEA (the UK
S EKH runs worker safety at height training.
Lifting Equipment Engineers Association) last year to collaborate on its safety training and lifting certifications.
EKH is a licensed inspection firm
for hoisting and lifting equipment and uses extensive working regulations and inspection schedules based on standards in the Machinery Directive, Dutch Working Conditions Act, NEN, DIN, etc. and provides training for professional inspectors with personal certificates. “Partnering with LEEA is great for the
international exposure, and international business. EKH has an unknown certification system globally but this gives us an extra opportunity to present ourselves internationally. The Dutch law is unknown for foreign companies and next to us are other bodies in hoisting and lifting equipment. For us it was interesting to put ourselves in the bigger picture. And if companies want to test their products here or do business here in the Netherlands we can help them with that,” said Rings. According to van der Brugh, the industry sector is booming in the Netherlands,
R SpanSet SMS Demag. Photo: EKH
but it is not without its challenges and is facing shortages in skilled labour as well as ongoing supply chain issues. “Post-Covid, things have exploded.
So what we see is many postponed investments are being approved, projects are being turned around and orders for new cranes are coming in,” he said. “The industry is growing and there is a
lot of work for us, safety is more important than ever before but we are competing with other companies looking to hire skilled engineers and technicians. We have an enormous shortage of this. At EKH we try to stay focused and positive. The country has a good education system and we can allocate our own inspectors on-site to jobs and despite the salaries in this sector remaining above average we are too small to attract the youth into this business. Rings added: “The underlying problem is that people do not want to work with their hands anymore, the good thing is at EKH we can educate them ourselves if people want to come into our industry, which gives us a competitive advantage. “Everyone talks about the rise of Industry 4.0, but in terms of investment in IoT and automation the market is fairly traditional in the Netherlands. Yes, there are innovations on cranes such as remote controlled
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