Favourable member prices on selected excavators and a major, long-term training initiative by the Association of Swedish Earth Moving Contractors is among the results of a partnership agreement the association has entered into with Pon Equipment and Caterpillar.

As part of the collaboration, Swedish tiltrotator firm Engcon was selected as the supplier of attachments and accessories for the excavators.

The campaign by the association comprises machines for the association鈥檚 training centre. It is said to be looking for the right equipment to create qualitative training opportunities for machine operators, a professional group that it pointed out would soon be in short supply at a time when the need was growing.

The goal for the association is for the training courses to serve as a basis for the industry鈥檚 competency development.

Kristian Johansson, product specialist at Pon, said, 鈥淭he choice of Engcon as an attachment supplier for the excavators was fairly obvious. They are capable of providing a complete solution with safe quick hitches and modern tiltrotators that can be retrofitted with a lot of extra accessories.鈥�

Pon also chose to equip the association鈥檚 machines with Engcon鈥檚 DC2 control system and MIG2 joysticks.

Johansson said, 鈥淢IG2 is an ergonomic joystick with many functions and, in our experience, DC2 is a good control system that can also be supported remotely over a smartphone. Our customers appreciate this.鈥�

Lars R枚nnestrand, sales manager at Engcon Sweden, which is supplying Engcon鈥檚 equipment, said, 鈥淚t鈥檚 gratifying that Pon discovered our concept that makes it possible to buy a tiltrotator as a basic version and then be able to retrofit it with the EC-Oil automatic oil connection system, detachable grabs (coming in autumn 2016), the ePS rotation sensor for excavator guidance systems, ergonomic handles, and so on.鈥�