WEATHERING THE STORM
With winter on its way, the hire industry gears up to deal with disasters such as floods. But is the equipment they need available, or are manufacturers facing a storm of their own? Dan Jenkins reports.
T
raditionally, manufacturers of equipment such as pumps and pressure washers
have had to respond quickly to spikes in demand during the winter months. However, climate change is impacting the traditional peaks and troughs of this sector.
Pete McMutrie, sales director of Obart Pumps, said: “Climate is affecting what were traditionally periods of low demand. Our really busy period is from September to March, with consistently high demand. It then used to drop to some extent during the summer. It does appear that the requirement for pumps is now more constant, with flash floods occurring all year round, so we work in partnership with the hire industry to ensure the public and businesses can recover from these events as quickly as possible.
“Climate is having an impact on how companies plan their needs. Our job is to make sure that we can meet the demands of the hire sector no matter what.”
Obart is putting its money where its mouth is, recently going through an independent carbon assessment to look at ways to further reduce its carbon footprint. “One of the interesting
aspects was how durable pumps like Tsurumi can impact on emissions,” said McMutrie. “If it takes five lesser quality pumps to last as long as a Tsurumi pump, there are big carbon implications from manufacture and freight shipping. This is going to become more and more important as end users start looking at their Scope 3 emissions from equipment in supply chains.”
Tsurumi acquired Obart Pumps in 2020. “One of the reasons they invested into the business was to provide a three-phase pump offering we could take to market,” added McMutrie. “We now have a range of pumps for specialist applications such as mining, tunnelling, and big infrastructure projects. Tsurumi single phase pumps will remain the primary product for hire companies, but we can now also offer them support with their large utility and infrastructure customers. We have the industry leading brand, expertise and specialist knowledge to help hire companies offer the full range of pumping solutions.”
Meanwhile, Demon International has updated its Hurricane range of lithium- powered pressure washers to increase run time. From November, these machines will have a 300Ah battery pack, an increase of 50 per cent.
David Walke, sales director at Demon, said: “This will push our run times up by about 40 per cent. We’re now offering constant pressure at 100 bar, running for two hours – and you can fully recharge the battery in just five hours now. The technology was already good, and it is still coming on in leaps and bounds.
Obart also supplies pumps for more heavyweight use. “Price is higher with lithium-ion New product
Obart Pumps will introduce a new 3” submersible pump from parent company Tsurumi in January. The HS3.75SL is a high volume pump with a flow rate of 580 LPM whilst still managing to run off a 0.75kw motor the same as the other 3” pumps in the HS range.
Obart is introducing a new 3" pump in early 2022.
McMutrie said: “This will be a fantastic pump for hire companies to offer their customers who need to pump large volumes of water fast but still want a portable handheld unit to move around site as required.”
machines, but hirers are really starting to understand the benefits. This is a machine with a ten-year lifecycle rather than the three to five years of a standard machine, with very little maintenance required. So, it is an attractive proposition.”
Demon has already showcased the higher spec Hurricane to two major hire companies. “LPG has still been going strong for us, but battery power is where power washers need to be,” added Walke. “We are already working on changing the machine’s footprint so we can go beyond the current batteries when even bigger ones become available.”
30 Executive Hire News - Nov/Dec 2021
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